it may not be a whole new ballgame, but the lineup is shifting.

Online sports properties have the perfect ingredients to engender the kind of customer engagement that all businesses crave. “Sports sites have a built-in audience of passionate fans who are loyal to the teams they follow,” says Paul Verna, senior analyst at eMarketer and author of the new report, Sports Site Marketing: Ad Revenue Models Pull Ahead. “These fans have an insatiable thirst for facts, figures, statistics and trivia—and they like to share their knowledge and opinions with others.” Most importantly to marketers, sports fans are willing to pay for premium content and merchandise, and are used to the presence of sponsors and advertisers around sports events. “As the Internet continues to evolve toward ad-supported models,” says Mr. Verna, “sports sites will follow suit.” eMarketer estimates that total revenues for

“The increase will be largely due to the growth of ad-supported sports content models,” says Mr. Verna. eMarketer estimates that US sports site revenues from advertising will rise from 55% in 2007 to 66% in 2012.

“Additional revenues will come from ancillary sources such as ticket sales, merchandise and memorabilia, partnerships, and Website and production services that sports sites provide for third parties,” says Mr. Verna.

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