Soccer is often called “The Beautiful Game.” If that’s the case, the sport of OmegaBall is best described as its cute and quirky sidekick.
Three goals, three five-a-side teams, one ball, a circular field – and no offsides rule – set the stage for a frenzied, frantic competition.
There are no throw-ins, only corner kicks, and players can take shots on goal at any goal other than their own. Divided into three, 13-minute periods, it’s never short on action.
The first time I saw it, I was hooked.
“The game is so intense and unpacked, that the goalkeepers are even involved in it,” OmegaBall founder Anthony Dittmann told me during a recent telephone interview. “You know, sometimes you go an entire half of traditional soccer without even a shot on goal, let alone a goal scored. And listen – we want to embrace the soccer ecosystem … we want to be a part of it. We’re not trying to cannibalize it. But there are definitely some things that are intriguing about OmegaBall which we’re actually looking to take advantage of and leverage, things like more touches on the ball and less running.
“Hopefully, we’re getting kids off the couch that may be intimidated by traditional soccer.”
Aside from Dittmann, the OmegaBall brain trust consists of co-founders Jeff Kretchmar (CEO), Jamie Hemann (head of business), Adam Cozens (head of media and marketing), and Bob Funk Jr. (owner of Prodigal, a sports management and consulting firm).
Ricky Lopez-Espin, Paul Caligiuri and Lauren Sesselmann serve as advisors, bringing plenty of soccer experience to the fold.
Dittmann, Hemann and Funk had been colleagues at ESPN, and a casual conversation they had ultimately led to the creation of OmegaBall.
“I was talking with Jamie, and he was investigating starting an American football league,” Dittmann explains. “So, I went to (Funk), who has a very successful family business in Oklahoma City, and said, ‘Hey, remember Jamie from our old ESPN days? He’s trying to start a league. Would you be interested in investing in it because I thought you might have the horsepower to do so.’ And he said, ‘Anthony, I like Jamie. I obviously love football, but I think soccer is a better investment vehicle than American football.’”
Dittmann got off the phone and thought about it.
“Overall, I like soccer, but I’m not fanatical about it,” he said. “So, I started saying, like, why am I not fanatical about it like I am college football? I think there are a couple of obvious answers, one of them being offsides – offsides was really the one (rule) that irks me about soccer. I recognize there’s some need for it, but it’s such a low scoring game to begin with. Why? Why take a goal off the board for being one centimeter ahead of another player? So, I just continued to think about it. I wondered if the field was round, would that change the complexion of the game?”
Dittmann started scribbling and came up with a circular field, putting goals at the top and bottom. But when he examined the drawing, he realized it still wouldn’t significantly change the flow of the game.
“As I continued to look at the circle edge on the page,” Dittmann continued, “I thought, if you added a third team, would that create that circular play that I was trying to achieve? You can’t do that in baseball, you can’t do that in American football, but you could definitely do that in soccer.”
Dittmann continued to tweak his concept, and two weeks after their original conversation, he got in touch with Funk again.
“I had an idea, and Bob kind of thought I was a little crazy,” Dittmann remembers. “But the reason why I went to Bob originally to invest in Jamie’s league was I knew he was in the sports space, and I knew he owned a minor league hockey team. What I didn’t realize was he owned Oklahoma City Energy FC at the time, which was the (United Soccer League) team there. So, of course, he’s invested in soccer.”
All this took place during the COVID-19 pandemic, but Dittmann and Funk continued to hammer out details, both in person and remotely. Ultimately, Dittmann came up with a blueprint for OmegaBall, and several Energy FC players agreed to participate in a test game played in July, 2020, in Oklahoma City.
“These guys aren’t bartenders at night, they’re professional soccer players full-time, and they loved it,” Dittmann said. “It was the first testament to us being onto something. They had a lot of fun with it. The first period we had eight players on each team, and that was pretty crowded. So then in the second period we had seven players on each team, but it was still a little congested on the field. Then it was down to six and we finally settled on five, including the goalkeeper. And we embraced the circle concept.”
Dittmann especially likes the fact that keepers are sometimes on the attack.
“You’re sweating as a goalie, too,” Dittmann said. “Like it is, it’s a lot of work, and you’re constantly scanning the field for what’s coming at you next. ‘What am I planning for defensively, but what also, what can I do to help out the offense?’ Because we’ve seen goalies score, we’ve seen goalie get assists – we’ve seen goalies assist on a one-timer goal, which is just so fun to see. Every time we play, the response has been very, very positive.”
The official OmegaBall field has a diameter of 175 feet with the goals extended slightly beyond the perimeter. Ideally, the area footprint around the pitch should be 200 x 200.
“Our game is meant to be quick and intense, so the clock counts down from 13 minutes to zero, each period,” Dittmann said. “One change we made is the clock does stop any time the ball isn’t in play the last two minutes of the third period (to defend against the team in the lead wasting time by kicking it out of bounds, for example). Another change is if a penalty occurs by Team B in front Team C’s goal, the penalty kick moves to Team B’s area, since they were the offender.”
OmegaBall finally evolved from test matches to sanctioned competitions in 2022, and since then there have been several events featuring players with pro and college experience.
Aside from the 39 minutes of chaos, there’s plenty of room for ruthlessness when the game gets down to cases.
“It’s really cool when Team A is trying to score on Team B, but Team C cherry-picks off of Team A from the back side and scores like that,” Dittmann says. “But something that we didn’t contemplate was vulture defenses, where if Team A is in the lead, Team B is one goal behind Team A, and they’re about to score on Team C’s goal, Team A will defend Team C’s goal. It’s just part of the dynamics of the game, which is really fun.”
The next scheduled event is the 2025 World OmegaBall Invitational, set for Aug. 1 at ESPN’s Wide World of Sports in Orlando. It’ll be yet another showcase for a sport that I hope develops professional leagues for men and women.
That’s probably still a few years down the road, but it seems like a logical step.
Personally, I’d love to see it take a cue from the early years of the Premiere Lacrosse League and start off with a touring model. It’d be cool to have OmegaBall teams come to various cities and spend a weekend putting on a show.
As for finding talent, there’s plenty out there. The Big3 is stocked with former NBA players. I’m guessing athletes who are done with MLS, USL, NWSL, etc., would be interested.
However they can make it happen, I’ll gladly jump on the bandwagon.
“We’ve been actively shopping to get investment,” Dittmann said. “We’ve been self-funded so far, and we’ve done all of this without a full-time employee. All we really need is, like, $5 million … and then a patch of grass. So, we’re excited from that perspective, and our ability to execute quickly and ultimately create a lot of traction within the sport once we get there.
“From youth recreational memberships to competitive youth memberships, all the way up to media rights and franchising for professional leagues and really everything in between, there’s lots of opportunity there.”
For more information, including the official rules, go to omegaball.com.
