Rivals.com has signed a one-year deal with Adidas that gives the online sports network special access to nearly half of the more than 20 elite high school basketball tournaments it plans to cover this summer.
The deal, expected to be announced this week, gives Rivals a media room at Adidas 11 planned amateur basketball events. While other media outlets will be allowed to cover the events, Rivals will have preferred access to players for interviews and other data for Rivals network of recruiting and team-specific college sports sites.
Rivals in November signed a similar deal with Student Sports, owner and operator of the Nike Football Camp and EA Sports Elite 11 Quarterback Camp.
[These deals] give us a chance to acquire more authentic data, Rivals CEO Shannon Terry said.
Separately, Rivals has signed a multiyear extension with Landmark Communications Inc., giving rivals.com subscribers continued access to Landmarks collection of seven college online and print publications.
The two deals capped a strong start to the year for Rivals, which in March celebrated its third anniversary.
At the end of April, rivals.com had more than 95,000 paid subscribers to its $10-a-month service, a nearly 50 percent increase over the roughly 65,000 subscribers it had at the same time a year ago, Terry said. Rivals became cash-flow positive in December 2002, turned its first profit in January 2003, and has been profitable each month since.
The network recorded 950,000 page views in the first four months of 2004, up more than 40 percent from the same period a year ago.