Kansas Technology Enterprise Corp. Invests in AthletixNation.com

Kansas Technology Enterprise Corp. (KTEC), a state-funded program for economic development, has announced a $100,000 investment in AthletixNation.com, an Olathe, KS-based company that syndicates college sports video to Websites and mobile devices.

According to Davyeon Ross, president/CEO of AthletixNation, the company has a publisher network of more than 450 publishers nationwide and has acquired rights to a number of Division I conferences and several other BCS conferences.

“Everybody is not going to specific destination sites, such as ESPN and CBS,” Ross explains. “What we try to do is syndicate the content in a manner that we’re pushing the content to where people already are: local newspapers, sports blogs, TV stations, etc.”

KTEC Chief Investment Officer Michele Weigand says that, “because [AthletixNation] has access to the national data, they can leverage that data across all their outlets. The financial aspect of it makes a ton of sense.” She explains that AthletixNation has the capability to create “these two- or three-minute widgets and have them up, ready, on-line, and loaded within minutes of a game being over. It’s just amazing.”

Weigand points out that AthletixNation is really a technology company, as opposed to a media company. It “really has very smart technology on the backend that nobody sees — and nobody really has to see — to allow them to be able to scale very quickly and serve multiple markets in a streamlined fashion.”

Says Ross, “It’s great to have a state behind you and help you to get to the next level.” The company recently completed successful syndication for six conferences during the college basketball season. “We want to grow our network, building our 450+ publishers to the thousands.” He also expects to “work with brands to create interactive experiences around college sports and be able to give them as many touch points as possible.”

For Ross, AthletixNation is the ideal combination of his two passions. Born in Trinidad in the West Indies, he attended Benedictine College in Atchison, KS, where the 6-foot-8 Ross received honors on the NAIA Basketball First Team and led the nation in field-goal percentage during his senior year. “Sports and technology — I couldn’t really separate the two. It’s the best of both worlds.”

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