Scout.com Launches New Recruiting Platform, With Video A Key Component

Scout.com, the online college sports and recruiting network repurchased last year by site founder Jim Heckman, has launched a new recruiting platform called the Scout Spotlight. The new content initiative seeks to advance beyond customary, text-based prospect lists by compiling digital videos on more than 1,000 top high school football players. Heckman, along with a team reassembled after he purchased the site back from Fox Sports, has spent much of the past year developing the Scout Spotlight. Heckman said, “We pulled together world-class engineering, created a ‘kayak-like’ filtering mechanism, added major media-quality journalism and consolidated it all on one network. The result was a one-stop shop for fans.” Heckman, who is backed in part by MTV founder Bob Pittman and his investment fund Pilot Group, is competing against entities like Yahoo’s Rivals.com and 247Sports.com in the tightly contested category of digital sports media.