Sports media has evolved a lot over the past 10 years or so.
From blogs to social media and now content creators, hundreds of people and brands have come and gone.
Forever Network has been at the forefront of this evolution because of its ability to adapt and it is now one of the leading sports media brands and publishers globally.
With the rise of sports betting and fantasy, Alex Sumsky and Nick Kelland are now focused on taking the brand to another level with their latest product.
In this conversation, we talk about how they started the company 10 years ago, the launch of their new product Forever Fantasy, and some of their thoughts on the future of the industry.
Hello, who are you and what is the name of your company?
Our names are Alex Sumsky (CEO) and Nick Kelland (Chief Strategy Officer).
The name of our company is Forever Network Inc. and we are the #1 most engaged social sports publisher globally.
Our flagship brand, Basketball Forever, has been around since 2015, and we’re currently expanding the business into product and iGaming.
What was the process of getting the company off the ground?
The company was initially founded on the back of the issues we saw with traditional sports media.
It was very web-focused, non-visual, and formulaic.
We wanted to adopt a visual storytelling and snackable approach to story and narrative dissemination. That has been at the core of our mission for the last decade – and it’s proven to be successful.
We’re adopting the same mindset of dialing in on what our users want to see with the launch of Forever Fantasy – our foray into iGaming/fantasy at industry-low CAC.
How is the company doing today and what does the future look like?
We are currently skating towards being cashflow positive in Q1, 2025.
Product costs have ramped over the last 18 months, but the media revenue has been a nice bedrock for us over the last decade. We expect products to be our main revenue stream by the second half of 2025.
We have 7.5M cross-platform subscribers, are launching three new products this half of 2024, and are expanding into new media verticals (NHL, NFL, MLB).
It will be a busy year!
We are very bullish on our user acquisition model for driving users on the media side into products.
We are proud of the entirely organic growth we’ve been able to foster (28% y.o.y) over the past decade, and the time is right now to build native product experiences so that we can acquire those users across from media to product at essentially negligible CAC.
We have a real path to profitability and scale, and it’s a nice point of differentiation from the other players in the space who are having to spend $1000 – $1500 to acquire and re-acquire the same churning user.
Side note – we have had our best-ever start to an NBA season this year from a reach and traffic perspective, with our historic best months (March – July) not even upon us yet.
What advice do you have for founders looking to raise capital?
It’s a tough market right now.
Be patient and resilient and seek honest feedback everywhere you look.
Don’t be afraid to ask for network support and warm introductions – and find ways to add value back to the people who facilitate introductions for you.
We also found conferences to be a great centralized boiling spot for new capital and business opportunities when we first went to market with the raise in September 2023.
What are some predictions you have for the industry over the next year?
I think we’ll see a lot of deaths of smaller DFS operators, as well as lower-tier bookmakers – with further consolidation of big players at the top (particularly as those players sign big, long-term media deals).
The current CAC for new players without a point of difference (like a huge media engine, or massively innovative new product) is unsustainable, and a consolidation of those companies will continue to occur over the next 24 months.
Perhaps a little biased – but I think big, engaged media businesses with a rusted-on digital audience who then launch analogous products have a nice niche future in this industry and can become a compelling acquisition target to big bookmakers, media companies, or tech giants.
What advice do you have for founders trying to build a team and hire talent?
Over-index on people who have a history of building lean, scrappy, and who have no ego attached to their own perception of their skill set.
Optimize for people who are demonstrated team players, want skin in the game in the business, and can bring a generalist skill set with a specific niche that you think will translate well in the company’s day-to-day operation.
Are there any books & podcasts you recommend?
The Basketball Forever Podcast!
Where can people learn more or connect with you?
People can follow our main accounts on Facebook or Instagram, get in touch with us through LinkedIn, or by emailing us through our website.
