Aurora man takes 'Sports Jeopardy!' championship

Justin Shibilski, a 39-year-old FedEx Ground senior manager from Aurora, claimed a $50,000 grand prize by finishing first in the "Sports Jeopardy!" championship on the program that appears on Crackle, a streaming network unit of Sony Pictures Television.

Shibilski took the grand prize after 52 weeks and a two-part finale.

"You can prepare for that moment forever and still not realize how amazing it feels," Shibilski said after his win. "It wasn't just about the money, believe it or not. I am thrilled to have won, and the money will help a lot, of course. But I'm an extremely competitive person, and I wanted to win in the worst way.

"I was nearly taken off-guard by my finals competitors, Nate Marks and Steve Greene," Shibilski said. "Both of them are wonderful people, and I actually found myself thinking at one point that if I had to lose I would be thrilled for either one of them. I never thought I would feel that way about my competition. They were absolutely gracious and just terrific people."

Marks, an actuary from West Hills, California, finished second and won $25,000, while Greene, a writer from Van Nuys, California, came in third and took home $10,000.

"Sports Jeopardy!" is hosted by Emmy Award-winning sportscaster Dan Patrick, and will begin streaming all-new Season 2 episodes Wednesday, Sept. 23. New episodes will debut Wednesdays at 8 a.m. and also will be available on demand year-round with a total of 52 episodes each year.

"Sports Jeopardy!" allows for a unique level of interactivity as viewers can download the free mobile game, available on iOS, Google Play and Amazon, which interacts with the show as a second screen application.

For information about "Sports Jeopardy!" visit sportsjeopardy.com.