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SportsLine.com is becoming more respectable. The sports information site has agreed with part-owner CBS to become the producer and host of the official NCAA sports championship sites. But in order to proceed with the deal, in concurrence with strict NCAA rules, SportsLine.com must drop gambling partners VegasInsider.com and Las Vegas Sports Consultants. The deal headliner, of course, is the March men’s basketball tournament, which is also a huge betting event. SportsLine.com and CBS Sports will share revenue for the new site, ncaasports.com. That will replace the old championship sites, including finalfour.net. It may take up to six months for SportsLine.com to shut down the gambling divisions. The new site debuted Saturday. CBS Sports says that many advertiser for this month’s tournament were interested in buying ads for both the TV and online portions, and that the one-stop shopping will make them happy. Site advertisers already include Coca-Cola, General Motors and Monster.com.
Online Brit betting getting big bounce
And speaking of online gambling, it’s becoming quite the pastime in England. British gamblers are betting on soccer matches, horse races and even American politics, expanding an industry once regarded as a lowly back-alley indulgence. With more and more Brits becoming online savvy, internet betting parlors Sportingbet and Betfair.com saw big 2002 jumps. Sportingbet traffic rose by 19 percent to 30,915 last quarter. The number of bets placed in than span increased over last year by 1 million. Betfair.com says it averages about 12,000 bets per minute at peak hours, about 100 times what it averaged at this time last year. The site has a user base of 75,000. Many experts attribute this jump to a new British bettor – the affluent office worker, who logs on at work. While British oddsmakers love their “football,” unique betting opportunities have also become popular online. A current favorite is whether or not Hillary Clinton will earn the Democratic nomination for the U.S. presidency in 2004.
Yahoo, USA's ad deal promoting 'Monk,' more
Yahoo has reached an advertising deal with USA Network that will bring ads for “Monk” and “Rudy: The Rudy Giuliani Story” to the site’s most-trafficked pages. Yahoo and Vivendi Universal, USA Network’s parent company, did not disclose length of the deal, nor did they mention financial specifics. The network becomes the third to advertise its television programs on Yahoo, joining Viacom’s UPN and News Corp.’s Fox. Yahoo’s reputation had been tarnished during the past two years, with internet advertising falling off. But the current Yahoo CEO, former Warner Bros. studio head Terry Semel, has lots of Hollywood contacts. The USA deal will put ads for new series “Nashville Star,” miniseries “Helen of Troy” and more onto the home page, Yahoo Mail, Yahoo TV and Yahoo Sports, among others.
Amazon begins peddling domain names
Amazon.com has added another product to its ever-growing list of wares. The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers has approved the retailer’s request to sell domain names. They’ll be available for business and non-business buyers, the company reports. The site has not begun the service yet, but it becomes one of more than 100 companies that have started selling domain names since the government renounced its monopoly in 1999. This is the latest expansion for Amazon, which branched out a lot during 2002. Last year the company added an apparel shop, featuring Gap, Nordstrom and Foot Locker, and began including items from third-party retailers like Toys R Us and Circuit City.
Like, whatever: Microsoft targets young users
Microsoft is thinking hip. The Redmond, Wash., company has debuted a test version of an instant messaging product for the teen and college set that it hopes will lead to more targeting efforts. The 18-month-old NetGen group has been brainstorming ways to reach internet users age 13-24, the group that grew up with the internet. Its first product, threedegrees, lets users invite up to 10 friends to join an online group. There they can chat, exchange pictures, even share music selections. NetGen wants the online experience to match what this group does in its offline time.
March 4, 2003© 2003 Media Life
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