ESPN.com has set a record by registering more than
427,600 users for its NCAA Men's Tournament Challenge. The
figure surpasses last year's total of 402,000 signups, even
though registration for this year's event does not close
until tomorrow. At its peak, ESPN.com has been signing up
Challenge users at a rate of 10,000 per hour. Meanwhile,
ESPN Internet Group (EIG) accumulated 42.4 million page
views and 4.7 million visits on Monday. By comparison,
EIG's busiest day during last year's NCAA tournament
resulted in 3.4 million visits (ESPN). CBS SportsLine.com,
which had 25 million page views on each of the first two
days of last year's tournament, twice as many as in '98, is
hoping the numbers continue to climb in 2000. SportsLine.com
CFO Kenneth Sanders: "It's not unreasonable to assume that
number could double again" (WALL STREET JOURNAL, 3/15).
BILLIONAIRE BALL? In DC, Eric Fisher examines the
various NCAA tournament pools and prizes being offered on
the Internet, such as cash, cars and big screen TVs, and
writes that the NCAA "is not pleased with how the Web sites
have greatly popularized a new version of the fabled and
still illegal office pool." For these Web sites, "the
bracket contests represent the year's most fertile marketing
opportunity." Fisher notes that Sandbox.com, which is
offering $10M to anyone who picks all 63 games correctly,
originally wanted to give away $1B, but couldn't find an
insurer to back the prize (WASHINGTON TIMES, 3/15).
Meanwhile, sports betting site Intertops.com launched its
"Hoop Wants To Be A Millionaire" contest, a free NCAA
tournament pool offering a $2M grand prize to anyone who
predicts the winners of every game (Intertops).
TOTAL BLITZ: The SPORTSBUSINESS JOURNAL's Noah Liberman
writes that Total Sports, the official site of the NCAA
tournament, "has planned a multimedia ad blitz" around the
Final Four in Indianapolis as part of its "Total Devotion"
campaign. As part of the promo, Total Sports "contracted
with" 30 local restaurants to become Total Sports theme
restaurants, "with signs throughout the establishments, wait
staff in Total Sports attire, branded coasters, glasses and
mugs, and basketball trivia contests with 10,000 branded T-
shirts available as prizes" (SPORTSBUSINESS JOURNAL, 3/13).
DIRECTV NUMBERS DOWN? USA TODAY's Rudy Martzke reports
on the second year in a row that DirecTV will provide out-
of-market games for the first three rounds of the NCAA
tournament. The entire package costs $49 for as many as 37
games, while a single game costs $19.95. The PPV package
had 53,000 buys last year, plus another 7,000 for bars and
restaurants. CBS Sports President Sean McManus, who called
last year's sign-up response "disappointing": "With our live
look-ins, switch-outs from non-competitive games and the
ability to show most of the [U.S.] every exciting finish, I
think the viewer has the feeling he can see the key
moments." DirecTV VP Michael Thornton said of the PPV buys:
"We're doing about as well as last year" (USA TODAY, 3/15).
