But with nine live sites and 20 sites in development, the Digital Sports Group (DSG) is trying to build a model for a different kind of online sports news site, DSG sports editor Will Tidey told Journalism.co.uk.
Next on the agenda are the launch of Racing.co.uk, the redesign of Golf.co.uk and plans to roll out 50 new sites in the next year - not bad for a company that only officially launched in November, founded by two entrepreneurs from other sectors who had been buying up URLs for a while with a view to moving into the digital sports business.
"We are working on a formula for how the sites work. The idea has always been to create an independent network and not be tied to a huge corporation," said Tidey.
Part of this is finding the best use of digital tools and online reporting techniques to enhance sports coverage, he adds. Developing a 'live match centre' for DSG's football site, for example, will see relevant data brought in from partnerships with the Press Association and others, as well as the site's own live reporting. The centres should cater for fans who are both at the match checking in on the site and those who can't get to games, said Tidey.
With a mixture of contributing bloggers, part-time and full-time sports writers and interns adding to the sites, Tidey said online provides an opportunity to provide coverage of niche sports for a smaller, specialist audience and more comprehensive coverage of mainstream activities, for example coverage of lower leagues in English football to reports on the Iraqi Premier League.
The sites will also be looking for specialists to provide in-depth coverage and analysis for the growing portfolio sports pages and there is a plan to take on site ambassadors - well-known faces from the sporting world who will contribute pieces, as well as taking on a promotional role.
In its bid to offer independent and alternative coverage of mainstream sports, such as football and golf, DSG refuses to be pretentious, says Tidey: "We're not precious about what we do. We know that people are interested in WAGS [footballers wives and girlfriends], for example. If people want that why not give it to them, we're not bound by any higher power."
Pulling in data and relevant services to sports that already garner some mainstream media coverage is also crucial to building the group's audience.
"You get golf coverage with a light touch by most places. We will give it a bit more and go full guns blazing; we will pull in scores and rankings from all tours and have it all in one place. The data that we have got there is probably superior to anywhere else's," Tidey said.
The group is also planning to build a shopping feature for the golf site too, creating a one-stop-shop for fans of the sport with news, opinions and features alongside the opportunity to buy equipment and book tee times.
Commercial spin-offs and relevant tie-ups with advertisers are clearly a priority for growing the network. Natural advertising partnerships with gaming and betting groups have emerged and a breakdown of the sites' audience suggests huge potential for advertisers: 80 per cent of traffic is from the UK; 85 per cent is male; and 90 per cent aged 18-44.
"We're working towards a model where with the smaller sites we will have an individual who is wholly responsible for that site. How many people they bring to the site and how many business opportunities they bring in will be their measures of success."
Offering an interactive experience goes hand-in-hand with sports coverage and is one of the biggest opportunities for online sports sites - something that DSG is keen to capitalise on. The acquisition of Footymad.net, a network of 158 football club sites run by independent groups, in November will bring a huge boost to both traffic and interactivity: the fan-organised sites already attract more than six million unique users and 60 million page impressions a month, according to DSG.
But the group is also making use of existing social networks such as Facebook, where its fan pages try to provoke discussion around content on the sites by questioning fans and prompting debate.
"Sometimes the mistake is saying: here's a story that you need to come and read, but not asking what the reader thinks, even though it's not necessarily driving any traffic to our sites," said Tidey.
According to last month's figures, the network is already inside the Comscore top 20 for sports websites in the UK and a big push to prepare sites ahead of the London Olympics in 2012 is planned. There's an opportunity for the group's sites to be the go-to destinations for an international audience of sports fans - both general and specialist - and such a big event on the UK company's doorstep will not be missed. DSG may be expanding rapidly but, planning for a event two years away, its strategy is clearly long-term.
Finance reporter - property
