Broadcaster Discovery Communications led a $47m series C round for US-based sport streaming platform FloSports on Monday that included media group Bertelsmann and sports entertainment organisation World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE).
Causeway Media Partners, Fertitta Capital and DCM Ventures also invested in the round, while Bertelsmann took part through its Bertelsmann Digital Media Investments (BDMI) subsidiary.
Founded in 2006 as FloCasts, FloSports operates an online subscription service focusing on on-demand and live sporting events, including professional wrestling, eSports, tennis, ice hockey, boxing and basketball.
In addition to owning exclusive broadcast rights to more than 4,000 events, the company also owns a library of more than 2,000 hours of content consisting of weekly studio shows, original films, interviews with athletes and technique demonstration videos.
The series C funding will support the formation of additional partnerships, an expansion into new areas and further investment in new advertising opportunities.
Bruce Campbell, Discovery’s chief development, distribution and legal officer, said: “FloSports aligns nicely with Discovery’s global direct-to-consumer strategy and provides us with opportunities to apply learnings to our own [over-the-top media] products. We are excited to deepen our participation in this growth and innovation story.”
BDMI and DCM Ventures co-led a $21.2m series B round for FloSports in 2016, investing alongside WWE, Discovery Communications and Causeway Media Partners. The company had raised $8m from Causeway in March 2015, three months before Silicon Valley Bank supplied another $3m.