Nick Todaro, Reporter

The technology developed by Louisiana Tech business incubator startup company Network Foundation Technologies has snagged the attention of national sports leagues.

NFT’s product uses a pyramid-type model for Internet video broadcasts, making live feeds more efficient by utilizing end-users’ computers to rebroadcast video content, as opposed to previous models that used one central source for video broadcasts.

The company recently gained its third major sports league contract with Arena Football 2. NFT also has agreements with the Central Hockey League and the International Women’s Fast-Pitch League.

By the end of the three seasons, the company will have broadcast nearly 1,000 sports games.

The startup was founded by Mike O’Neal, who is its current chief scientist and is the former chair of the computer science program at Tech. NFT pulled in its first big competitive grant — $100,000 from the National Science Foundation — last year, and the NSF put $500,000 more in the company’s coffers this winter.

“These AF2 broadcasts will be presented to fans using our successful Free-For-View model, which NFT pioneered with the Central Hockey League,” O’Neal said. So far, NFT has broadcast more than 300 games in the CHL’s 540-game season. “We are quite proud of the fact that the CHL teamed with NFT to become the first professional sporting league to commit to streaming their entire season live and free to their fans over the Internet.”

That agreement was the first of its kind, O’Neal said, and the AF2 contract followed quickly. “During the first three weeks of CHL regular-season play using our solution, the CHL Network attracted more viewers than they did with pay-per-view in the previous three years combined,” he said.

The company’s modest beginnings in the Louisiana Tech Enterprise Center are gone, with 30 employees on the payroll now — some part-time and some full-time. The company has also relocated to the Humana Enterprise Center in the biomedical engineering building, occupying 75 percent of the available space there.

The company also has a new management brain on deck. Vice President of Operations Michael Chin was most recently Global Head of Customer Relationship Management Systems for Apple Computer.

Chin has been involved in what he calls “high tech” for 25 years and worked with four startups. He’s held senior positions at Symantec and Time Warner, as well as industry giant Microsoft.

He was co-founder of Vroom Technologies, which produced systems software for the telecommunications industry. He said he was semi-retired and came to Louisiana to be near his daughter, but started to get “I ran into the recruiter that was helping NFT and I joined them,” he said. “I didn’t really need to work, but after listening to their business plan, it was sound and exciting.

This isn’t just any startup, it’s doing something cutting-edge, with the impact to change the way people do things.”

The collection of sports gigs coming in short order represents quick movement, even in the technology industry, Chin said.

“This wasn’t just a nice gig and an ‘I’ll give it a try,’ ” Chin said. “If I was going to go back to work it was about something being exciting.” The addition of the third sports league means capping off one leg of the business strategy of proving the model in the sports market, Chin said.

The company is also focusing on music and faith broadcasting, he said, as well as public affairs television.