STATS and Sohu Bring Worldwide Sports Coverage to China
MORTON GROVE, IL – February 8, 2007 — Sohu.com, China's premier online brand and an indispensable part of daily life to millions of Chinese, has announced a partnership with the world’s leading sports information provider, STATS LLC, to bring comprehensive professional sports content to China.
Since last December, STATS has provided Sohu.com with real-time sports data as well as photo and editorial content of leading sports such as the NBA, European Soccer, Golf, Tennis and F1 racing. Going forward, both companies will cooperate to launch fantasy sports games that will provide Chinese sports fans an even broader sports experience. STATS is also a leading provider of turnkey fantasy sports game management in the United States.
“We’ve experienced outstanding results since Sohu began implementing STATS’ sports data. Currently, traffic for our main sports has increased by 50% compared with the same period of last year,” said Ao Ming, Director of Sohu Sports. “We look forward to incorporating other data applications with STATS going forward in 2007.”
As the official sponsor of Internet Content Service for the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games, Sohu operates with a strategic, long-term interest in introducing sports data to the Chinese market. “We appreciate our friends at Sohu providing STATS the opportunity to present our worldwide portfolio of sports information to the Chinese sports fan,” said Gary Walrath, CEO of STATS LLC. “As STATS continues to explore opportunities across the globe, the rapidly expanding sports marketplace in China will remain a key focal point.”
STATS’ agreement with Sohu is the latest in a string of activities to extend its worldwide sports coverage. STATS recently opened satellite offices in Bangalore, Hong Kong and London to join an existing bureau in Mexico City. STATS also entered into a strategic agreement with Japan’s leading sports provider, Data Stadium, and India’s leading Cricket information source, Sportz Interactive, last year.
About Sohu
Sohu.com Inc. is China's premier online brand and an indispensable part of daily life to millions of Chinese, providing a network of web properties and community-based/web 2.0 products which offer the vast Sohu user community a broad array of choices regarding information, entertainment and communication. Sohu has built one of the most comprehensive matrices of Chinese language web properties and proprietary search engines. Sohu also offers wireless value-added services such as news, information, music, ring tone and picture content sent over mobile phones. Sohu is also the official sponsor of Internet Content Service for the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games.
About STATS LLC
STATS LLC offers the best from sports information leaders AP MegaSports and STATS, Inc. The combination provides unparalleled packages of premium sports content, from sports scores and statistics to editorial content. STATS’ MegaSports product offers customers breaking sports news from AP’s national wire, game previews and recaps, photos and audio content, scores, schedules and a variety of other sports-related content in a digital format. STATS’ innovative sports information solutions are utilized in numerous business segments: professional teams; sports broadcast production, cable and satellite networks; interactive television; broadband, wireless and internet; game developers and fantasy sports providers; print media and wire services. STATS is owned jointly by the Associated Press and News Corporation. http://biz.stats.com
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