Oridian to serve ads exclusively to Goal.com

Sports-minded advertisers have a new partner, at least in the soccer world. Late last week, online advertising network Oridian, Ltd. Entered into a partnership to provide exclusive ads to Goal.com, the world's highest-trafficked soccer website.

by Kristina Knight

Oridian's network reaches more than 140 million unique users worldwide each month. Goal.com covers soccer news in more than 200 countries and reaches 10 million unique users each month across the globe; the partnership is for Goal.com's French-speaking website. Goal.com's French-speaking users total nearly a half-million uniques.

"Goal.com's unique ability to allow people from different cultures, creeds, and lifestyles to enthusiastically communicate with each other through their shared passion distinguishes us from any other sporting media company," said Goal.com VP Sales Paolo Bettinardi. "Our editors narrow the distance between the fans and their heroes by developing an interactive relationship between the fans, the athletes, the coaches, the teams, and the experts. Oridian's ad network provides an additional dimension and service, by bringing local, relevant advertising that meets our readers' needs."

Sporting websites are an increasingly hot buy for advertisers as more and more enthusiasts log on to learn news about their favorite teams and players or to research information to form their own fantasy teams. According to comScore more than 4 million French users logged on to sports websites in January 2008, an increase of 20% over December statistics.