To say the appeal and influence of professional sports in America is powerful would be an understatement, in my estimation. The appeal and influence of the four major professional sports leagues in North America (NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL) is so great that all four went and did the same thing: started their own network. These channels are dedicated to providing 24/7 programming on their respective sport. Last year, a mother and son took the fandom a step further.
Aymara Del Aguila, an ad executive, and her son Vicente J. Fernandez, a student-athlete sports writer founded Sportsmanias.com, a website that provides personalized content on your favorite team, in October 2012. The website was created to serve passionate fans, commonly referred to as “diehard” fans, with the inside scoop from reliable sources like beat writers from around the country, and will also feature team specific rumors and relevant social media. “Sportsmanias has been created to feed diehards what they want, how they want it,” said Fernandez, a student at University of Chicago.
According to the numbers, the diehards are eating it up. Sportsmanias has reached 500,000 unique monthly visitors as of July and expects 1.4 million visitors in total by the end of 2013. With the addition of their newly developed TeamNews app, the fandom has been taken to an even more extreme level. The mobile iOS app for the site was released in January of 2013 with the Android app being released two months later in March.
“Our app has actually been ranked as high as top 10 in the U.S. iTunes Store for free sports apps, and fans are loving it, averaging 12 minutes per visit. We are consistently ranked in the top 50 free sports apps in the iTunes Store” says Del Aguila. Technology had already made it capable for fans to watch games, check their fantasy football stats, and keep track of in-game progress all from their phone. Add this to the list.
Remember that appeal and influence I spoke about earlier? Well, Sportsmanias.com will have a little bit of that too. Jeremy Maclin and Julio Jones, wide receivers for the Philadelphia Eagles and Atlanta Falcons, respectively, have become partners in the nine month old venture. The management team at Sportsmanias isn’t anything to scoff at either. Del Aguila, the advertising executive with more than 25 years of corporate experience, is CEO of the technology start up. Fernandez, an award-winning third-year student, and sports editor for the Chicago Maroon, is Vice President of content strategy.
Fernandez is also founder and president of Maroon TV (UChicago’s TV network). The rest of the team is rounded out with David Marshall as VP of digital marketing, Ramon Branger and Paul Briz of BrangerBriz, web and app development, and David McCombie serving as financial advisor. If that doesn’t do it for you, Sportsmanias.com received $1 million in funding from Mas Equity Partners. Jorge Mas of Mas Equity and chairman of the MasTec, explains why. “We invest in good people and Aymara and her son are good people, very motivated and they have the right idea”.
Going forward, Mas Equity Partners will help Sportsmanias.com with strategic planning and organizational management, and assist with resources to help increase the company’s purpose. “They are well set up to grow and I think we can help them,” says Mas. They already are on the right track. “Now that we’ve secured funds, we have detailed plans to optimize our product offering and accelerate user acquisition,” Del Aguila said.
Based on feedback they have received, Sportsmanias.com will begin making changes and start approaching ad agencies to begin to monetize the site and app offering custom sponsorships. “Our fan base is the most coveted target audience for advertisers, the male 18-34 age, which is reflective of the ultimate sports fan with a high disposable income, “ said Marshall. “We have all kinds of surprises in the pipeline fans will love.” Sportsmanias’ second fundraising round will likely be developed in 2014.