Internet site Sportingo raises $3.2 million to lure new users - Haaretz

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Mon., October 08, 2007 ,

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Internet site Sportingo raises $3.2 million to lure new users

By Eran Gabay

Israeli Internet sports site Sportingo has raised $3.2 million. Ingenious Media Active Capital Limited (IMAC) invested in Sportbuzz Limited, which manages the online sports content network, Sportingo.com.

The investment should help the firm strengthen its marketing and bring in new users. The site currently has more than 550,000 unique users a month.

Sportingo, which was founded less than a year ago, is one of the success stories of Web 2.0 sites based on reader content.

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The site is based on sports fans writing for other fans, commenting and ranking articles written by other fans and deciding the important stories of the day.

Sportingo secured its initial funding from private investors only, so it has now taken a major step up. Its business model is a mix of online advertising and commercial cooperation for selling products over the Internet.

Officially launched in February 2007 by Chairman Tal Barnoach and CEO Ze'ev Rozov, Sportingo is an online community that allows sports enthusiasts to publish articles and access sports-related information such as news, statistics and sports-related video.

The content is edited by Sportingo's team of sports journalists.

In June of this year Sportbuzz also completed the acquisition of CaughtOffside.com, one of the UK's most popular soccer blogs.

According to Barnoach, the firm will use the new funds to expand its activities in Europe, the firm's main market. "We established an office in England to handle all our activities in Europe," Barnoach said, adding that the company aims to reach millions of new users in the next year, and plans to buy other assets.

The company has signed agreements in recent months with the International Basketball Federation (FIBA), the International Tennis Federation and New Zealand's All Blacks national rugby team. Other sporting groups are expected to join Sportingo with new content soon, including a number of British rugby, cricket and soccer clubs.

"Sportbuzz is a progressive media company which is well positioned to benefit from the rise in user-generated content, social networking and the take-off of broadband video," IMAC Director Patrick McKenna said.

"IMAC's investment will allow Sportingo to grow its already significant user base and to begin monetising this highly attractive and 'sticky' audience," added McKenna.

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