AOL has acquired Fleaflicker, a New Jersey-based fantasy sports site founded by 26 year old Ori Schwartz. We first covered in July 2006.
The transaction price isn’t being disclosed. Based on the highly fluctuating traffic to the site and the fact that they only support football (which explains the huge drops in traffic during the off-season), my guess is this is more of a technology acquisition than the buying of the business operations. Fleaflicker also powers the Washington Post’s Fantasy Football leagues.
AOL runs its own very popular fantasy sports sites for football, baseball, racing and golf, and AOL sports is surging in general (more on that in a follow up post).
This is a bit of a weird acquisition. Im guessing it is just going to add something to their already strong fantasy sports section.
why should they acquire this site for their technology. is there anything unique about their platform?
Fantasy sports is a huge market, and growing at explosite rates. More adults are getting into, so the demographics are changing as well. Of course, the problem with a football-only site has been highlighted in the post (seasonal fluctuations).
I think a possible growth area is tackling the fantasy market outside the US. Here in Europe, and moreso in Asia, fantasy sports is just starting to enter the mainstream. The potential is huge and the market is untapped. Hmmm.. maybe for my next startup?
AOL has partnered with Fanball for their fantasy football league commissioner in the past…apparently they want to own the property now. Flea Flicker is a good acquisition for AOL…it has a great user interface and is very easy to use and understand. AOL just needs to make it scale. I imagine they bought it for an attractive price for Flea Flicker but dirt cheap for AOL’s standards (Can a company that size write checks for less than a few million?!). This was the best, and possibly only, outcome for Flea Flicker. It is near impossible to build a new league commissioner site at this point. The market is filled with great sites from household brands that offer everything for free (Yahoo, ESPN, CBS to name just the top three…Fox and NBC actually broadcast NFL games and they still can’t compete with the top three; Fanball, RTSports and MyFantasyLeague are also dominant players). Flea Flicker seems to have a very easy to use site, with some pretty cool features, which is ideal for AOL. Flea Flicker had a great product, but not a great business. Both sides win here. Smart move by Ori. 26 and already sold a business to AOL…life is good!
If only the Australian market was mature enough to support this kind of transaction.
I agree with Ted. Fleaflicker had the easiest to use site with a great backbone. It was my favorite FFL site, even over the bigger ones like Yahoo. Last season I ran teams in at least 4 different places, and fleaflicker was my favorite. Now if someone would make a screamingsports.com that actually worked…. I would pay for that.
Anyone know the details of terms?
@Ted That’s a great analysis of the situation and the market. And yes, fantasy football is still dramatically underappreciated as a market. Regardless of deal terms, looks like a good move for both sides.
Congrats to Ori though, you lucky bastard,
Congrats to Ori though, you lucky bastard.
JP, Check out FFChamps.com they have a product similar to Screaming Sports called myTeams that doesn’t auto import from league sites, but provides a foundation for some awesome custom fantasy football tools.
This was a brilliant move by AOL. Fleaflicker’s growth over the past two years has been quite impressive. The site is by far the best fantasy football platform around, and now it will have AOL’s name and resources to support it.
Ori hasnt been able to enjoy a football game for the past 3 years. He deserves every penny.
congrats to Ori, a solo founder!
I’ll have to check out the site. I’ve used yahoo in the past and think its simple and easy.
Check this out, Fantasy Baseball and Salary Cap Baseball integrated with Facebook and Fantasy Football on the way for next season. Finally you will know you you are playing with besides “beerGuy79″. Also a great place to hang out and analyze what’s going
http://www.fantasybookinc.com
Salary Cap Baseball (~13,000 users this season) http://apps.facebook.com/salarycap/
sports is a huge market