ESPN continues digital expansion with Racing-Live.com

by Jacquie Bowser, Brand Republic 05-Aug-08, 09:10

LONDON - US Sports broadcaster ESPN has acquired international motor racing website Racing-Live.com for an undisclosed sum.

Racing-Live.com covers motor sports in all its various incarnations including Formula 1 (F1-Live.com), Moto GP and Superbike (Moto-Live.com), Rally (Rally-Live.com), off-road Rallies (Raid-Live.com), endurance sports cars and kart racing.

The site is available worldwide and provides locally tailored news and live updates in English, French, Japanese, Italian, German and Spanish.

Based in Montpellier, France, the site launched first as F1-Live in 1997 and expanded into Racing-Live in 2000 and now has a reported 3m unique users per month.

Russell Wolff, executive vice president and managing director of ESPN International, said: "Motor racing has a global fan base, and this agreement will allow us to serve fans more motor sports coverage than ever before.

"Serving sports fans online is a priority for us and this acquisition complements our extensive Nascar and classic motor sports coverage across our multi-media platforms around the globe."

ESPN has been focusing on building its digital portfolio and last year acquired rugby news website Scrum.com and cricket website Cricinfo.com and also expanded the fantasy and localized versions of ESPNsoccernet.com.

Michel Marvie, founder and managing director of Racing-Live, said: "ESPN has established itself as a leader in the digital space and is the ideal place for the next stage in the development of Racing-Live."

Racing-Live.com competes head on with Haymarket-owned titles such as Autosport.com and F1 Racing magazine.