FORT LAUDERDALE---CBSSports.com today announced it has developed and will host an official NCAAMarch Madness® Brackets application that will be offered and promoted to the Facebook users for the 2008 NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Championship.
Located at www.facebook.com/brackets, CBSSports.com Tournament Brackets will be available to the site's more than 63 million active users both online and via CBS Sports Mobile, creating a cross platform experience for all NCAA Basketball fans.
The application will not only allow users to fill out brackets with their picks for each round of the tournament and enjoy comparing their picks with their friends but also have access to the deepest tournament coverage from CBS Sports, CSTV, CBSSports.com and NCAA.com, including links to watch all of the live action on the Emmy award-winning NCAA March Madness on Demand service. In 2007, more than 2.6 million Facebook users joined at least one bracket group in a similar tournament brackets feature run by the site.
"Working with Facebook, an extremely viral social utility with a tremendous core of both college students and alumni was a natural solution as we looked to build a brackets application around the most popular college sports tournament," said Jason Kint, Senior Vice President and General Manager of CBSSports.com. "This presents an ideal opportunity to extend the CBSSports.com brand to yet another platform and one containing a very engaged and loyal audience."
"Getting as many people involved in March Madness in as many different ways as possible is obviously an important goal for the NCAA and tapping into a base of very active NCAA sports fans with this application clearly furthers that objective," said Greg Shaheen, Senior Vice President for Basketball and Business Strategies at the NCAA. "Whether it be the television coverage of the tournament on CBS Sports and CSTV, streaming live video from the Emmy award-winning March Madness on Demand on NCAA.com, mobile coverage and highlights on mobile.CBSSports.com or the tournament brackets application on Facebook, more fans now have more ways to view, follow and enjoy March Madness than ever before. The application provides a convenient way to follow the championship for the conversation and enjoyment it brings to millions around the world."
CBSSports.com Tournament Brackets on Facebook offers users all of the features of the popular bracket games on CBSSports.com, including LIVE updating scoreboards while games are in progress. With the added benefit of the Facebook toolset, it is easier than ever to create your own public or private bracket group and compare yours with members of your social network, school affiliation, workplace or friends.
Each NCAA Basketball team has its own page, allowing participants to follow their favorite teams through the conference tournaments and into the NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Championship. Users can select their favorite teams and compete with other participants to show how much they love their team and battle for school supremacy.
While it is growing the fastest among users age 25 and over, Facebook also maintains an 85 percent market share of 4-year U.S. universities. In total, there are nearly 1.8 million users that are affiliated with one of the school networks on Facebook of the 65 teams that comprised the field of the 2007 NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Championship.
Facebook is a social utility that offers an efficient way for people to stay connected with their friends and the people around them. Facebook users communicate and share information through the social graph, the network of connections and relationships between people. More than 50 percent of Facebook users return to the site each day, providing unparalleled distribution potential for applications and the opportunity to build a business that is highly relevant to people’s lives.
About CBSSports.com
CBSSports.com is at the leading edge of media companies providing Internet sports content, Fantasy sports and e-commerce. CBSSports.com is a member of the CBS family and a part of CBS Interactive. Formerly known as CBS SportsLine.com, in August of 2007 the company changed its name to CBSSports.com. The change marked the evolution of the company into a multi-platform brand offering premier broadcast, online and mobile sports content. The change to CBSSports.com gives advertisers the ability to associate with the CBS Sports brand and reach sports fans no matter where they are, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
For more information about CBSSports.com and for the latest sports news, scores and expert analysis, please visit cbssports.com.
More information about CBS and its businesses is available at www.cbscorporation.com.
About the NCAA
The NCAA is a membership-led nonprofit association of colleges and universities committed to supporting academic and athletics opportunities for more than 380,000 student-athletes at more than 1,000 member colleges and universities. Each year, more than 54,000 student-athletes compete in NCAA championships in Divisions I, II and III sports. Visit www.ncaa.org and www.ncaasports.com for more details about the Association, its goals and members and corporate partnerships that help support programs for student-athletes. Importantly, the NCAA opposes all sports wagering. This application should not be used for sweepstakes, contests, office pools or other gambling activities.
The NCAA is proud to have the following elite companies as official Corporate Champions-AT&T, Coca-Cola and Pontiac-and the following elite companies as official Corporate Partners-DiGiorno, Enterprise, The Hartford, Lowe's, Sheraton and State Farm.
NCAA, Final Four, and March Madness are trademarks owned or licensed by the National Collegiate Athletic Association.
Facebook® is a registered trademark of Facebook Inc.
