News Corp acquires Vapormedia, and looks to expand SuperCoach
News Corp Australia has acquired the tech company behind the nation’s most popular fantasy sports franchise, and is set to look to new games for the NBA, NFL and Formula One.
News Corp Australia has acquired the tech company behind the nation’s most popular fantasy sports franchise, SuperCoach, and will seek to broaden the platform to include new games for the NBA, the NFL and Formula One.
SuperCoach, which runs franchise games across the AFL, NRL, BBL and NBL, allows fans to assume the role of coach and select a team of players who earn points for their in-game performances.
Fantasy sports platforms are hugely popular in Europe, with tie-ups with the various football leagues, and in the US with the NFL.
In Australia, 430,000 accounts are registered with SuperCoach, with users spending an average of 173 minutes on the free-to-play platform in May, according to an Ipsos audience measurement survey.
News Corp Australia, which has owned the SuperCoach franchise since its launch more than 15 years ago, last week acquired Vapormedia, the company that co-developed the platform’s underlying technology, for an undisclosed sum.
News Corp managing director and publisher Mark Reinke said the “time was right” to acquire Vapormedia, which will see the six staff members of the Melbourne-based firm shift to News Corp to work in-house on SuperCoach.
“Fantasy sport as a market at the moment is hot – it’s hot globally, and it’s quite hot in Australia,” he said.
“And there are big opportunities for growth and innovation. We will be launching and developing games for NBA, NFL and Formula One, so in any given month there’ll be a fantasy game that players can choose from.
“We have a large 18-25, predominantly male audience … they’re an important market, they’re very hard to reach, but we have them and we have them three hours a month.
“We are also seeing a lot of interest from other audiences, particularly females, interested in shorter-form games and the other franchises that we now have the flexibility and resources to investigate fully.”
Mr Reinke said a move to include women’s sports on the SuperCoach platform was “possible”.
News Corp is the publisher of The Australian.
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