USA Today launched For The Win, a new sports site, today.
The launch date was originally set for last Monday, but a few glitches delayed it, Jamie Mottram, director of content development, told me last week at a paidContent Live event in New York.
A site dedicated to making feel-good sports stories and clever lists go viral could have found a role in the middle of the Boston Marathon bombing. But it seems unlikely that the staff would have been prepared to switch gears on the first day.
A welcome article includes a video of a 7-year-old cancer patient running a play with the University of Nebraska Cornhuskers. Some of the verticals within the site are more built out than others. The site features content on all the professional American sports (including NASCAR and NHL), plus college football and basketball. There’s also soccer and UFC, which has only one item so far.
RightGuard is the launch partner and will own 100 percent of the site’s advertising inventory for the first two months, Mottram said. Eventually, the site will also have sponsored content.
Mottram’s goal is to publish a mix of “really clicky, viral, buzzy stories,” plus some original content developed specifically for FTW. The design is responsive, and Mottram expects a lot of mobile traffic.
The site will compete with other sports sites dominating the social space, including Deadspin, SB Nation and Yahoo Sports, which is where Mottram worked before joining USA Today.
