Playmaker acquires YouTube’s largest Spanish-speaking sports news channel
Cracks becomes the company’s fourth Latin American digital sports media purchase since November
Toronto-based digital sports media company Playmaker has announced the acquisition of Mexico-based video-first sports platform Cracks.
Cracks is a soccer-centric collection of digital media assets that boasts a total audience across all social media channels in excess of 12.6 million subscribers worldwide, including the most followed Spanish-language sports news channel on YouTube.
Cracks Global, its flagship YouTube channel, has nearly 5.5 million subscribers and has attracted more than 2.7 billion lifetime views on YouTube. Data compiled earlier in the month suggests Cracks Global generates an average of more than 500,000 views per video, which ranks 15th among the top-50 sports channels by subscribers on YouTube globally.
In the terms of the agreement, Playmaker acquired 100% of the digital assets, marks and copyright of Cracks for an aggregate consideration of up to $1.7m including an initial cash payment of $0.4m on closing.
Cracks was founded by Manuel Bravo, one of the most influential YouTubers in Mexico and Latin America, and significantly increases Playmaker’s social media following across other key social channels.
The acquisition of Cracks complements its existing in-house editorial expertise across its multiple web properties, social media channels, mobile apps and fan pages.
Federico Grinberg, EVP of Playmaker and CEO of its Futbol Sites brand, confirmed: “Cracks will give us access to a completely new revenue stream: original video creation and monetisation through syndication on third-party platforms, mainly YouTube and Facebook.”
“This acquisition will enrich our commercial offering by bringing an original product and adding the talented Cracks staff to our team, providing Playmaker the opportunity to offer much more powerful branded content solutions to our advertisers.”
Playmaker has now acquired four Latin America-based digital sports media companies since November 2021, including leading Brazilian digital media and marketing group Futmarketing last month.