The USA Today Sports Media Group has completed its acquisition of Fantasy Sports Ventures (FSV) and Big Lead Sports, the largest independent digital sports property in North America. Terms were not disclosed. USA Today’s parent, Gannett, was already a significant minority shareholder of FSV.
When all FSV assets are ultimately combined with the other properties within the USA Today Sports Media Group, the company said the digital property is expected to become one of the top five sports sites on the web based on the most recent comScore metrics. The digital assets that currently make up the USA Today Sports Media Group include USATODAY.com/sports; digital outlets associated with 81 local Gannett newspapers and 23 Gannett-owned broadcast television stations; HighSchoolSports.net; and the BNQT Media Group, which includes MMAjunkie.com.
“This deal represents a major step forward for us, giving us dramatically more scale and a great ability to provide engaging, relevant content across the entire spectrum of sports fans,” said Tom Beusse, President of USA Today Sports Media Group. “The Big Lead sites fit very nicely into our existing portfolio, and now give us an unmatched sports platform to go along with our existing national and local strengths. These new content distribution outlets will enable us to better serve sports enthusiasts while providing advertisers and marketers with a one-stop solution for all of their sports marketing needs.”
With nearly 19 million unique visitors in the latest comScore report, the FSV and Big Lead Sports property provide distinct and independent coverage of every major sport, including football, baseball, basketball, auto racing, hockey, soccer, college sports, high school sports and fantasy sports. The sites include the TheBigLead.com, a leading source of breaking news and commentary across all sports, as well as well-respected sports sites that include BaseballHQ.com, KFFL.com, TheHuddle.com, Baseball-Reference.com, HoopsWorld.com, HoopsHype.com, and many others.
RBR-TVBR observation: RBR-TVBR also has a claim on Steve Kyler, who is in this deal as the founder and still Publisher of HoopsWorld. And our readers will no doubt recognize a name from the past, since one time Westwood One CEO Tom Beusse is the President of USA Today Sports Media Group.
