Pundit Arena
| Owner | Ross O'Dwyer & Richard Barrett |
|---|---|
| Slogan(s) | Your Sport. Your Say. |
| Website |
www |
| Launched | 13 November 2013 |
Pundit Arena is an Irish sports media company that create online publications using user-generated content. It is a community-based platform for sport. Contributors earn a share of the revenue generated from on-site advertising and content syndication.
The Pundit Arena website hosts articles on news, transfers, and analysis on sports. These include Football, Rugby, Soccer, UFC, MMA, Boxing, Golf, and GAA.
Pundit Arena is one of the many sports media communities. The content they create targets readers in Ireland, the United Kingdom and other English-speaking readers in Europe. The publisher has over 300 writers listed on its website,.[1]
Pundit Arena provides content for RTÉ, Newstalk, NewsNow and a range of other publishers.
History
Establishment and early years
On 12 November 2013, Richard Barrett & Ross O'Dwyer founded Pundit Arena. They are both graduates of University College Cork (UCC), graduating with a bachelor of education in sports studies and a bachelor of commerce, respectively. They announced to the Ignite incubator Program directors in UCC that they would create a website utilising user generated content. Pundit Arena posted their first article at 6 pm on 5 December 2013.
Soon after launching, co-founder Richard Barrett announced “We had an embarrassingly low 300 unique visitors in November and now we have skyrocketed to over 100,000 for July already"[2]
In the early days, the channel operated with just €5,000 they received from the Ignite programme.[3]
Sports covered
The following sports are covered by Pundit Arena:
- English Football
- European Football
- Irish Football
- Rugby World Cup Rugby
- Irish Rugby
- European Rugby
- Six Nations Rugby
- Super Rugby
- Greatest Heineken Cup Players Of All Time
- GAA
- Gaelic Football
- Hurling
- Golf
- Boxing
- MMA (Mixed Martial Arts)
- UFC (Ultimate Fighting Championship)
Awards
Pundit Arena - "Winning a third award in its first year is just one of many achievements for Pundit Arena"[3] The sports media crew won 2014 Young Entrepreneur of the Year award from South Cork Local Enterprise Office.[4]
PunditArena.com was named the Bank of Ireland/Ignite Business of the Year 2014 at an awards ceremony held at University College Cork.[5]
Pundit Arena received grant aid from the Local Enterprise Board in South Cork and has also received some cash prizes with awards which have helped fund the company.[3]
References
- ↑ "The PA Team". punditarena.
- ↑ Kennedy, John. "Tech start-up of the week: Pundit Arena". siliconrepublic.
- 1 2 3 Barrett, Richard. "Sports media start-up bags prize hat-trick". irishexaminer.com.
- ↑ "PunditArena.com named IGNITE Business of the Year Award 2014 at annual Awards and Showcase". Cork Chamber: News.
- ↑ O'Dwyer, Peter (June 26, 2014). "Sports media website PunditArena wins UCC Ignite business award". irishexaminer.com.