Toronto-based mobile sports company TheScore has completed what chairman and CEO John Levy described as a “hugely transformative year” that saw it become a digital pure-play after selling its specialty channel The Score (since rebranded as Sportsnet 360) to Rogers Communications.
The Toronto-based company said Thursday that revenues for the three months ended Aug. 31 were $1.3 million, the same as the corresponding year-earlier period. EBITDA losses for the quarter were $1.2 million,
Revenues for fiscal 2013 were up 26% to $5.3 million, while EBITDA loss for the year was $8.3 million, compared to $6.5 million the previous year. The loss was the result of increased investment in personnel related to the development of its mobile apps, said the company.
“We really are in building mode,” said Levy, noting that TheScore’s staff size has increased from 75 to 105 people in the past year as it puts resources in place to continue building out its popular mobile platforms – which averaged 4 million month active users in fiscal 2013, a 15% increase from 3.5 million average active monthly users the year before.
“We figure we now have a structure in place to efficiently and effectively build the model out,” said Levy. “We went in with our eyes wide open knowing about the losses.
“We have sufficient runway that we believe will allow us to hopefully get to the point that we’re talking about in terms of growing the user base and increasing revenue,” he said. “It is going to happen this year? I think probably no… but we’re working as hard as we can to have it happen as soon as [possible].”
While acknowledging that he’s eager for TheScore to become profitable as soon as possible, Levy said that the company’s financial performance is “tracking exactly where we predicted.”
He said TheScore’s mobile apps have surpassed sports leaders such as NBC and CBS and has it “nipping at the heels” of the preeminent North American sports brand, ESPN. “If we keep going the way we are, I think it’s going to dwarf our previous successes,” he said.
TheScore completely overhauled its iOS app in mid-August, with an Android update arriving this week. In addition to scores and standings, the app now features up to 300 mobile-enhanced sports stories each day. Nearly all of them come from theScore’s “mobile-first” newsroom.
About 70% of TheScore’s business currently comes from the U.S., and the company is also looking to develop internationally, said Levy.
