Feasterville’s Joe Hand Promotions on Long Career in Boxing: ‘We’ve Taken This from a Horse and Buggy to a Corvette’

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three people ringside
Image via John George at The Philadelphia Business Journal.
Joe Hand Jr., Margaret Hand Cicalese, and Joe Hand Sr. of Joe Hand Promotions.

Joe Hand Promotions, now in Feasterville, started with rented projectors and folding screens in front of boxing fans. Over the ensuing 50 years, it has evolved to a streaming titan, satisfying fans of the sport worldwide. John George fought through the minutiae to bring the story to the Philadelphia Business Journal.

“We’ve taken this from a horse and buggy to a Corvette,” said Joseph Hand Sr., who founded the company in 1971.

Closed-circuit television was just dawning, and its emergence represented a way for Hand Sr. to bring boxing to remote locations.

It was something of a do-or-die scenario. Pay-per-view and cable had run their course, and it was time to move onto the next big thing.

“We were thinking our business was going to go away and we were going to go the way of the 8-track tape player,” Hand Jr. said.

Instead, the company packaged its content for internet-connected devices. It took the concept further, selling B2B (rather than B2C), engaging live content to area sports bars, restaurants, and dining establishments.

“There are other companies like our company, but they are like cruise ships sailing out in the water and we’re a speedboat,” Hand Sr. said. “We can get things done fast while the yachts take a long time to turn.”

The variety of content is also now wider than ever. It includes Ultimate Fighting, PGA Tour golf, soccer, and even collegiate sports. Beyond that? Perhaps even sumo wrestling.

More on Joe Hand Promotions is in the Philadelphia Business Journal.

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