The Sporting News Prepares for New Era With $15 Million Raise

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When The Sporting News made its debut in March 1886, copies sold for a nickel. Making money in the media business has gotten more complicated since.

The Sporting News, which was acquired by private investors from DAZN in 2021, recently raised $15 million in a growth round led by publicly traded gambling software firm Playtech, as it builds a business for a new era. In particular, the company is focused on generating affiliate revenue by connecting its online readers to sportsbooks, streaming services and ticket sellers.

New TSN owners have also focused on international expansion, launching the brand in 10 markets across Asia, Europe and Latin America. Roughly 130 people work for the business, with most of them concentrated in the editorial department. 

The Sporting News recently made a strategic investment in daily fantasy platform SuperDraft, viewing that offering as another way to generate transactional revenue from its existing audience, much of which comes via Google search traffic. 

“While it is a legacy brand, I think this is a new business inside of that legacy brand,” TSN global CEO Rich Routman said. “I’m not so sure that you could adequately test what we’re trying to accomplish inside of an entirely new brand. I think it’d be way too difficult [to build an audience].”

Routman is hoping to combine the startup-like strategic expansions with a brand that earned the “Bible of Baseball” moniker while embedding itself in the sports landscape before being forced to adjust to the age of the internet. 

“You want to stretch people’s opinions of the brand,” Routman said, “but you also want to rely on some of the authenticity that the brand has been able to deliver for a very long period of time.”