Facebook has acquired social startup SportStream, the company announced in a blog post Tuesday.
Backed by business magnate Paul Allen and launched in June 2012, SportStream aggregates social chatter and updates in a personalized social feed for sports fans. With this acquisition, the social-network giant may also be planning to compete with Twitter as a source of real-time information and conversation around major events.
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"SportStream’s demonstrated track record of surfacing interesting and engaging content, along with their deep understanding of our products, means that we will be able to build a better experience for the people who use Facebook, and for our partners who depend on us for real-time insights," Justin Osofsky, Facebook's vice-president of media partnerships and global operations, wrote in the company's blog post.
While SportStream's aggregated, personalized feeds for fans are nifty (if not entirely unique), Osofsky's post indicates the company's SportsBase product is where the real value exists for Facebook.
The SportsBase platform lets media partners (i.e. teams, leagues, individual athletes or media outlets) create their own social media-fueled experiences, both for fans and for their own insight.
Take, for example, a team page centered around social content from Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, then coupled with more traditional information on scores and stats. Or a stream of visual-only content culled from social media that plays in one corner of a site. Or a playback of social chatter after a game, showing which moments and plays sparked the most conversation.
NBA star Stephen Curry, English Premier League club Liverpool, the NFL's Seattle Seahawks and ESPN have all used SportsBase.
With the massive volume of online social buzz that major sports events generate, Facebook's ability to tailor the most relevant updates and commentary from its own network would certainly increase the appeal for media partners such as Fox Sports to include digital input from fans in broadcasts. More Facebook integration could, hypothetically, drive more users to Facebook — and away from Twitter — for running commentary on the big game.
"If there is something interesting going on, people are talking about it on Facebook," Osofsky wrote. "From favorite television shows to breaking news, these conversations are happening on Facebook."
SportStream's San Francisco-based staff will move to Facebook's Menlo Park headquarters. Terms of the deal were not revealed.
Facebook and SportStream did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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