Subscription-based sports publisher The Action Network has been "ramping up its editorial output, hunting for content syndication partnerships and overhauling its product to capitalize on interest in sports betting," according to Max Willens of DIGIDAY. It "publishes 25 to 30 stories per day -- that average will rise to 40-45 stories during football season -- a mixture of news about the growth of sports betting, articles analyzing the bets available on a given day’s sporting events and occasionally, non-sports stories." About a quarter of the stories published "sit behind a paywall," which costs subscribers $7.99 per month, but can go as low as $3.99 per month. The Action Network "wants to grow traffic -- it claimed 500,000 unique visitors in March," up 67% year over year. Articles are "assessed based not only on how much traffic they drive, but which ones convert to subscriptions." As golf and WNBA stories have "performed well, the site has done more of them." The site’s "top source of referral traffic is Twitter," but Action Network CEO Noah Szubski "sees growth potential in search, so he plans to convert the entire site to Google’s fast-loading articles format, AMP." Beyond the platforms, the Action Network "will focus on partnerships and syndication to get exposure." One example is a "new show about sports betting, 'I’ll Take That Bet,' produced by the Action Network" and co-hosted by Action Network Editor-In-Chief Chad Millman, that "will air on ESPN’s new subscription site, ESPN+" (DIGIDAY.com, 8/2).
GOING WORLD WIDE: SPORTING NEWS' Michael McCarthy notes the "rush to capitalize on legalized sports betting is creating opportunities for rising sports media talent," and NBA Twitter personality Rob Perez, known as "World Wide Wob," is "joining The Action Network." Action Network Chief Content Officer Chad Millman said that Perez "will be writing, podcasting and creating videos and other content for the subscription company." With 240,000 Twitter followers, Perez has "quickly emerged as one of the funniest, most unique NBA voices." He is "set to guest-host ESPN's weekday NBA talk show, 'The Jump,'" today and tomorrow with Cassidy Hubbarth, his co-host on the "Buckets" podcast. Perez said, "The goal is to be a Swiss Army Knife in terms of content, whether it's writing or digital videos" (SPORTINGNEWS.com, 8/6).
