Inside Bleacher Report, a sports franchise for the digital age – CNBC

Bleacher Report said it’s about identifying and building trust with its young audience.

“It’s very easy for people to say everyone at Bleacher Report must hate ESPN. Well. I’m 33 years old, so I grew up on ESPN and that’s how I identified myself as a sports fan,” said Rory Brown, president of Bleacher Report. “That’s not going to go away. … What is different is young people today are not doing that. Instead, they are waking up and checking their phones. They are going to see our brand, and that’s the brand they are identifying with sports.”

The site, started in 2007 by four friends who were sports fans, has rapidly evolved — something that Brown said has been an asset.

“We have been competing against brands in the sports space that have been competing for decades. We are not tied to those rules that legacy publishers are, so we can create our own rules and play our own game here,” he said.

Some of the things they can do when playing their own game: creating college commitment videos for high school athletes looking to announce their decision in a big way — including one of skydiving; creating a “Game of Thrones” spoof using NBA players called Game of Zones; any assortment of cartoon bodies attached to a celebrity’s head in a viral video. It’s not the type of thing that a “traditional” media outlet would be doing.

The company has already outgrown its Manhattan office. Its next office will be triple the size of this one. The larger office will be the home of the company’s transition from just a sports web property to more of an overall lifestyle brand, expanding into everything from fashion to e-sports.

“If you create good content, word spreads. We care a lot about comments, not likes, if they comment they mention their friends, they mention their friends, it’s a domino effect,” said Brown.