NBC SPORTS DIGITAL ANNOUNCES PARTNERSHIP WITH SOCCERLY.COM

STAMFORD, CT – March 13, 2014 – NBC Sports Digital, the digital arm of the NBC Sports Group, today announced a strategic partnership with Soccerly.com, an innovative, digital media platform devoted exclusively to soccer. As part of this new editorial and promotional alliance, Soccerly will supply NBCSports.com with a much deeper level of soccer content focused around the top global soccer competitions, leagues and players.

“Soccer is an increasingly important sport for NBCSports.com, particularly in a World Cup year. We believe in the Soccerly team, which has a proven track record in the soccer digital world. Their passion for the sport and focus on creating great digital products has already benefitted Soccerly and will benefit our growing soccer readership,” said Kevin Monaghan, SVP, Strategic Relationships, NBC Sports Digital.

“We are delighted to be working with NBC Sports Digital. Their commitment to soccer has already been demonstrated by their unsurpassed coverage of the Premier League and MLS. Our two organizations share the same passion for growing the sport in North America, and we believe this partnership will help us toward our goal of becoming the leading soccer-specific site in the U.S.,” said Miguel Ramírez-Lombana, Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Soccerly.com.

Soccerly.com was launched in January 2013 by a passionate group of entrepreneurs and soccer fans intent on creating a leading soccer destination in the United States. Based in San Diego, CA, Soccerly is owned by the same group that founded soccer site, mediotiempo.com in 2000, considered the biggest and best soccer digital site in Mexico, which was acquired by Time, Inc. in 2010.

As part of its new relationship with the NBC Sports Group, Soccerly will provide NBCSports.com and its popular ProSoccerTalk with a combination of regional and global soccer editorial for World Cup, Champions League, European Championships and qualifying. Soccerly also focuses on the United States and Mexican national men’s and women’s teams; and will provide content around the world’s most popular leagues, including the Premier League, MLS, Liga MX, Serie A, La Liga and Bundesliga.

NBCSports.com first launched a soccer-specific site in 2012 as a digital companion to its MLS on NBC television programming. NBC expanded its successful “sports talk” digital strategy that year with ProSoccerTalk, which has become one of the fastest growing “sports talk” destinations on NBCSports.com. NBC Sports’ soccer coverage exploded this past August with the launch of NBC’s cross-platform coverage of the Premier League. Through NBCSports.com and its NBC Sports Live Extra app, live streams from the Premier League have delivered a whopping 1.2mm unique visitors (duplication between web/mobile), 4.9mm visits, 8.3mm live starts and 185.2mm live minutes watched on NBC Sports Group digital platforms.

–NBC SPORTS GROUP–