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Darren Rovell brings you his unique take on the business of sports: a multi-billion dollar global industry and obsession full of personalities and products. On Sports Biz, Darren will give you his up-to-date take on everything from salaries to endorsement deals to marketing and promotions, trades and tirades – in short, everything that makes sports so exciting.

Chicken Wing Finder Makes Debut

Published: Tuesday, 17 Nov 2009 | 10:07 AM ET

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By: Darren Rovell
CNBC Sports Business Reporter

Restaurant reviews by food category have been around for ages, but one man is betting that sports fans, or anyone for that matter, aren't satisfied with the information about chicken wing establishments.

Enter Mark Gilmor, the man behind Kluckr, a Web site and iPhone app [AAPL Loading... () ] that lists more than 20,000 restaurants that serve chicken wings in its database.

Of the 20,000 places, Gilmor says about half are currently rated in appropriate categories, including heat, variety, service, value and atmosphere.

With chicken wings selling at such a feverish pace that wings are selling at a greater per pound wholesale price than breast prices, this just might be the perfect time for such an endeavor. Arguing over the "perfect wing" is already part of gameday conversations.

"Guys always debate the difference between a good and a bad wing," said Gilmor, who heads up Kluckr Communications, the company created for the project. "We want to be part of the dialogue and engage the competitive nature of the debate."

Since launching last month, Gilmor says Kluckr.com has had four times more Web traffic than the company originally projected. In three weeks, they've sold the Kluckr iPhone app, at 99 cents apiece, to about 1,000 people.

Gilmor believes Kluckr can get to 100,000 downloads by next October as word of the app spreads and more information fills the Kluckr database.

Getting to that many downloads requires investing in the chicken wing space. People that register with Kluckr are eligible to be invited to chicken wing parties organized by the company. The company is also hosting wing parties around the country — this weekend at Virginia Tech — to spread the word about the Kluckr name to those who haven't heard about it.

Kluckr has posted its own reviews, but its also relying on wing lovers that frequent the site or download the application to weigh in. The site seeks to reward people who comment more by improving their wing mastery ranking, much like sites like Amazon.com [AMZN Loading... () ] call attention to top book reviewers.

Gilmor says Kluckr gets 70 percent of the revenue for every iPhone app sold, but there's also a second revenue stream.

"There are plenty of brands that we think will want to align with us," Gilmor said.

Think anything that's already connected to wings from beverages like Pepsi [PEP Loading... () ] to stain stoppers like Clorox [CLX Loading... () ] and Dockers.

Questions? Comments?

Topics:Consumers | Marketing | Advertising | Sports

Companies:Apple Inc | Amazon.com Inc | Pepsico Inc | Clorox Co

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