TownNews tips off turnkey college bracket contests - Copy 1

Feb 14, 2019

New service makes it easy for local media organizations to launch engaging, lucrative college basketball pick’em leagues

MOLINE, IL — Jan. 21, 2019 — With football season winding down, sports fans nationwide are turning their attention to college basketball. The TownNews Bracket Challenge empowers local media sites—newspapers, TV stations, radio stations, and magazines—to create digital college basketball bracket contests that turn local sports fans into loyal repeat visitors, driving audience engagement and advertising revenue.

"Our goal is to make it easy for our customers to take advantage of the excitement the college basketball tournament generates," said Brad Ward, CEO of TownNews. "The majority of your users will fill out brackets, why not let them do it in a way that grows your audience and benefits your brand?"

Media organizations using the TownNews Bracket Challenge can generate revenue using a variety of banner positions and contest sponsorship opportunities. The service also integrates with Google Ad Manager for programmatic advertising.

The TownNews Bracket Challenge lets contest participants complete their own brackets, create private leagues, pick against experts from the local community, and follow the latest tournament news and updates from Athlon Sports.

"We've really worked hard to make these contests low-impact for your staff," Ward said. "The manager is completely web-based, and game scores automatically update every five minutes."

The TownNews Bracket Challenge is a new feature of the company's GamesPerform contesting platform. The college basketball tournament functionality is scheduled to launch in January of 2019.