91Èȱ¬

Tony is hoping that his idea for a football game based on traditional tennis favourite swingball will attract the Dragons. Will he achieve his goal of investment or be sent off with nothing?

Tony delivers a strong pitch about his product Rotaball and gets his two sons to give a brief demonstration of it to the Dragons.

Deborah Meaden attacks the product and suggests that even in the demonstration it looks pedestrian. Tony says that you can adjust the springs on it and he had done this for the purposes of the Den.

Duncan Bannatyne tests the product. He attacks it as well saying it’s crazy and anyone can look good at keepy–ups even if they are poor at football. Tony says that this is part of its appeal.

Theo Paphitis wants Tony to explain to him how a business which is effectively selling a ball on a stick is worth £1.5 million. Tony says he has word from retailers that they expect it to sell. Theo has a big problem with the word ‘expects’.

Peter Jones says that the similar product Swingball had a unique selling point in so far as it mimicked real tennis .Theo chips in that it was also a game that you could play competitively unlike Rotaball.

Pushed when James Caan says that he is finding it hard to invest, Tony reveals that the company that made Swingball have advised him that he could sell 50,000-60,000 units in the UK and claims he has an exclusive deal with them with the entrepreneur receiving 8% of the wholesale price.

This infuriates Duncan. He leaps out of his chair and gets Tony to sign a deal saying that Duncan now owns the product and will give Tony 10% of any wholesale price.

Duncan tells the other Dragons that no deal can now be done with Tony as the Scot now owns the company. He tells Tony that he has sold 10% of nothing to him as he has no concrete orders or cash advances. Duncan is out.

Deborah follows suit – saying that there are no orders and nothing to underwrite Tony’s £1.5 million evaluation. She is out.

Theo slams Tony's evaluation of the business as ridiculous and warns him the first loss in business is sometimes the best one. Theo is out.

James says he cannot see how he is going to get a return on his investment if there are no orders or revenue so he too is out.

Peter says that in the Den Tony has sold himself a long way short of a good pitch. He claims the entrepreneur needs a reality check and warns him not to waste any more money on the product. Peter is out.

The deal done in the Den:

No investment.

Last updated: 2nd August 2010