Sports News For Diehards Startup SportsManias Raises $3.5M

MIAMI, July 30, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- SportsManias, the diehard sports fan's go-to source for team and player news, announced today the company has raised $3.5 million in its second round of fundraising, with $3 million invested from Mas Equity Partners and $500,000 from a private investor. The fresh capital will allow SportsManias to support new partnerships with newspapers across the country and enable SportsManias to build upon recent upgrades to its Twitter-based app, which now features real-time, "Head-to-Head" commentary from opposing teams' beat writers during game-time, as well as a robust 'rumors' feed.

Since the last round of funding in August 2013, SportsManias has quadrupled unique visitors per month (UVPM), bringing the total to over 2 million users who now follow more than 700 teams and 22,000 tweets per day coming from over 3,000 beat writers who cover collegiate, professional and international sports.

The $3 million investment will be Mas Equity Partners' second contribution to SportsManias. In the previous round, the firm invested $1 million funded by Jorge Mas, founder of Mas Equity Partners and Chairman of the Board of MasTec, a global infrastructure engineering and construction company.

"Over the past year, SportsManias has accomplished everything we could hope for and much more," said Jorge Mas. "They grew their user base, revamped the website and app, and now they're forming partnerships with top newspapers. They've figured out how to combine the speed of Twitter with the high quality journalism of beat writers. We could not be more pleased with their progress."

In 2014 and 2015, forming partnerships with newspapers will be a major focus for SportsManias. This past November, SportsManias reached its first partnership by teaming with its hometown Miami Herald, which has driven online viewer traffic to the newspaper, raised search engine results for beat writers and has given these journalists opportunities to connect directly with sports fans via Google+ Hangouts and other social media events. SportsManias will host a beat writers' conference in Miami in Spring 2015 as part of this initiative to expand media partnerships nationwide.

The new funding will also allow SportsManias to continue improving its website and mobile apps, which have both received significant upgrades in 2014. In January, SportsManias introduced a second screen experience for diehard sports fans, including a dual stream "Head-to-Head" Twitter feed from opposing teams' beat writers. SportsManias added this feature to its mobile app in July, in addition to rebuilding and redesigning the app from scratch and offering push notifications for its enhanced 'rumors' feed.

Both the web and mobile experience now present pre-game commentary, the score, player and team stats, live updates from beat writers on the sidelines, and post-game coverage. The new funding will also enable SportsManias to continue improving and refining its content.

"We're proud that Mas Equity Partners continues to show confidence in SportsManias," said Vicente J Fernandez, Co-Founder/Chief Creative Officer. "To provide the best sports coverage available, we work closely with beat writers and media outlets, and we know this funding will raise the level of service we can provide to these partners. Forthcoming development plans and collaborations are going to improve the 24/7 coverage that our diehard sports fans crave."

About SportsManias
The diehard sports fan's go-to source for team and player news, SportsManias displays 24/7 professional news as personalized feeds and "Head-to-Head" beat writer feeds during gametime. Fans are delivered news, tweets, videos and rumors about the teams and players they love by the beat writers that cover them. The team continually refines the sports news experience from offices in Miami and New York. Straight from the guys who get it. SportsManias gets it to you. For more information, visit SportsManias.com.

SOURCE SportsManias