Bleacher Report Leverages Benefits of Web 2.0 to Improve the Fan Experience, Secures Series A Funding
SAN FRANCISCO, CA Marketwire Following months of beta testing, Bleacher Report formally launched its community-driven online sports network today, providing all sports fans one place to create, critique and consume compelling coverage on their favorite college and professional teams. Bleacher Report’s open, collaborative platform features a peer-editing system that helps ensure high quality fan-generated coverage on the site. While in beta, the site grew to more than 400,000 monthly unique visitors and 2,000 original sports editorials published per month — drastically outpacing similar outlets in both web and print media. In addition, Bleacher Report announced it has raised a Series A round of funding led by Hillsven Capital, a partnership of Bobby Lent and Boris Putanec, former co-founders of Ariba Inc., along with other investors.
The Idea behind Bleacher Report
Bleacher Report was founded by Dave Finocchio, Alexander Freund, Bryan Goldberg, and Dave Nemetz, four lifelong sports fans from Silicon Valley. The group shared a belief that mainstream sports media didn’t offer the range or depth of coverage to satisfy diehards, and that some of the most insightful analysis comes from the fans who know their teams best. With Bleacher Report, they created a platform to empower all fans to become fan-journalists, producing high-quality content and sharing it with a built-in readership of hundreds of thousands.
“This site is about unleashing the ‘wisdom of the fans,’” founder Dave Nemetz said. “As sports culture junkies ourselves, we’ve found that the people who eat, sleep and breathe the game read release.
The site looks good to me, but it’s hard for me to tell if there’s enough room for ALL the user-generated sports sites coming out of the woodwork. I guess we’ll see.