Leading statistician and best-selling author Nate Silver will join ESPN later this year in a multifaceted role that will include coverage of sports, economics, culture, science and technology on ESPN's website.

Silver, who rose to fame with his award-winning website, FiveThirtyEight.com, also will appear on ESPN and its broadcast partner, ABC News. FiveThirtyEight.com, which had been hosted on The New York Times website since 2010, will be independent of ESPN but connect to other sites owned by the network and parent company Disney.

Silver gained attention analyzing baseball statistics before he moved to politics. In 2012, FiveThirtyEight.com correctly predicted the presidential election outcome in all 50 states. The site will include forecasts of the 2014 and 2016 elections.

"Nate is one of the country's brightest talents and his insight, journalistic integrity and creativity -- all traits essential for creating compelling, quality content -- have awed and entertained diverse audiences," ESPN president John Skipper said in a statement Monday.

The FiveThirtyEight's new incarnation will allow Silver to return to his sports roots while expanding his approach to other disciplines. FiveThirtyEight also will continue to provide data-driven coverage of politics, including forecasts of the 2014 and 2016 elections.

Silver will serve as editor-in-chief of the site and will build a team of journalists, editors, analysts and contributors in the coming months. He will be based in New York.

"This is a dream job for me. I'm excited to expand FiveThirtyEight's data-driven approach into new areas, while also reuniting with my love of sports," Silver said in a statement released by ESPN. "I'm thrilled that we're going to be able to create jobs for a great team of journalists, writers and analysts. And I think that I've found the perfect place to do it."