Last week, Ryan Glasspiegel, Bobby Burack and Michael Shamburger, all formerly of The Big Lead, began their new roles as full-time contributors to Clay Travis’ Outkick the Coverage.
When the trio of hires were announced, the initial report from Sports Business Journal stated Outkick would continue to expand. Now, according to Michael McCarthy of Front Office Sports, beyond Glasspiegel, Burack and Shamburger, Outkick has plans of hiring another five to 10 contributors. The platform’s goal is to cover gambling, pop culture, college and pro football.
“I expect it to be a multimedia, full-service company where people are able to come and spend time during the course of their day and, hopefully, get a little bit smarter than they otherwise would be,” Travis told McCarthy.
Audio, video and written content, Podcasts, Periscope and Facebook videos will all be featured as part of Outkick’s continued emphasis on growing the platform. Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, similar multimedia sites such as Barstool Sports and The Ringer were sold, with Barstool receiving a $450 million valuation as gaming company Penn National purchased a majority stake in the company. The Ringer was sold to Spotify for $200 million.
As McCarthy notes, ComScore rankings show Barstool drew 7.92 million unique U.S. visitors in March, The Ringer drew 1.14 million. Outkick, however, was not listed. Despite a strong social media presence, significant traffic gains are needed for Outkick’s website to reach the levels of Barstool or The Ringer.
Outkick is fully owned by Travis, containing no affiliation with his radio and TV home of FOX Sports. But just like Barstool and The Ringer were sold, Travis is certainly willing to look at any potential business partnership for Outkick.
“I’m open to anything that makes good financial sense. I never like to say no to anything,” he told McCarthy. “We’ve had lots of people ask before. As we grow larger and larger I’m sure more will ask. But no plans to do anything other than producing good original content and continuing to grow.”
Brandon Contes is a former reporter for BSM, now working for Awful Announcing. You can find him on Twitter @BrandonContes or reach him by email at Brandon.Contes@gmail.com.
