SportsLine.com Fantasy Football Success Becomes Reality
FORT LAUDERDALE, FL (October 22, 2002) - SportsLine.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: SPLN), a leading Internet sports media company and publisher of CBS SportsLine.com (http://cbs.sportsline.com), announced today that the conversion of its fantasy football business to fee-based products resulted in approximately $8.8 million in billings, doubling the Company's earlier projections of $3 to $4.5 million.
SportsLine.com offered two fantasy football products this fall, one a customizable league management service, and the other a single game product with three different price points. Approximately 65,000 leagues were formed for the league management service, resulting in approximately 825,000 teams, and more than 15,000 additional single teams were formed.
SportsLine.com's league management service was priced at $139.95 per league, with a $20 discount for returning leagues that paid by mid-August. The price of the league included all of the following as well as other features: a fully customizable Web site for each league where owners of up to 20 teams can log in to set lineups, make trades, sign free agents, read daily player news and fantasy analysis, write articles for league newsletter and chat with other owners; live fantasy scoring while NFL games are in progress; daily customizable e-reports; e-mail notifications of transactions and player news; and the ability to check live scoring, stats and news with a wireless device. The single game products were priced at $29.95, $99.95 and $249.95, depending on the service level and value of prizes.
"We are extremely pleased with these results, which validate our decision to convert to a pay fantasy model and establish SportsLine in a solid leadership role in the fantasy sports industry," said Mike Levy, founder and CEO of SportsLine.com, Inc. "This is strong evidence that people are willing to pay for content on the Internet, provided that you give them superior products, and deliver services that add convenience."
SportsLine.com has generated more than $10 million from fantasy sports subscriptions in 2002, including the fantasy football results and the $1.5 million in revenue from fantasy baseball. By comparison, an Online Publishers Association report in August 2002 stated that total revenue for the entire online sports content category in 2001, including fantasy sports, was $10 million, according to research conducted by comScore Networks and based on actually observed user transactions.
An Intermarket Group survey reported in June and published in Media Life in July, ranked the top online subscription content publishers worldwide for 2002, and the fifth ranked company on that list had just under 800,000 paid subscribers. Year to date, there are approximately 800,000 unique users playing SportsLine.com's fee-based fantasy products, across all sports.
About SportsLine.com, Inc. SportsLine.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:SPLN) is at the leading edge of media companies providing Internet sports content, community and e-commerce on a global basis. As the publisher of CBS SportsLine.com and the official Web sites of the NFL and the PGA TOUR, the Company serves as one of the most comprehensive sports information sources available, containing an unmatched breadth and depth of multimedia sports news, information, entertainment and merchandise. SportsLine.com also serves as a primary sports content provider for America Online.
Note: This press release contains forward-looking statements, which involve risks and uncertainties. SportsLine.com's actual results could differ materially from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements. Factors that might cause or contribute to such differences include, among others, competitive pressures, the growth rate of the Internet, constantly changing technology and market acceptance of the company's products and services. Investors are also directed to consider the other risks and uncertainties discussed in SportsLine.com's Securities and Exchange Commission filings, including those discussed under the caption ``Risk Factors That May Affect Future Results'' in SportsLine.com's latest Annual Report on Form 10-K. SportsLine.com undertakes no obligation to publicly release the result of any revisions to these forward-looking statements, which may be made to reflect events or circumstances after the date hereof or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events.
# # #
For further information, contact:
SportsLine.com Inc. — Corporate Communications — (954) 489-4000