April 2, 2008

Yardbarker Scores $6M More for “Digg For Sports” Site

Mark Hendrickson

18 comments »

We called Yardbarker a particularly good, sports-focused Digg clone back when it launched in August 2006. Since then the site has expanded significantly, recruiting athletes as featured writers, kicking off an ad network for sports blogs, and raising a seed round of financing.

Now the company has announced that it has raised $6M in it’s second round. Draper Fisher Jurvetson led the round and was joined by returning investors Russ Siegelman, Ronnie Lott, Jarl Mohn, Labrador Ventures, and Baseline Ventures. The size of the first round was not disclosed.

Users can contribute to the main Yardbarker site by submitting and voting on articles, photos, and videos related to sports found across the web. The site has also rounded up 290 sports blogs into its so-called Yardbarker Network (YBN). In exchange for links from the centralized Yardbarker site, these blogs run ad units and other widgets that direct readers back to Yardbarker.

Check out Bleacher Report for another site attempting to build a grassroots community around sports.

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 2nd, 2008 at 11:40 pm and is filed under Company & Product Profiles. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

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YardBarker secures additional $6 million of funding by Fantasy Sports 2.0

April 4th, 2008 at 4:41 am

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April 4th, 2008 at 7:56 am

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April 21st, 2008 at 4:14 pm

Comments

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BOY

April 3rd, 2008 at 12:01 am

Mark,

You’ve linked Yardbarker to http://www.yardbarker/
Henry Work

April 3rd, 2008 at 12:02 am

[mark in spirit] Thanks, fixed.
Manish

April 3rd, 2008 at 12:11 am

i see lots of startup after the success of digg. Digg like clones are getting popular because they are serving avery niche market and digg is already crowded. good one…….

check for cricket….
http://manishxing.wordpress.com/
Manish

April 3rd, 2008 at 12:12 am

i see lots of startup after the success of digg. Digg like clones are getting popular because they are serving avery niche market and digg is already crowded. good one…….
China Chair

April 3rd, 2008 at 12:22 am

I agree above you
magnusdopus

April 3rd, 2008 at 1:45 am

someone isn’t doing their job at draper. this site only appeals to the most hardcore sports fans. how is that going to generate significant revenue? as a sports fan, i was turned off as most of the articles were about what the athletes do in their free time.
Caramelhoneys

April 3rd, 2008 at 4:53 am

Nice sportsblog, I can see this site becoming a top-ten sports destination…heres the big question…how will they market the site? Great site but how will the masses find out it even exist?
shyam

April 3rd, 2008 at 7:52 am

Yes we have seen some Silicon valley success coming out recently..who knows somewhere in world another Google must be waiting to unfold its wings…lets wait and watch,,,
bs

April 3rd, 2008 at 8:40 am

http://digg.com/sports

yardbarker = deadpool
Paul Scrivens

April 3rd, 2008 at 9:00 am

Where is the digg-like functionality involved in this site? Seems more of a competitor to Bleacher Report than Digg. Maybe I am missing something.
Paul Scrivens

April 3rd, 2008 at 9:01 am

Ah I see it now, you have to go to one of the subpages to find it.
Devin Poolman

April 3rd, 2008 at 9:30 am

The comparison to Digg is a bit of a red herring here. Yardbarker has a really strong vertical community built around sports with exclusive content and a growing ad network. Thing of it more as Glam Media for sports fans - and if someone really thinks that sports is a niche market, they need to spend a little less time reading TC and check out the 4+ ESPN channels on their TV. Congrats on the funding guys.
sharpshoot

April 3rd, 2008 at 9:31 am

Work for Yardbarker: http://snaptalent.com/ads/90
Chris

April 3rd, 2008 at 11:38 am

I’ve been following these guys for the past year and they have done a pretty good job growing their site.

I’m guessing their exit is a buyout from someone like ESPN or Sports Illustrated?
Chris

April 3rd, 2008 at 2:07 pm

I’ve kept an eye on the “Web 2.0 sports scene”, and I have to say that Bleacher Report is a far better site. They do very different things, but may be fighting for the same demographic. There are a few other interesting ones out there, but I agree that these two are leading the Sports Web 2.0 charge, and I imagine that BR will get to the promised land first.