From trader to world's most syndicated word game creator
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As the most syndicated daily puzzle and word game creator in the world, David Hoyt's puzzles appear in more newspapers and magazines than anyone else.
His games, which include Jumble and Word Roundup, are played by more than seven million people each day online and in print. Chicago-based Hoyt was in town last week to promote his latest project - Word Winder (www.wordwinder.com), a board game that is something of a cross between Scrabble and Knots And Crosses.
He says he gave up a lucrative career in options trading to become a game maker in 1993 because of a desire to invent and a competitive streak. "There was a guy on the floor of the exchange who had a game, and he was trying to market it, and I saw it and I thought, I can do better than that," says Hoyt, 46.
The first game he sold in 1993 - Crossword The Game - to Parker Brothers, the game manufacturers owned by Hasbro, was never made.
