| Company type | Private |
|---|---|
| Industry | Sports digital media |
| Headquarters | , |
Area served | China |
| Products | Sina Sports website, mobile site, mobile app |
Number of employees | 200 |
| Website | sports |
Sina Sports is a Chinese digital sports media platform that provides live sporting events, highlights, news, discussion forums and other related sports content, primarily targeted at Chinese communities around the world. It is a subsidiary of Chinese internet company Sina.com and was established in 1998 as China's first online sports platform.
The platform operates an online website, mobile website, and mobile app, all of which are only available in the Chinese language. The mobile is available for iOS[1] and Android[2] devices. The platform also operates multiple verified SINA Weibo accounts including @新浪体育(@SINASports), @新浪体育视频(@SINASportsVideo), and others, collectively garnering over 20 million Weibo followers.[3][4][5][6]
In 1998, Chinese Internet company SRSNet (四通利方) built and operated the official Chinese language online portal for the 1998 FIFA World Cup. Later that year, SRSNet acquired Hua Yuan Online and changed the name to Sina.com, and the sports platform became known as SINA Sports.[7] From the beginning, Chinese sports fans quickly adopted the platform as a preferred way to access sports around the world. SINA Sports has had the following milestones[8] including:
Live Online Broadcasting Rights (Mainland China) as of November 2015:
SINA sports holds the live broadcasting rights for UEFA Champions League,[9] AFC Champions League, Premier League,[10] and Bundesliga games.
SINA Sports holds the rights to broadcast Chinese Super League games.
SINA Sports broadcasts the WTA Zhuhai,[11] the China Open and International Premier Tennis League.[12] It is also a partner of the Australian Open.[13]
SINA Sports holds the live broadcasting rights for the PGA Tour and the Masters.
Other rights include MUTV,[14] UFC,[15] NFL, Dakar Rally[16] and the Royal Ascot.
SINA Sports has developed many partnerships with international athletes.
Sina Sports signed several football personalities including Carlo Ancelotti,[17][18] Eden Hazard,[19] Gary Neville[20] and Michael Owen[21] to its guest commentator program to provide written columns and video analysis of the latest hot topics around European soccer as well as regular interaction with Chinese fans.[22]
For game 3 of the 2015 NBA Finals, SINA Sports arranged for Los Angeles Lakers player Kobe Bryant to commentate the game live for Chinese fans, which was streamed on the online and mobile sites. Kobe has his own SINA weibo account, which at the time had 3.5 million followers, sent out three messages during the game which garnered 9,347 comments. Overall, SINA reported 57 million unique views and 74,000 messages related to Kobe's commentating program were recorded on SINA Weibo.[23]