That, in a nutshell, is GoldPocket.com - the hottest quiz game on the Internet.

Every Sunday night, the trivia contest pits players across the U.S. in a series of head-to-head duels. Winners advance to the next round, and at the end of an hour, one surviving player remains, guaranteed to win at least $250,000 and as much as $1 million.

A pair of newly minted MBA's from Harvard Business School started the weekly contests May 25, as a publicity stunt for their company, GoldPocket Interactive Inc. The point is to showcase their real product - a nationwide synchronized network of high speed computers that allow up to two million people simultaneously to bid in an auction, vote in a poll, participate in a class - or play a trivia game.

Not counting Sunday's contest, Gold Pocket has given away prizes with a total face value of $4 million - and has yet to land a paying client. Scott Newnam, the company's 27-year old chairman, chief executive and co-founder, says he expects to have some "large events" involving TV on board soon. Even in the dot-com world, where million-dollar spots on the Super Bowl and $100,000 coming-out parties are standard for start-ups giving away up to $1 million a week seems a bit generous. Newnam says expenses are not as high as some people might imagine.

For one thing, unlike the cash prizes on "who wants to be a millionaire", Gold Pocket's prizes take the form of 25-year annuities. As a result, the $4 million in prizes awarded has actually cost the company only $2million. At an expected cost of $260,000 a week in prizes, Newnam notes, "we could keep going for a long time".

Newnam declines to disclose costs of building the GoldPocket network but says suppliers are eager to work with it. On Friday, GoldPocket sent an invoice to the quiz show's first advertising sponsor. Sponsorship revenues are expected eventually to cover its costs. "We are designed to actually make money", Newnam says.

Indeed, the operation is downright frugal, Newnam says. Until last week, GoldPocket's 30 employees worked in a 1,700-square-foot building behind an auto-body shop a few minutes away from the business-school campus. Earlier this month, they were called in to pack computers, furniture, fiels and cases of caaffeinated soft drinks into a big Ryder truck and move them to a larger office several kilometers away.

Since January, GoldPocket has raised $51.7 million from investors including RRE Ventures, a venture-capital fund headed by former American Express Co. CEO James Rbinson III; Thomas H. Lee Co., the Boston investment firm; and Allen & Co., the Wall Street entertainment-industry financier. Except for spending a portion of its $15 million advertising warchest, Newnam says GoldPocket still has most of the money.

GoldPocket insidiers envision selling time on the computer network to auctioneers or to educational clients: The network could be used for remote question-and-answer or training sessions. A corporation, for example, might introduce a new product line by renting time to train and quiz store clerks about how to handle it.

But the primary market is entertainment, GoldPocket says. TV networks could use the service to let millions of viewers vote on, say, which rat-eating survivor to throw off the island.

-- The Asian Wall Street Journal