International sports network ESPN has purchased Australian footy tipping site FootyTips.com.au for an undisclosed sum in the company’s first acquisition in the local area, continuing the appetite of large media companies for smaller, community-focused brands.
The move comes after media companies in Australia have grown hungry for small communities, especially in the category of new mothers with Fairfax and News Corp purchasing baby and mothering related websites in the past few years.
ESPN commercial director Gus Seebeck says the concept of community definitely played a part in the purchase.
“What the FootyTips guys have done so well, is effectively create a social media website just as much as they have a tipping site,” he says.
“Traditionally when you submit tips at work you just give them in, and then find the results on Monday. But FootyTips is a social community where users go to the site every week on whatever device they want, and that’s appealing from an audience standpoint as well as an advertising one.”
The actual acquisition is of ExtraCorp, which owns a number of media properties including ClickGreen, Fantasy Football and Player of the Year, although FootyTips is the most well-known property. The purchase price was not disclosed, but a similar purchase last year by Yahoo!7 was reportedly valued at over $2.5 million.
FootyTips was founded by Nathan Isterling and Heath Kilgour, who both built the site while attending university. It was then acquired by Tattersalls in 2001, but bought back by both Isterling and Kilgour in 2007.
Seebeck says part of the attraction to the site was due to the focus on technology, with the site allowing users to submit tips through SMS and apps on the iOS and Android platforms.
ESPN confirmed that FootyTips.com.au’s 15 employees will keep their jobs, although Seebeck says the direction of the company will be confirmed over time as the larger ESPN brand is incorporated into the business.
“One of our local strategic goals is to localise the business and make it relevant. So we’re bringing all the staff over, and absolutely in the short-term we want to focus on the site. It’s working very well the way it is.”
“The exciting part is moving slowly to broaden the ESPN offering to the dedicated AFL audience that’s already there.”
The appetite for web start-ups has been growing over the past few years, as Australian companies become more tech-savvy and start-ups focus on more niche offerings. Sites like RetailMeNot, CrowdMass and Paycycle have been acquired in the past year as larger businesses identify the benefit of such smaller sites.
However, Seebeck says ESPN isn’t necessarily on the hunt for more digital acquisitions.
“We have no immediate plans. But we’re always looking for the best way to grow our business, and clearly in this instance we felt growth by acquisition was best. There are no immediate plans, but we’re not ruling anything out either.”
Heath Kilgour said in a statement that members can expect the current tipping competition to continue, and that ESPN will “further improve the site”.
Both Kilgour and Isterling will continue to maintain the site.
Patrick Stafford is a freelance journalist and a former deputy editor of SmartCompany.
