Episode 27: Sports Online

13 July 2009

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When the Internet was first created it was the preserve of the garden variety, pocket protector toting Nerd. In recent years these nerds have had their space invaded by the jocks of the world checking their sporting news online. Sport information sites seem to be a growing trend with the local gym jock asking his geeky friend to show him how to check the latest game score on his cellphone. These sports reporters are invading social media as well with the likes of Twitter and blogs becoming a popular way to provide information for sports fans. In sport mad South Africa, the top blogs in the country are all sport related, specifically on the theme of Rugby.

This week we speak to Ray Moore and Leonard Kahn from Supersport, the biggest sport website in the country with a rapidly growing international footprint. We're also joined by Ryan Cooper, head of New Media at Touchline Media, the owners of Kickoff.co.za. Kickoff is the biggest Soccer website in the country with over two million pageviews a month. Finally, Steve Morris from Scoregrid.co.za joins us to talk about Scoregrid, a unique Soccer tracking system that allows you to see where the ball is and which player is kicking that ball live.

Our agency of the week is Atplay, the digital division of Saatchi & Saatchi in Cape Town. We're joined by head Allan Kent to give us the lowdown on the topic. We're also joined by Kerry-Anne Gilowey with the news and Diane Charlton from Acceleration Media gives us her second tip for online media buying in our Tips and Tricks section.

Guests:

Ray Moore:

Ray Moore was a successful Internet entrepreneur in the creation of sports websites in South Africa since 1995. He was central in the development of the SuperSport Zone from the outset in 2000 becoming the General Manager the following year. He has a passion in evolving New Media technologies throughout the world with a focus on the convergence of disciplines.

Leonard Kahn:

Leonard has great experience in the media world, from production to post production and online environment, he has made a move into the social media space representing SuperSport.com with a very active twitter account as well as other social media networks accounts. He is passionate about online communication and development in social media. He brings a vast amount of knowledge of these areas thus placing SuperSport way ahead of the pack.

Ryan Cooper:

Ryan Cooper is the Head of New Media at Kickoff Magazine, a Touchline property.

Steve Morris:

Steven Morris is the founder of Scoregrid, a South African startup that provides live tracking of soccer matches.

Allan Kent:

Allan is the Head of AtPlay, the digital division of Saatchi & Saatchi South Africa.