|
 |   |
|
EVENTS Fantasy Central Inside Game Multimedia Central Statitudes Your Turn Message Boards Email Newsletters Golf Guide Cities Work in Sports
CNNSI.com GROUP
COMMERCE |  |
NEWS RELEASE Sandbox.com Receives Significant Equity Investment from CNN/Sports Illustrated Interactive
Posted: Wednesday July 05, 2000 08:48 PM Sandbox.com, a leading provider of interactive games, announced today that it has received a significant equity investment from CNN/Sports Illustrated Interactive. As part of the agreement, Sandbox has entered into a multi-year relationship to develop more than 30 co-branded fantasy sports and arcade games for CNNSI.com, Time Warner’s sports web site. The two parties launched the deal by announcing the release of their first co-branded game, the CNNSI.com Hoops Bracket Challenge powered by Sandbox (http://hoopschallenge.cnnsi.com), which offers $10 million to the contestant who selects a perfect men’s college basketball tournament bracket. As part of the agreement, CNN/Sports Illustrated Interactive has agreed to provide Sandbox with $15 million in advertising across Time Warner’s properties including CNNSI.com, Sports Illustrated and the CNN, CNN Headline News and CNN/Sports Illustrated television networks. In addition, as part of the agreement Sandbox will have the ability to market its e-commerce offerings to the CNNSI.com users of the Sandbox fantasy games. “This is an extremely big win for Sandbox,” commented Larry Cotter, president and CEO of Sandbox. “The combination of our 2.5 million members and CNNSI.com’s fantasy audience increases the Sandbox Network to three times the size of our nearest competitor. In addition, the $15 million in targeted advertising will allow us to further distance ourselves from our competition and build strong brand recognition.” "We recognize the importance of games with the passionate online sports audience and we strongly believe that together we can offer them the best games on the Internet," said David Payne, senior vice president and general manager, CNN/Sports Illustrated Interactive. "This strategic partnership with Sandbox.com will help to expand our presence, growth and position in the online sports world." About Sandbox.com Sandbox.com is a leading provider of interactive games with over 40 games including full fantasy sports competitions, salary cap games, sports stock market simulations, pick ‘em style games, financial stock market simulations, sports and classic arcade games, and free play-for-fun casino games. Sandbox.com maintains a community of over 2.5 million registered members. A combination of creative content, an incentive-based marketing program and leading-edge technologies allows Sandbox to generate high volumes of Web site traffic; build loyal user communities; and develop innovative Internet promotion platforms. Media Metrix recently ranked Sandbox 4th among digital properties and Web sites in terms of duration or 'stickiness,' which measures time spent per unique user per month. Media Metrix also ranked Sandbox 9th in loyalty, which measures total visits per user per month. Sandbox also ranked as the 35th most-trafficked Web site in a recent Nielsen//NetRatings report. Sandbox.com maintains strategic relationships with CNNSI.com, FOXSports.com, USATODAY.com, Lycos, and NBCi, Inc. as well as licensing agreements with the NFLPA, NHLPA and MLBPA. About CNNSI.com CNNSI.com is Time Warner’s sports Web site featuring up-to-the-minute scores, news, statistics and analysis of U.S. and World and men’s and women’s sports, as well as fantasy sports, live video-streaming and a local sports section for more than 150 cities. The site features the renowned journalism and photography of Sports Illustrated; content from Turner Sports, including NBA, golf and motor sports; and CNN/Sports Illustrated, the 24-hour sports news network. CNNSI.com is the home of Sports Illustrated on the Web and the sports site for CNN Interactive.
|
