Sports fan portal Sportingo has received a £3.2 £1.5 million investment from Ingenious Media of London. The site started in Israel in February, letting fans of a range of sports write their own match reviews, discussion and other content. Sportingo did a small deal when it bought the UK soccer blog CaughtOffside in June (effectively hiring author Chris Toy as chief editor) and founder Ze’ev Rozov moved to London in August. It’s there he has opened an office and won the funding from Ingenious, which he wrote at his blog “should give us additional marketing resources and help in continue to develop the site”, adding the site is not yet profitable.
It’s a big round (and it’s not clear which round this is for Rozov’s SportBuzz holding company), but the market for free content may find no more fertile a segment than sport, where fans are only too willing to express themselves for free and budding sports writers are always keen for exposure.
– SportMe: On a related note, SportMe.de, the Frankfurt, Germany-based social network for sportspeople, today opened up a UK operation. This site also lets people write match reviews, but also encourages sporting participants to plan games and discuss tactics. SportMe opened an office on east London’s Old Street.