On July 27, Spolive (CEO: Kim Wan-su) announced that, by early 2017, it will offer real-time broadcasts and information services on not only baseball, soccer, and basketball but also volleyball and ice hockey. Spolive is a sports portal that provides live broadcasts of major professional sports tournaments from around the world as well as information on leagues, teams, and players. On the company’s website and via its mobile application, users are able to watch games and conduct searches for specific sports-related data.







Spolive’s real-time broadcasts are of major professional league games that have sports fans all over the world. It covers U.S. Major League and professional Korean and Japanese baseball games; England’s Premier League (EPL) and Spain’s Primera Liga (La Liga) soccer matches; and U.S. NBA basketball games. Spolive provides detailed information on the games of Germany’s Bundesliga and Italy’s Serie A, which are two of the world’s top four professional soccer leagues (along with the EPL and La Liga). Also, for purely entertainment purposes, it offers casual games based on penalty shoot-out (soccer), jump ball (basketball), and homerun race (baseball) themes.

Spolive is currently focusing on real-time broadcasts and “hit games” to attract more users. Hit games are games on which users can place various types of bets (wins and losses, odd/even, player predictions, goal predictions, etc.) via PC or mobile phone based on information gained through real-time broadcasts. After the games, winnings are distributed based on the dividend rate of each game. Winnings are paid out in the form of in-game money, which can then be used to pay user fees for information services or put toward modest gifts or giveaways.

In addition to the sale of in-game items and credits for in-game money, the company’s business model includes advertising earnings from its relay broadcasts and sales from YTN’s ToTo analysis program Weekly Pick. In addition, Spolive is engaged in overseas publishing exports. A Spolive spokesperson said, “We are currently conducting negotiations with a local partner company in preparation for our debut in China, which has a growing sports enthusiast customer base.” Designated as an incubator company of the Gyeonggi Center for Creative Economy & Innovation in September 2015, Spolive is currently receiving support for its marketing activities and debut in foreign markets.


(jshwang@heraldcorp.com)