Rapidly expanding sports media entity continues trajectory of growth amid $3M in debt funding from Silicon Valley Bank
AUSTIN, Texas (June 3, 2015) – FloSports announced today that the company has acquired Full Count Softball, the leading source for fast-pitch softball news. The acquisition delivers on FloSports’ aim to expand aggressively into additional sports in 2015. The new site, which will become FloSoftball.com, joins FloTrack, FloWrestling, FloElite, MileSplit and Gymnastike as dedicated sports verticals under the FloSports header.
“Full Count Softball fits seamlessly into FloSports’ fast-growing offering for millions of passionate fans who crave content around the sports they love,” FloSports co-founder and CEO Martin Floreani said. “Full Count Softball’s rankings, compelling human interest stories and expertise are coveted and recognized nationally, and this acquisition enhances our ability to provide high-quality content at every stage of the competitive cycle.”
Full Count Softball was founded by Brentt Eads, who has worked in sports media for more than 20 years at ESPN and Student Sports. He has served the club and high school softball world since 2006 and has written for ESPN Magazine, Sports Illustrated, Yahoo! Sports and USA Today, compiling the latter’s list of 2015 Preseason High School Softball All-Americans.
“I’m excited to be part of the FloSports organization and am excited about their video and content approach that will bring more resources to fastpitch softball,” said Eads, President/Executive Editor of Full Count Softball. “We’ll provide editorial coverage of the great athletes in the sport, provide live video streams, and tell the athletes’ stories and honor their accomplishments both on and off the field.”
Full Count Softball features exclusive rankings, such as the “Hot 100” players in each graduating class from the 2014 to the 2018 age levels, “FAB 50” team rankings as well as original content, such as “The 10 Most Influential People in Softball Today.”
The acquisition comes at the same time FloSports receives $3M in venture debt from Silicon Valley Bank (SVB). The funding will be used to continue FloSports’ strategic expansion into new sports verticals.
“Since we strive to help our clients move their bold ideas forward, we are proud to be the financial partner helping FloSports execute its vision to grow into new sports and reach fans around the world,” SVB Managing Director Dax Williamson said. “From the time of our initial meeting with Martin and his team, we saw his vision had tremendous promise to change the way sports are consumed. We’re excited to play a role in accelerating the success of the company’s next phase of growth.”
FloSports has now raised $11M in total funding. Late in 2014, FloSports announced $8 million in new venture capital funding from Causeway Media Partners to grow its business platform and nearly double their employee base.
“We’re thrilled to work with SVB and close this new round of funding, which allows us to continue our aggressive growth into new sports such as softball,” Floreani said. “We’re seeing excellent traction in our existing sports, with strong year-over-year growth across all of our sites. We’re excited to expand our network and to partner with such a reputable bank.”
For more information, visit www.flosports.tv.
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ABOUT FLOSPORTS
FloSports, an innovative sports media company based in Austin, Texas, offers authentic content and a new world of coverage that true fans have been waiting for. Focused on three areas – live programming, original content, and owned and operated events – the company takes fragmented communities and provides them the platform to connect with the sports they love.
Through live streaming of premier events, original video programming, weekly studio shows, branded entertainment, and event creation and execution, FloSports is changing the game for the sports, the athletes and the fans.
FloSports owns exclusive broadcast rights to in-demand events, and broadcasts more than 25,000 hours of live sporting events each year. From a content standpoint, FloSports has 980,000+ videos in their library. FloSports features the #1 webcasts per sport, high-quality, in-depth original series and 5M+ athletes ranked within their respective sports.
Current verticals under the FloSports header are Softball, Elite Fitness, Wrestling, Gymnastics, and Running, including MileSplit.com.
ABOUT SILICON VALLEY BANK
For more than 30 years, Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) has helped innovative companies and their investors move bold ideas forward, fast. SVB provides targeted financial services and expertise through its offices in innovation centers around the world. With commercial, international and private banking services, SVB helps address the unique needs of innovators. Forbes named SVB one of America’s best banks (2015) and one of America’s best-managed companies (2014).Learn more at svb.com.
Silicon Valley Bank is the California bank subsidiary and commercial banking operation of SVB Financial Group (Nasdaq: SIVB), and a member of the FDIC. Silicon Valley Bank and SVB Financial Group are members of the Federal Reserve System.
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Jake Toplitt, United Entertainment Group
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Jake.Toplitt@uegworldwide.com