ESPN buys cricket website Cricinfo

by Andrew McCormick, Media Week 11-Jun-07, 13:20

LONDON - Cricinfo, the world's biggest cricket website, has been snapped up by Disney-owned ESPN for an undisclosed sum.

Cricinfo will now change ownership from The Wisden Group, which publishes the Wisden Cricketers' Almanack and last year bought technology firm Hawk-Eye Innovations, to ESPN, which runs sites including Sports portal ESPN.com and ESPNsoccernet.com. The two companies today reached an agreement on the terms and conditions of the takeover.

Cricinfo has gained a following in all ten of the test playing countries. It claims to reach an average of 7 million users every month. Cricinfo offers ball-by-ball coverage on international matches and information on players throughout the globe.

Russell Wolff, managing director of ESPN International, said that expanding ESPN's online business was vital to the company. US-based ESPN offers sports coverage in English and Spanish and has also developed its mobile portal, mobile.espn.com.