USA Today takes equity stake in Fantasy Sports Ventures

I have written about the value Fantasy Sports Ventures provides with its ad network. They have just increased the value they can bring to their affiliates with a partnership with USA Today. In addition to a significant cash infusion, FSV added a great brand and distribution channel to its key assets. USA Today has an audience of about 3 million monthly visitors to their website which makes it one of the top sports websites. According to the press release, the partnership includes content/promotion opportunities with the print edition of USA Today that reaches over 3.9 million readers on a DAILY basis. That is a huge number (not sure how many people read the sports section, but I would guess it is a significant percentage). USA Today was actually one of the first media companies to benefit from Fantasy sports as people depended on them for the box scores each weekend. Once internet sites like Yahoo, ESPN and SportsLine began providing these scores and integrating them into commissioner services like commissioner.com, then fantasy fans no longer needed to manually tabulate scores using USA Today.

This is a great strategic partnership for both sides with content and branded sponsorship opportunities (which are the real gold mines for vertical ad networks).