ESPN Secures Scrum.com Purchase
Global sports media giant ESPN has bought online specialist rugby portal
Scrum.com for an undisclosed fee, further signalling its intention to dominate
online sports content across the world.
The deal mirrors the acquisition of cricket website Cricinfo earlier this
year and signals ESPN’s aggressive digital acquisition strategy.
Launched in 1997, Scrum.com has established a strong and growing presence
among worldwide rugby fans with the site featuring up-to-date news and features
from around the world’s rugby playing nations.
‘Rugby has a global fan-base,’ said Russell Wolff, ESPN Executive Vice
President and Managing Director, ESPN International.
‘This acquisition complements our coverage of rugby across our other
platforms in key territories, and is a natural next step for us following our
acquisition of Cricinfo.com in June and the launch of French, German, Spanish
and Italian versions of ESPNsoccernet.com. Serving sports fans online around the
world is clearly a focus of ours.’
ESPN already has an expansive commitment to rugby through its TV rights
agreement with the European Rugby Cup as exclusive broadcaster of the Heineken
Cup through 2010 in Latin America, Australia, New Zealand, the Middle East and
North Africa.
ESPN will also air the 2007 and 2011 IRB Rugby World Cup throughout Latin
America including exclusive coverage in Argentina, Chile, Uruguay, and
Paraguay.
