Slam dunk! Spotify is now into sports podcasting

Spotify is getting into a whole new ballgame: sport.

The streaming music giant has acquired American sports and culture site The Ringer, which it will hope acts as a battering ram in the hunt for new subscribers.

Launched in 2016 by Bill Simmons, a former ESPN commentator, The Ringer is a go-to for sports fans with an appetite for news and deep analysis on America’s four major professional codes, college play and more.

Also, The Ringer and its 30-plus podcasts are a good fit for Spotify, which made a strategy move into podcasts with the acquisition of several podcast specialists, including Anchor, Gimlet and Parcast.

Spotify boasts more than 500,000 podcasts, which are available in 79 markets.

In a statement issued two months ago, Spotify said podcast consumption time on its platform has more than doubled since the start of 2019, and early indications are that podcasts have “significantly increased” conversion of free to paid users.

Daniel Ek

Spotify Chief Executive Officer Daniel Ek said sports content was a no-brainer for the company’s content-hungry — and growing — base of users. “We look at this as we just bought the next ESPN,” he said during an interview after the deal was announced, the WSJ reports.

Says Simmons in a statement: “Spotify has the unique ability to truly supercharge both content and creator talent across genres. We spent the last few years building a world-class sports and pop culture multimedia digital company and believe Spotify can take us to another level. We couldn’t be more excited to unlock Spotify’s power of scale and discovery, introduce The Ringer to a new global audience, and build the world’s flagship sports audio network.”

Spotify’s chief content officer Dawn Ostroff added. “As we set out to expand our sports and entertainment offerings, we wanted a best-in-class editorial team.” Simmons’ The Ringer has a “proven track record of creating distinctive cultural content as well as discovering and developing top tier talent will make them a formidable asset for Spotify.”

The Sweden-based tech company was “laser-focused” on growth last year and it shows. Today, Spotify boasts more than 271 million users worldwide (up by 64 million from the previous year), with 124 million signed up as “Premium” subscribers, a figure that’s streets ahead of its rivals YouTube Music, Apple Music, Tidal and Amazon Music Unlimited.

Speaking on a Q4 earnings call, Ek said his company’s annual revenue grew to €6.76 billion, up by €1.51 billion year-on-year. The Swedish exec forecasts revenue this year should fall between €8.08 billion and €8.48 billion.

This article originally appeared on The Industry Observer, which is now part of The Music Network.