Betsperts Media & Technology Group told Chicago Inno this week that it has acquired Bleacher Nation.
Starting out as a Chicago Cubs blog in 2008, Bleacher Nation now covers the Bears, Bulls and Blackhawks and has grown as a media outlet for Chicago sports and major sport stories around the country.
Details of the acquisition were not disclosed other than that the transaction included cash and equity.
The deal marks the fourth acquisition by Betsperts in the last 18 months. The Chicago sports-betting startup acquired Matthew Berry's Fantasy Life app in May 2021 and has continued to expand its empire — acquiring 4for4 (a site that provides subscription-based fantasy football content such as analysis and rankings) and Dynasty League Football (which provides more niche fantasy football content for dynasty players).
Bringing Bleacher Nation under the Betsperts Group umbrella gives the Chicago startup its first free premium content platform. The addition also will give Betsperts an audience of more than 25 million unique users.
In the next 12 months, Betsperts plans to significantly increase the amount of content published.
"They’ve done an amazing job covering Chicago sports and baseball, and there’s a ton of opportunity to continue to grow with the quality of content that they’ve produced with a little bit of venture investment behind it," Betsperts CEO Reid Rooney told Chicago Inno. "What we wanted to do was make sure that we had content all year round that was relevant in the NFL and fantasy because that’s what moves the needle for us."
Rooney expects Betsperts to be profitable in 2023 and said that, , with $3 million already committed to its Series A2 round, the next two years will be exciting growth years for the business from a revenue, profitability and traffic across all Betsperts properties.
