The only sports page that avid sports fans need – delivering the best, curated sports content in the business
NEW YORK, Nov. 30, 2011 — The new FanFeedr Sports Network (http://www.FanFeedr.com) offers over 400+ robust, team-specific sites and social media team accounts dedicated to providing the most timely and relevant news, photos, video, and sports data for the top sports.
“FanFeedr’s key differentiator is that it has created 400+ FanFeedr Branded Team Sites directly on Facebook and Twitter in addition to its website. What is key is that busy people can see everything their team is doing without ever leaving Facebook or Twitter to get their curated sports news from thousands of sources. Big sites like ESPN and Yahoo Sports do not offer individual team news with the breadth that FanFeedr offers up. FanFeedr has more team accounts that any other service on the Web,” said Ty Ahmad-Taylor, Founder and CEO of FanFeedr.
FanFeedr is not just another aggregator; content is curated from over 9,000 global sources ranging from newspaper beat reporter articles, blogs and Tweets, the top blogs, official league and team sites, Getty Images and AP photos, authenticated player and coach Tweets and much more.
FanFeedr’s product team listened closely to its user base of avid sports fans to better understand their desires regarding the content they wanted most, and how they wanted to consume it. The result of this effort is the new FanFeedr, which provides sports fan consumers with the most comprehensive lens into what’s happening with their favorite teams.
It is drop dead simple! FanFeedr now makes it easy for users to get the best real-time content for their favorite teams. Fans can either go directly to FanFeedr’s new website and pick their favorite team and immediately get all of the best, real-time, curated news and information — in ONE place. Or they can access their favorite team directly on Facebook and Twitter.
As an example, a Washington Redskins fan that’s logged into Facebook or Twitter and wants the latest news on his or her team can get it in one of three ways:
After months of rigorous customer development, the FanFeedr team developed the new FanFeedr Sports Network using lean startup techniques to isolate the core features that any fan of a sports team could possibly want. The design has been hailed as smart and elegant, and easy-to-use by leading user experience people like Mignon Khargie, the award-winning head of design for Salon Internet, as well as the site’s everyday users.
During the customer development process, FanFeedr deployed its unique “social sensing” technology, that not only determines the value of each piece of content, but also the overall value of each content provider, whether it is a national sports site, newspaper, blogger or Twitter account. “Our ‘social sensing’ approach is at the heart of FanFeedr’s curatorial process, which assures our users that they are receiving only the most relevant sports content for their favorite teams,” said Ahmad-Taylor.
Additionally, FanFeedr also uses a proprietary social algorithm to determine the interestingness, or hotness, of each piece of content.
Ahmad-Taylor predicts that a major market trend is happening right now with users consuming their content of interest for their favorite sports teams via social media channels on their mobile devices. Adds Ahmad-Taylor: “FanFeedr provides the best information along a fan’s ‘interest graph,’ as opposed to their ‘social graph,’ and we have been doing it longer and better than anyone else.” It is an untold story because Comscore and Quantcast are unable to track this type of user behavior on Facebook and Twitter. This is done by understanding the social value of each piece of content, as determined through sharing and reading gestures across all of Twitter and Facebook. FanFeedr now derives over 80% of its traffic through the team accounts on Facebook and Twitter and does not get any credit for that traffic from the traditional traffic tracking sources.
“We have learned a great deal from the consumption habits and desires of FanFeedr’s loyal users over the past two years since our initial launch,” said Ahmad-Taylor. “And today, we are launching the next generation of FanFeedr, which I believe will deliver the best user experience possible for sports fans to follow their favorite teams.”
Mr. Ahmad-Taylor has been speaking across the country about the convergence of sports and social media and how they are aligning today.
- November 15, 2:30, Ty spoke at the Sports Media Marketing Summit at the Hudson Theatre in NYC: http://prod.promaxbda.org/smm/summit/schedule.aspx
- Ahmad-Taylor recently spoke at the 9th Annual IMG/Sports Business Journal Marketing Symposium in October. He was joined on the panel with Nick Grudin, Facebook; Omid Ashtari, Twitter; and J. Crowley of foursquare. (http://blog.fanfeedr.com/2011/10/fanfeedr-at-the-sports-business-journal-conference-with-facebook-twitter-and-foursquare/)
ABOUT FANFEEDR: The Best Place to Get Your Team News
FanFeedr is the pioneer in the convergence of sports and social media and is positioned as the leader in real-time sports content. Based in Dumbo, Brooklyn, NY, FanFeedr is a real-time personalized stream service. The company has delivered the best team-specific news and information since it launched in 2008. FanFeedr has new partnerships with the NFL, SB Nation, the Washington Redskins, Philadelphia Eagles and over 1,300 developers that reach more than 34MM uniques a month. For more information about the company, go to http://news.fanfeedr.com/about/.
MEDIA CONTACT:
Amy Bonetti
Big Mouth Public Relations
415-407-9008
amy@bigmouthpr.com
This press release was issued through eReleases(R). For more information, visit eReleases Press Release Distribution at http://www.ereleases.com.
We have spent the last few months interviewing sports consumers about their pain points in consuming sports news and information, and we have found an opportunity in providing you with the best team news and information, on one page, using the FanFeedr API.
We are shifting our focus from providing you with a FanFeed of news and information for several teams to a single feed around just one team (and you can follow several teams at once if you wish by having more than one FanFeedr web page open.)
First | better team focus. We know that you want a single place to get the best news and information about your favorite teams, so we are making our team pages the focus of the service. Every day, you can keep the team page open and get real time updates, live scores, lineups, schedules and rosters.
Second | a better looking site. We are sprucing up the interface to reflect your feedback and our own notions of what looks good.
Third | better sources. We have heard your requests, and you will see more value and less noise from the best sources, including the best LOCAL sources. By “best sources,†we mean that all sources we’re including have been hand-curated. Additional curated sources include national sources and columnists. For Twitter, we’re only showing a curated list of columnists and content source accounts.
Fourth | more real-time. We are making our news delivery faster so that you get more of the best news about your favorite teams.
Fifth | no registration needed. You don’t to sign up to get the best that FanFeedr has to offer. Just bookmark your favorite team page to be in the know.
Our entire focus is on making your team news experience the best it can be, and we have spent a lot of time working on customer interviews to understand your pain points for consuming sports news.
As we launch different sports, we are looking to quickly iterate on all of the pages to make them better. Your feedback is invaluable to making sure that we give you the best product.
We are sure that you will like the results. In the event that you don’t, please let us know.
Thanks, Ty Ahmad-Taylor, CEO and Founder, FanFeedr
Thanks, FanFeedr
+ 
Partnership Combines Real-Time, Multi-Source Information
Feeds With Sports Coverage For The Serious Fan
New York, NY March 23, 2011 – FanFeedr, the real time personalized sports service that has re-invented the way fans enjoy their favorite teams and players, has announced a partnership with SB Nation, the fastest-growing online sports media company.
Under the new partnership, SB Nation will be using FanFeedr’s Publisher DashboardTM to empower its writers to curate and publish real-time content feeds for its audience. The first product from the FanFeedr collaboration will be a series of digital newsletter products that SB Nation will distribute to fans of the National Football League’s 32 teams. Additional digital products from SB Nation using the FanFeedr Publisher DashboardTM are planned for Major League Baseball and other major sports leagues.
“We’re thrilled to be working with SB Nation to build customer-centric applications that drive value for their audience,” says FanFeedr CEO and Founder Ty Ahmad-Taylor. “FanFeedr and SB Nation are a great match in terms of technology, timeliness and talent. The real winners will be sports fans everywhere, who will be getting the most topical information for their favorite teams, directly into their inbox. FanFeedr is making SB Nation’s amazing sports coverage even better.”
“FanFeedr is a great addition to SB Nation’s arsenal and a real win for our audience,” says SB Nation CEO Jim Bankoff. “FanFeedr’s real-time curation of sports news will empower our world class sports editors and experts to produce best-in-class newsletters, starting with all the NFL teams and then expanding to other sports throughout the year. Our audience expects the best in sports coverage from us, FanFeedr lets us deliver it to them practically as the news happens.”
FanFeedr made the product real in a few months, and this is the first product out of the partnership.
FanFeedr’s Publisher DashboardTM allows publishers to view, select and publish real-time feeds of mainstream sports news, blogs, photos, videos, tweets, scores, data, and other information. The FanFeedr API that powers the Publisher DashboardTM, contains content and data from over 8,000 information sources that are matched against more than 55,000 athletes and 4,000 sports teams, including 1,700 colleges and universities, across 15 sports.  It is being used by over 500 developers. FanFeedr has revolutionized the sports experience by taking fandom to an entirely new level of access and involvement, available via any PC, tablet or smart phone.
SB Nation is one of the top 10 sports sites in terms of unique visitors and the fastest growing among them, publishing over 300 communities for passionate fans worldwide. SB Nation is the first major sports publisher to harness the power of FanFeedr’s API for real-time sports news aggregation.
For more information on FanFeedr’s publisher, developer, and consumer products, visit www.fanfeedr.com.
SuperBowl Interview
We recently spoke with a top-shelf radio station in Salisbury, MD, about the Super Bowl.
My predictions are included.
Check it out here:
FanFeedr radio interview on Clear Channel in Salisbury, MD
Let us know what you think!
Thanks, FanFeedr
We were selected as one of the 10 most promising digital firms by PepsiCo last week, and we wanted to share the great news with you.
The highlights:
- Our entry video is at the top of this post
- The official PepsiCo 10 winners announcement is here
- The Wall Street Journal wrote up the winners here
Kind regards, and thank you for your support, FanFeedr
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
MEDIA CONTACT
Amy Bonetti
Big Mouth Communications
415-384-0900
amy@bigmouthpr.com
Throw Away the Traditional Office Pool Bracket—FanFeedr’s March Madness Pick’Em is Here!
The First Sports Social Game Seamlessly Integrated with Facebook and Twitter
NYC — MARCH 9, 2010 – The excitement is building for college basketball fans as March Madness is upon us — many teams are on the bubble as they compete to be included in the field of 65 for the 72nd NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Championship Tournament. More than any other sporting event, March Madness attracts not only the avid sports fan, but casual sports fans and others who may not be sports fans at all.
And today, FanFeedr personalized sports fix announces March Madness Pick’Em, the first sports social game that is seamlessly integrated with Facebook and Twitter, enabling users to easily share their trash talking and claim bragging rights of their winning team selections and Pick’Em badging status with their friends and co-workers. FanFeedr’s March Madness Pick’Em is a great replacement or complement to the various traditional March Madness bracket office pools.
FanFeedr’s Pick’Em sports social gaming platform builds upon the rapidly growing social gaming economy pioneered by Zynga, Playfish and several others that is predicted to hit $1B in 2010. “FanFeedr’s Pick’Em gaming economy allows sports fans around the world to show their sports-savviness to their friends and all other users,†says FanFeedr’s CEO and founder, Ty Ahmad-Taylor.
FanFeedr users who join in the March Madness Pick’Em gaming action will be challenged to choose the winners of the 63 total games from the opening round of 65 teams through the Final Four and Championship game! And FanFeedr’s real-time sports news feed is also a great tool for users to do their research on each team before making their March Madness picks. March Madness Pick’Em players can go the site or iPhone application to check their updated status and compare it to their friends, co-workers and other users.
The March Madness Pick’Em doesn’t utilize a traditional bracketing system but instead offers users the opportunity to earn badges for each round. There will be five special March Madness badges for the five rounds of tournament games. Users who pick 75% or more of the winning teams in each round earn that round’s special badge, leading to their ability to pick the winner of the national championship game and earn the NCAA Champion badge. “This format creates even more competition to see who can earn more badges throughout the tournament and to see where a player ranks among their friends, as well as other March Madness users,†says Ahmad-Taylor.
In addition to its March Madness game, FanFeedr’s Pick’Em sports social gaming platform offers users the opportunity to compete with their friends for bragging rights and reputation badges in picking the winners of NFL, MLB, NBA, NHL, NASCAR, NCAA and other top sports. With the upcoming NBA Playoffs, NHL Stanley Cup and the World Cup, FanFeedr will also offer special games for users to show their picking prowess for these championship series and special sporting events.
Here’s how Pick’Em works: users earn points and badges based upon their success at picking team winners. “The badges that FanFeedr users obtain for their winning picks show up on Facebook and Twitter (if the user wishes) and dovetails nicely with the competitive nature of sports enthusiasts, while allowing our users to show off who knows more,†says Ahmad-Taylor.
FanFeedr Pick’Em plays to the prestige factor and competitive nature of sports fans everywhere. The ultimate goal for FanFeedr users is to earn the coveted Commissioner badge as the top fan of a particular sport. “There is only one Commissioner badge per sport and the fan at the top of the heap is going to be really competitive about keeping that badge. It is much like the ‘Mayor’ badge in FourSquare, and we’ll have real-world opportunities for the Commissioners that provide them access that other fans will envy,†added Ahmad-Taylor.
Pick’Em is a natural extension of FanFeedr’s real-time sports content aggregation platform that provides users with their personalized sports fix. “It’s all part of FanFeedr’s strategy to give fans what they want,†says Ahmad-Taylor. “The web can be overwhelming, but we narrow it down to serve up only the content a fan wants to see in one place. And now users can enjoy their FanFeedr experience even more by having a lot of fun playing Pick’Em.â€
Based in NYC, FanFeedr is the leader in providing fans with their real-time personalized sports feed for their favorite teams and players, and presents an up-to-date collection of related news, video, Tweets, scores and information. FanFeedr currently aggregates and indexes over 7,000 sources of sports content and matches them against more than 55,000 athletes, 4,000 sports teams, including 1,700 colleges and universities, across 15 sports. FanFeedr uses Facebook and Twitter for user authentication and login so that fans never need to sign up for another social network. The seamless Facebook and Twitter integration also means that fans can talk about sports directly on Facebook and Twitter simply by publishing comments via the ‘Comment’ feature on every page. FanFeedr invites users to offer suggestions via the Feedback tab on the left of every page. In addition, Fanfeedr has recently launched FanFeedr Mobile with a new iPhone application that can be found here: http://bit.ly/iphoneappff. For more information about the company, go to http://www.fanfeedr.com/about.
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FanFeedr weighed in at the end of the book, which you can get for free here:
Sports Social Media Predictions 2010
Let us know what you think of the ebook in the comments.