SportsLine.com announced results of its second quarter
ended June 30, 2000, and said that consolidated revenue
increased 160% to $24.3M in the second quarter, compared to
pro forma consolidated revenue of $9.4M in the same quarter
of '99. Meanwhile, the company's domestic total loss of
$1.5M was a 33% improvement from the domestic loss of $2.3M
in the previous quarter and a 77% improvement from the pro
forma loss of $6.5M in the second quarter of '99.
SportsLine's consolidated net loss in the second quarter was
$17.0M, or $0.64 per share, compared to a net loss of
$12.2M, or $0.54 per share in the same period last year.
The company's domestic net loss of $8.9M was a 27%
improvement from the $12.2M pro forma domestic net loss in
the second quarter of '99. These figures exclude the results
of the e-commerce business sold to MVP.com as of January
2000 (SportsLine.com). SportsLine's results exceeded
analysts expectations, as First Call had "expected a loss"
of $0.75 per share on average (CBS MarketWatch, 7/25).
BREAK EVEN NEAR? Company execs said that SportsLine
"remains on pace" to breakeven in gross revenue by the end
of the year. Meanwhile, second quarter ad revenue for
SportsLine was $19.8M, up from $6.4M a year ago and $18.9M
from the first quarter. CFO Kenneth Sanders said the
company is "extremely comfortable" with its ad base and he
believes that around 10-15% of SportsLine's ad revenue is
"at risk" as a result of the current dot.com marketplace
(BRIDGE NEWS, 7/25). DBUSINESS.com's John Hernandez writes
that SportsLine's losses "were heavily impacted by its
general and administrative expenses" (DBUSINESS.com, 7/25).
LEVY OPTIMISTIC: SportsLine.com CEO Mike Levy, on
advertiser support: "We're seeing a great trend of the major
sponsors who advertise [on sports TV programming] committing
more and more dollars to the Internet, and they want to go
where the sports fans are, and that's us." Levy said
SportsLine currently has "somewhere around 200 sponsors and
the sponsors have upped their commitment and the average
commitment in the past quarter was around $80,000 per
sponsor. We've got about 200 sponsors in Europe for
Sports.com, although with much smaller revenues per
sponsor." Levy: "We're starting to see in Europe [that]
more and more sports fans are coming on-line. ... Sports
fans are learning about the Internet in Europe, and we're
the beneficiary of that. ... The key thing is to continue to
build out internationally." Levy, on SportsLine's stock,
which closed yesterday up 3/8 to 16 3/8: "Unfortunately,
we're grouped with a lot of companies who probably have
business plans that are doomed to failure, and I think we
are unfairly grouped with them" (RadioWallStreet, 7/25).
NOT WORRIED ABOUT QUOKKA: Levy said despite Quokka
Sports' recent acquisition of Total Sports, the sports
content provider is "far down the list in terms of reach,"
and he added that he didn't consider the company "a problem
in the near term" for SportsLine. He also said SportsLine
continues to be "very aggressive" in developing
relationships with major sports leagues to gain exclusive
rights deals (BRIDGE NEWS, 7/25). Levy also promoted its
Olympic coverage: "We already have tremendous sponsorships
in place for the Olympics" (RadioWallStreet.com, 7/25).
