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You can't buy love – but can you invest in it?

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Bobby O’Neal

Bobby O’Neal was playing centre in a pick-up hockey game a few years ago when an opponent approached him at centre ice as the puck was about to drop.

“Hey, O’Neal,” the player called. “I got your love game. I just wanted to thank you.”

Seconds later, the puck was on the ice and the play started.

It was unexpected but welcome testimony for O’Neal, who designed a board game to help couples improve their relationships.

News got around when the game was first produced in 2007 – and the game is set to get more exposure.

Tonight (Jan. 12) at 8 p.m., O’Neal’s pitch of Syncrohearts will be broadcast on the fifth season of CBC’s Dragons’ Den.

It will be O’Neal’s second visit to the reality TV show, in which five wealthy investors are courted by entrepreneurs looking for help to market their business ideas or products.

While O’Neal’s board game was rejected in the show’s second season in the fall of 2007, the publicity sparked interest – and sales.

“(The panelists) did not think there was a demand for my product,” says O’Neal. “The viewers knew better.”

He had asked the panel for an investment of $200,000 for a 25 per cent stake in his business.

This time, he admits, he came with more realistic expectations, and asked for a $50,000 investment.

(The show was taped in May, 2010, and he can’t reveal the results from the show before it airs.)

He says this time he arrived in Toronto more relaxed and playful – even taunting a panelist with a stethoscope, checking for a heart.

“I got quite a few odd looks as I walked along Yonge Street in Toronto at 6:30 a.m. with an axe over my shoulder on my way to the CBC studios.”

O’Neal, a District of Mission forestry worker, made his entry on the TV taping in forestry gear, whipping the “costume” off to show the “medical” uniform of “Dr. Love” – a nickname given to him by his forestry co-workers and hockey buddies.

The sword in his hand – to slay the dragons.

For an audition callback from CBC producers, he had to prove that some sales were made.

Although his product was given the thumbs-down on Dragons’ Den the first time around, Syncrohearts won the popular vote for the 2007 episode, and has sold over 5,000 copies in 80 stores across Canada, with online orders from as far away as Australia and Iran.

He has about 1,700 games in inventory right now, and expects to sell them all by Valentine’s Day.

In the last year, one-third of his online sales have been from the U.S., thanks to increasing exposure in that market.

“Now I (got) a second chance to convince the Dragons that there is a big global market for Syncrohearts.”

The game was a labour of love that began in 2001 when his marriage was in trouble and he was seeking a way to reconnect with his wife.

It was to be marketed exclusively for couples, and designed to be played in 45 minutes.

He invested $60,000 of his own money in the game’s production.

Syncrohearts is made in Surrey, with input, production and marketing handled by Creative Imagesetting, Chicken Little and Deelor Sales and Marketing.

The name represents the two overlapping hearts on the board – which the two players take, meeting together at the end.

Along the way, players roll the die and land on one of four spaces that require them to pick up the appropriate card: 4Fun, Couple, Insights or Hot Stuff. The card might tell the player to give their partner a short massage, or prompt them to share an intimate detail, but regardless of the instruction, the game aims to bring couples closer together.

How do you win?, he was asked by a panelist in his first appearance on Dragons’ Den.

“Both partners are winners,” he answered. “When this hit the stores, I had people coming up and thanking me. When I go to trade shows with this game, I have people coming up and saying ‘we need this.’ ”

At the time, the potential investors had money on their minds, not love.

This time, it might be different.

O’Neal gives the same advice to aspiring entrepreneurs as he does to those hoping to improve their relationships: “Follow your heart.”

bjoseph@surreyleader.com