I'm Guessing It's an Olympic Sport in London, 2012

The biggest Beer Pong tournament in the world has concluded in Las Vegas. With $50,000 in prize money at stake, it's no surprise the winner of the World Series of Beer Pong finished the tourney a bit in his cups.

Ron Hamilton, 25, of Brentwood, N.Y., preferred liquor to beer, and said he got ready for Sunday's play by drinking a bottle of Jack Daniels.

"The key today was me getting real drunk and my partner not missing, and us coming out and proving we're the best," Hamilton said shortly after winning the top prize with Michael Popielarski, 25, of Massapequa, N.Y.

Invented by college kids with time to kill and a seemingly unquenchable thirst for beer, Beer Pong is becoming big -- well, relatively big -- business. The WSOBP is modeled after the World Series of Poker. Contestants pay to enter the tournament, creating a pool of prize money big enough to attract the attention of other players. This year, more than 400 teams payed the $550 entry fee to compete. Room packages for the four day event were available from $500, double occupancy. All-in -- as they say in the poker business -- Beer Pongers probably filled 20% of the Flamingo Hotel's 3,600 rooms in what would normally be a dead, post-New Year week.

There are any number of Beer Pong entrepreneurs. Bing Bong, a three-year old start-up, claims to have sold 10,000 "official" Beer Pong tables at between $85 and $130 -- custom-built can cost even more. Bing Bong projects $1 million in revenue this year, which says to me they could go public at a higher market capitalization than GM. 

BJ's Beer Pong, a start-up capitalized with $50,000 in friends and family money, has sold 8,000 tables ranging in price up to $250,000, as reported in the Wall Street Journal. Let me repeat that: the Wall Street Journal. I just came out of an $80 million start-up and we couldn't get any press attention until we went bust.

For the moment, the reigning king of the Beer Pong world is bpong.com, which conceived and holds the high visibility WSOBP in Vegas.

This World Series of Beer Pong is the brainchild of entrepreneurs Billy Gaines, Duncan Carroll and Ben "Skinny" Solnik. The trio met as students and beer pong aficionados at Carnegie Mellon University.

After graduation, they set out in their spare time to turn the game they loved into a moneymaker. Their site,bpong.com, sells tables, T-shirts, balls and other gear. The company organizes satellite tournaments and is a clearinghouse for detailed and occasionally heated conversation about the game's rules. This one made it into the world series official rule book: "No player may take offense to anything said or done during a game, even if it involves their mother."

Whether Beer Pong can survive its own commercialization remains to be seen. I'm guessing, in a world where Curling has gone from time-killing activity of the frozen north to Olympic stalwart to merchandiser of nude calendars, Beer Pong will do just fine. In fact, Strip Beer Pong is increasing in popularity, resulting (regretably) in official rules of adolescent complexity and even arrents.

Clearly, Beer Pong is here to stay.

Comments

[Lee]

You know Tom, while the game is called Beer Pong, I see no reason why you couldn't play, say, Intelligently Inexpensive Wine Pong.

You could have Diana Krall playing in the background.