The NCAA, CBS Sports and SportsLine.com announced an agreement whereby SportsLine.com has sublicensed the rights from CBS Sports for the official NCAA Championship Web site, in their entirety through 2006. These rights include site production, hosting and management of the sale of advertising for http://ncaasports.com , and the exclusive rights to provide Internet broadcast of certain NCAA championship including the Division 1 Men’s Basketball Championship.
Separately, SportsLine.com announced it will dispose of its gaming information operations, consisting of VegasInsider.com and Las Vegas Sports Consultants.
The new NCAA Championship site will replace all NCAA Championship sports sites, including finalfour.net, with one new branded property, ncaasports.com. Programming on the new site will feature in-depth coverage of all championship events administered by the NCAA, and will feature a vast array of year-round content including student-athlete features, standings, stats, brackets, event results and on site championship information, including tickets, local events and activities. Further details are contained in the earlier joint announcement.
SportsLine.com and CBS Sports will share in revenues from the operations of the new site, with SportsLine.com’s start-up production costs being recouped in the initial year of operations.
“We believe there is tremendous synergy between SportsLine.com, the NCAA and CBS Sports,” said Michael Levy, Founder and CEO of SportsLine.com. “This partnership reflects the strength of SportsLine as the premiere provider of turnkey Internet sports solutions. The disposal of Vegas Insider.com and Las Vegas Sports Consultants will allow us to achieve our primary long term financial objectives by focusing on our core business including proprietary- branded properties.”
VegasInsider.com is a Web site which provides sports information, news and analysis targeted toward consumers interested in gaming. Las Vegas Sports Consultants is the leading provider of gaming information and analysis targeted toward legal and licensed sports books.
As a result of today’s announcement, the operating results of VegasInsider.com and Las Vegas Sports Consultants will now be classified as discontinued operations in SportsLine.com’s financial statements, and the results of prior years will be revised to conform with the current year presentation. The disposal is not expected to have a material effect on the Company’s projected year-end 2003 cash balance. Revenue from continuing operations is now expected to be toward the lower end of the range of $68-72 million provided by the Company in January 2003.
SportsLine.com’s flagship Internet sports service (http://cbs.sportsline.com ) was renamed CBS SportsLine.com as part of an exclusive promotional and content agreement with CBS in March 1997, which was amended in 1999 to extend the term through 2006. CBS currently owns approximately 31% of SportsLine.com’s outstanding common stock and SportsLine.com is obligated to issue additional equity to CBS throughout the remainder of the term of the agreement.
