OleOle is the worldwide leading social media site for football fans. Fans around the world need a site that enables news and information that is independent of the traditional media, leagues, clubs or organizations who deliver their own content. OleOle’s multi-lingual site enables football fans to connect with each other in an environment that has 100% fan-driven content - blogs, fan clubs, articles, news, podcasts, photos, videos, stats, and history.

OleOle has taken the best technologies from social networking, social media and football news and created the only vertical social media platform for football. OleOle enables passionate fans to discuss any professional team, any player, match or competition in 10 different languages. OleOle is the future of online sports – where the fans participate in the conversation, but more importantly, create and drive the conversation. Fans want more than one reporter writing about their favourite team or player – they want opinions from multiple experts - and their friends. Most importantly they want their voice and opinion to be heard.

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. (July XX, 2009) – OleOle.com, the world’s leading social media site for soccer, has partnered with Soccer United Marketing (SUM) to become the organization’s official ticket and travel partner for the FC Barcelona 2009 U.S.  Tour in August, U.S.-based international matches for the Mexican National Team and CD Guadalajara (known as Chivas), and the Major League Soccer (MLS) All-Star Game and MLS Cup, all of which are part of the MLS’ Summer of Soccer.

 

OleOle.com will be at the heart of one of the busiest summers of professional soccer in North American history, with world-renowned clubs arriving from Spain (FC Barcelona), Mexico (CD Guadalajara) and England (Everton FC), the latter of which will compete against the best players in MLS in the MLS All-Star Game. The three-year agreement with SUM includes Web site integration, field boards at all SUM matches, ticket packages, pre-match hospitality and merchandise.

 

OleOle.com provides 100% fan-driven content for soccer fans in 10 different languages. People can connect with others worldwide through a variety of social media offerings such as blogging, sharing of photos, videos, podcasting and worldwide soccer news. OleOle.com operates 5,000 globally-based blogs covering national teams and clubs, and estimates its current web traffic at 2.5 million unique monthly visitors.

 

OLEOLE IS TICKET AND TRAVEL PARTNER FOR SOCCER UNITED MARKETING

 

Tickets and travel packages can be purchased to all three FC Barcelona matches, Mexico’s upcoming international match that will be announced in the near future, the MLS All-Star Game and MLS Cup 2009 by calling 310-275-5300 or visiting www.oleole.com.

 

“We are proud to announce our agreement with Soccer United Marketing and further extend our name by representing the best soccer competition the United States has to offer,” OleOle.com founder and CEO Doug Knittle said. “This partnership makes sense for OleOle.com because we attract much online traffic from Great Britain, Spain and North America. Watching the reigning European club champions and the best players in MLS and Mexico play in the U.S. in one summer is a rarity that shouldn’t be taken for granted.”

 

“The various properties in the SUM portfolio – including Major League Soccer, the Mexican National Team, CD Guadalajara and FC Barcelona – represent world-class soccer properties, all with international fan bases,” said Michael Gandler, Vice President of Business Development for Soccer United Marketing. “Partnering with OleOle.com allows these passionate soccer fans to connect to the various properties in a streamlined fashion. This partnership ensures that all of their ticketing and travel needs are now located at one web site.”

 

Reigning UEFA Champions League winner FC Barcelona (Barça) is one of the most successful clubs in European soccer history with 19 La Liga titles, a record 25 Spanish Cup (Copa del Rey) trophies and three European Cup (Champions League) titles.

 

Barcelona’s 2008-09 squad is gaining notoriety as perhaps the greatest club team ever, coming off its most successful season in team history. Last season saw it become the first Spanish club to win the “Treble” (La Liga, Spanish Cup and European Cup titles). Barça’s three U.S. matches will showcase the talents of such soccer greats as Argentina international Lionel Messi, French international Thierry Henry, Cameroon’s Samuel Eto’o and Spanish internationals Xavi Hernández, Andrés Iniesta and Carlos Puyol.

 

OleOle.com is the official ticket and travel package provider to the “FC Barcelona Tour Supporters Club” for all three matches.

 

OLEOLE IS TICKET AND TRAVEL PARTNER FOR SOCCER UNITED MARKETING

 

FC Barcelona 2009 U.S. Tour Schedule

·         Aug. 1 vs. Los Angeles Galaxy at the Rose Bowl

·         Aug. 5 vs. Seattle Sounders at Qwest Field

·         Aug. 8 vs. CD Guadalajara at Candlestick Park

 

Ticket and travel packages will also be available to the MLS All-Star Game on July 29 in Rio Tinto Stadium in Sandy, Utah and MLS Cup 2009 on Nov. 22 at Qwest Field in Seattle, Wash. The MLS All Stars will compete against English Premier League club Everton FC, a nine-time English League champion based in Liverpool and featuring U.S. international goalkeeper Tim Howard. MLS Cup 2009 will feature the two top teams in Major League Soccer squaring off for the coveted Philip F. Anschutz championship trophy. 

 

Mexican soccer fans can get their fix of Mexico‘s men’s National Team (a.k.a. “El Tri”) when Mexico comes to the U.S. later this year for an international match. Details will be announced in the upcoming weeks. OleOle.com, as Mexico’s Official International Supporters Club, will be offering tickets and travel packages.

 

OLEOLE IS TICKET AND TRAVEL PARTNER FOR SOCCER UNITED MARKETING

 

About Soccer United Marketing 

Founded in 2002, Soccer United Marketing (SUM) is the preeminent soccer business company in North America. SUM holds the exclusive rights to the most important soccer properties in the region, including: all commercial rights to Major League Soccer; the United States Soccer Federation; promotional and marketing rights to Mexican National Team games played in the United States; the marketing and promotion of the CONCACAF Gold Cup™, and marketing, promotional and broadcast rights to the prestigious eight-team Mexican club tournament - InterLiga™. SUM also manages promotional and marketing rights in the United States for Mexico's most popular sports team, Club Deportivo Guadalajara (Chivas).

 

In addition, SUM created SuperLiga, the innovative professional tournament between MLS and Mexico's First Division clubs that debuted in 2007, as well as the Pan-Pacific Championship, an international soccer tournament that crowns the top club from the Pan Pacific region. In 2008 SUM entered into a long term partnership with FC Barcelona which includes tours of the legendary Spanish club.  These global properties are represented by SUM's slogan: One Sport. One Company.™ For more information, please visit www.SUMworld.com.

 

About OleOle.com

Founded by Chief Executive Officer Doug Knittle in August 2006 with headquarters in Beverly Hills, Calif. (USA), OleOle.com (www.OleOle.com) is a 100-percent fan-driven social media web site for soccer fans around the world.   OleOle strives to be the best online platform ever created for the sport of soccer. Through a three-pronged growth strategy based around search engine optimization, acquisitions of many of the most popular soccer blog content and fan community sites across the globe, and viral growth, OleOle grew from 223,000 unique monthly visitors in March 2008 to 1.6 million in June 2008. OleOle’s unique monthly visitors have now surpassed  2.5 million. OleOle features unique content, including blogs, photos, videos, news and history, and also empowers fans to organize content around soccer players and clubs in order to create their own, personal online football experience. OleOle  offers over 200 league pages, 6,000 club pages, and 60,000 player pages with real-time stats, scores and fan-generated content in 10 languages.

 

OleOle is also an official partner for many of the soccer’s highest profile competitions and matches offering fans tickets and packages to see their favorite teams play all over the world. For more information, please visit www.OleOle.com or call OleOle headquarters at +1.310.275.5300.

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif., USA (July 23, 2009) - In partnership with Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment Ltd., and D.C. United, OleOle.com has acquired title sponsorship to Real Madrid's 2009 North American soccer friendlies - OleOle.com Presents Toronto FC vs. Real Madrid, Aug. 7 at BMO Field in Toronto, Canada, and OleOle.com Presents D.C. United vs. Real Madrid, Aug. 9 at FedEx Field in Washington D.C.

OleOle.com is the world's leading social media site for soccer, providing 100% fan-driven content for soccer fans in 10 different languages. People can connect with others worldwide through a variety of social media offerings such as blogging, sharing of photos, videos, podcasting and worldwide soccer news. OleOle.com operates 5,000 globally-based blogs covering national teams and clubs, and estimates its current web traffic at 2.5 million unique monthly visitors.

For more information and purchasing tickets and travel packages to OleOle.com Presents Toronto FC vs. Real Madrid, OleOle.com presents D.C. United vs. Real Madrid, as well as a Real Madrid Open Practice on Aug. 6 at BMO Field and pre-match parties, call 310-275-5300 or visit www.oleole.com.

"These are the largest, most prominent associations we have ever had with international soccer events and we are proud to have an opportunity to be involved in such spectacles," OleOle.com founder and CEO Doug Knittle said. "Partnering in world-class soccer events is reflective of our online global fan base. Our online content elicits a tremendous amount of web traffic from Spain and North America and we feel that these matches will give our online fan base plenty to talk about on OleOle.com for weeks leading up to the matches and afterward.

"Real Madrid is, arguably, the world's richest, most supported sports team and most intriguing team. It has embarked on a new era of Galacticos with their recent player signings. It is so rare to have such a club visiting North America, and to have them play two of Major League Soccer's most exciting franchises, sporting what many deem the league's best fans, will surely make these matches a sellout as well as a must-see event in North America and internationally on television."

Real Madrid owns a record 31 La Liga championships, 17 Spanish Cup (Copa del Rey) titles, nine European Cups and two UEFA Cups. Its global fan base is 296 million.

Real Madrid figures to arrive in Toronto and Washington D.C. with a new and improved shine to their squad, coming off of last month's world-record transfer signing of incredibly skilled and speedy Portuguese winger/striker Cristiano Ronaldo (£80 million, €96 million, $131.5 million), the 2008 FIFA World Player of the Year, from Manchester United.

Days earlier, Real Madrid signed Brazilian playmaking midfielder and 2007 FIFA World Player of the Year Kaka (£56 million, €65 million, $92 million) from AC Milan, serving as a world record transfer fee in pounds sterling at the time. In addition, the Spanish giants have hired a new coach in Manuel Pellegrini.

Meanwhile, Real Madrid continues to feature such recognizable international stars as Raul, the all-time leading goalscorer for Real Madrid and the World No. 2 Spanish National Team, defender Sergio Ramos and goalkeeper Iker Casillas.

Toronto FC, currently in its third season in Major League Soccer (MLS), is the league's 13th club and its first Canadian team. DC United is the most successful club in MLS history, with four MLS Cup titles and two U.S. Open Cup victories. Both teams will be playing their highest-profile matches in club history when they face the storied Spanish club and the most accomplished club in the world.

Toronto FC is currently 7-6-5 (seven wins, six defeats, five draws) with 26 points, two points back of the MLS Eastern Conference lead, while showcasing the talents of Canadian National Team midfield captain Dwayne De Rosario, Honduran international and captain Amado Guevara, and United States internationals Marvell Wynne and Sam Cronin.  

"We're excited to connect to a larger global soccer community through OleOle.com's title sponsorship of Toronto FC's friendly with Real Madrid," said David Hopkinson, senior vice-president of corporate and community partnerships for Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment. "OleOle.com's sponsorship of all initiatives tied to our Real Madrid game, including the pre-game party, is a natural fit for this event that will appeal to a large, international audience."

DC United, currently 6-3-9 (six wins, three defeats, nine draws) and one point out of first place in MLS' Eastern Conference with 27 points, features Brazilians Luciano Emilio and Fred, Jaime Moreno, the Bolivian star and MLS' all-time leading goal scorer with 128, and U.S. veteran Ben Olsen. 

"This match is of interest to soccer fans across America and around the world," said DC United President Kevin Payne. "We're thrilled that OleOle has become our partner and we encourage anyone traveling to DC for our match to seek out OleOle for their travel and accommodation solutions."  

BMO Field, home to the Canadian National Team and located in Exhibition Place in Toronto, is known to have MLS' loudest, most supportive fan base. FedEx Field, not typically thought of as a soccer venue, has played host to Women's World Cup preliminary and quarterfinal matches, and a 2005 international soccer friendly featuring English Premier League powerhouse Chelsea FC. 

OleOle.com is an official ticket exchange and travel package partner for many of the world's highest-profile soccer events, such as U.S. Soccer's 2010 FIFA World Cup qualifying matches.

About OleOle.com

Founded by Chief Executive Officer Doug Knittle in August 2006 with headquarters in Beverly Hills, Calif. (USA), OleOle.com (www.OleOle.com) is a 100-percent fan-driven social media web site for soccer fans around the world.   OleOle strives to be the best online platform ever created for the sport of soccer. Through a three-pronged growth strategy based around search engine optimization, acquisitions of many of the most popular soccer blog content and fan community sites across the globe, and viral growth, OleOle grew from 223,000 unique monthly visitors in March 2008 to 1.6 million in June 2008. OleOle's unique monthly visitors have now surpassed  2.5 million. OleOle features  unique content, including blogs, photos, videos, news and history, and also empowers fans to organize content around soccer players and clubs in order to create their own, personal online football experience. OleOle  offers over 200 league pages, 6,000 club pages, and 60,000 player pages with real-time stats, scores and fan-generated content in 10 languages.

OleOle is also an official partner for many of the soccer's highest profile competitions and matches offering fans tickets and packages to see their favorite teams play all over the world. For more information, please visit www.OleOle.com or call OleOle headquarters at +1.310.275.5300.

MILAN, Italy - 23 September 2008 - OleOle, the worldwide leading social media site for football fans, announced the acquisition and integration of Io sto con Mancini the market-leading Italian blog focused on the football club Inter Milan. Io sto con Mancini (ISCM) is the first football blog to be integrated into the Italian-language OleOle platform (www.oleole.it), joining OleOle’s extensive list of top-flight bloggers across Europe. ISCM is a daily blog that provides Inter supporters with breaking news and the latest headlines, match previews and reviews as well as rumours about transfers and players’ personal lives. With the blog integrated into OleOle, ISCM readers have become part of a global football community and are able to share opinions with fellow supporters through forums and live chat during matches as they continue to discuss and debate all things Inter.

The Italy-based blogger behind this popular Inter Milan fan-site, Simone Nicoletti, started the blog in 2006 when Inter was struggling through hard times. Nicoletti created his blog to defend Roberto Mancini, Inter's coach at that time, who was faced with growing criticism and the threat of dismissal. After Inter and Mancini won three Serie A titles ISCM became one of the largest Nerazzurri fan communities on the internet. When Inter did dismiss Mancini in May 2008, Mancini even wrote a farewell post on ISCM and personally thanked the fans for their continuous support.

Always well-informed about the club, Nicoletti has uncovered information and provided behind-the-scenes reports to fans that they just can’t find anywhere else. Even though Roberto Mancini is no longer the coach at Inter, Nicoletti decided to keep the blog's name. “I think that 'Io sto con Mancini' is now a way to discuss Inter and football”, says Nicoletti. ISCM blog is the thirteenth independent football site OleOle has acquired this year. The company plans to continue to bring on the world’s top football blogs, forums and fan communities to fuel its rapid growth and provide a personal football experience for fans of every professional team.

About OleOle
OleOle is the worldwide leading social media site for football fans. OleOle’s multi-lingual site enables football fans to connect with each other in an environment that has 100% fan-driven content - live football scores, football blogs, news, soccer photos, videos, wallpapers, podcasts, fan clubs and history. Using social media features, football supporters can write, contribute, share, rate and vote on multimedia content in 10 languages. Founded in 2006, OleOle is a privately-held international company with headquarters in Beverly Hills, California and offices in New Zealand as well as across Europe and South America. For more information visit: www.oleole.com

Beverly Hills, Calif. -- 27 August 2008 -- OleOle, the worldwide leading social media site for football fans, announced the acquisition and integration of AVFC Blog, increasing its growing list of UK football blogs by another market-leading blog. AVFC Blog, the popular fan-site on Birmingham’s Aston Villa, brings supporters everything Aston Villa and more.

The extensive blog features news and opinion on the Premier League club from Birmingham alongside with match previews, match reports, and latest transfer gossip. AVFC Blog is the largest Aston Villa destination on the web with over 200,000 monthly visits, nearly twice as many as the official Aston Villa site. The Villa bloggers don’t miss an opportunity to keep the club’s followers informed on all the news and rumours from Villa Park. In addition, die hard Villa supporters can discuss their favourite team’s performance in the integrated forum, easily accessible from the AVFC blog’s homepage.

Like other fan-site owners, who already moved their blogs to OleOle with great success, the AVFC bloggers are embracing the opportunity to share original content and breaking news with a much greater audience on OleOle’s innovative global football platform than they otherwise could with their independent blog. Following the footsteps of top blogs like Arseblog, Chelseablog or Harry Hotspur, AVFC Blog is taking advantage of joining OleOle’s rapidly growing social media site at a critical time. OleOle is continuously stocking up with more content to be able to serve its escalating global readership in time of the commencing 2008/2009 football season.

As with all site owners, who have moved their blogs and communities to OleOle, the AVFC bloggers continue to remain independent and in complete creative control. OleOle is 100% user-generated and completely user-moderated. AVFC Blog is one out of nine sites OleOle has acquired to date in Europe, and OleOle plans to continue adding top blogs, forums and fan communities to the global site.

OleOle's shop features official football shirts and kits from the Barclays Premier League and European clubs

Beverly Hills, Calif. -- 27 August 2008 -- OleOle, the worldwide leading social media site for football fans, today opened its own private label online football shop. Fans are now only a click away from accessing all the latest official football shirts and kits from the English Premier League, SPL and their favourite European clubs. Online customers can also choose from national kits with full official personalisation as well as training gear and souvenirs. Whether football fans prefer home shirts, away shirts, training ranges, a full football kit or just a pair of football boots – the OleOle shop offers everyone’s preferred football merchandise including men’s, women’s and kids’ styles.

OleOle’s football shop has been integrated into OleOle’s social media site providing users and visitors to www.oleole.com easy access to a wide spectrum of football items and leading sports brands. Unlike other online sports stores, OleOle’s football shop is embedded in OleOle’s social media site allowing fans to conveniently enter the store from any OleOle page. After they have checked out their items, fans can easily navigate back to their favourite football blog, player or live scores page on OleOle.

OleOle’s own private label online football shop features:

• Official football shirts & kits from the EPL, SPL, European clubs, and national kits
• Home, away & training ranges with adult and kids styles at competitive prices
• Purchase options in three currencies including British Pound, US Dollar and Euro
• Highest customer care
• 100% secure shopping

OleOle’s Fantasy Football (Soccer) game enables fans to select and manage a dream-team of players during the 2008/09 season and compete with their friends

Beverly Hills, Calif. -- 29 July 2008 -- OleOle, the worldwide leading social media site for football fans, today made its social Fantasy Football game available to OleOle members.

Unlike any other fantasy football games where players are on their own, OleOle’s Fantasy Football game is integrated into OleOle’s social football community so players can interact with each other as they make trades, do player research, and check player history. Each player’s personalized home page has a Fantasy Football widget where they can keep tabs on their team’s progress at a glance.

• On the OleOle website, they can catch up on the latest rumours, transfers and stats and use OleOle’s Fantasy Stats Centre.
• Fans can also setup private mini-leagues so they can compete directly against their friends. OleOle groups compliment this functionality so mini-leagues can stay in touch with each other and have private discussions about their teams, strategies, and friendly wagers.

OleOle’s Fantasy Football consists of six separate free-to-play league games including an exclusive European Super League found only on OleOle. Other leagues include the Bundesliga, Premier League, La Liga, Ligue 1, and Serie A. Players score points based on all league games played over the season. Fantasy team managers have the chance win over €20,000 in monthly and seasonal prizes including the top prize - tickets and travel to the 2009 UEFA Champions League final match in Rome. All games are completely free and available in 7 languages including English, Spanish, Italian, German, French, Portuguese, and Japanese.

OleOle, the worldwide leading social media site for football fans, announced the acquisition and integration of nine more top football blogs, communities and forums.   By gathering together market-leading bloggers in multiple regions and across ten languages, OleOle is successfully building the world’s dominant social media site for football.  OleOle has attracted some of the leading independent football sites, most of which are the #1 blogs and forums focused on their respective club. After the successful integration of Arseblog, the award-winning blog on Arsenal FC, the company has subsequently added: The Lord of the Wing, Chelseablog, Harry Hotspur, Fans del Real Madrid, Boca Juniors Fans, Soccer-Art.co.uk, Football-Spot, and Real Madrid Talk (June 27) to its site.

Fan-site owners are attracted to OleOle because OleOle’s innovative global football platform allows them to share original multimedia content and breaking news to many more football fans than they otherwise could maintaining an independent blog or community.  No other site on the internet is built for sports fan interaction like OleOle, and bloggers can do much more than just write – OleOle offers photo and video sharing, live match reporting and commentary, fan clubs, football wallpapers and graphics, community discussion as well as document club and player history in an extensive online wiki.  Bloggers are taking advantage of OleOle’s unique publishing tools purposefully built around the real-world structure of professional football.

Bloggers are football fans first and want to write passionately about breaking news and rumours in a social and sometimes viral setting for the benefit of as many fans as possible.  All content on OleOle is 100% user-generated and completely user-moderated, and site owners who have moved their blogs and communities to OleOle continue to remain independent and in complete creative control.  OleOle plans to continue adding top blogs, forums and fan communities to the global site and is currently evaluating top independent sites from the UK, Germany, Spain, and France.

OleOle is adding real-time, interactive live blogging to enable football fans to pick sides as they interact around match reports – from their computer and from the stadium

ZURICH, Switzerland -- 5 June 2008 -- OleOle, the worldwide leading social media site for football fans, today announced that it has added an interactive MatchCentre to its global football platform in time for EURO 2008 in Austria and Switzerland. Football fans can visit the OleOle MatchCentre before matches to get pre-game commentary and squad details, and during matches for real-time play by play and stats, live blogging, match photos and videos, and “smack talk” discussions with fans of rival teams. After the game they can access post-match commentary, pictures and videos taken at the match by fans, and a “Eurocast” podcast that includes fan critique and commentary called-in right from the stadium.

Football is a global sport but the most visited website generally publishes “unbiased” information based on official news and written by reporters trying to remain neutral. Fans don’t want neutrality; they want the real, unfiltered news about their teams and the bias that goes along with it. OleOle’s MatchCentre uses the same interactive approach found on the rest of the site and makes static live match reports and football scores obsolete. It provides a unique online experience in 10 languages for fans and the same kind of banter and insight found at the stadium or pub.

MatchCentre highlights OleOle’s new Live Blog function which enables minute by minute match commentary, insight and documentation of plays from a blogger’s perspective. Live Blogging has an interface tailored to entering in match plays quickly and efficiently, in a time-based match structure that includes penalties, goals, and substitutions. Bloggers type in a comment, submit, and their screen refreshes via AJAX technology, and the match blog is immediately refreshed for viewers. Fans can quickly flip back and forth between multiple live blogs to read opposing views and different opinions on the same play.

MatchCentre enables users to show their colours and change their screen display by selecting one of the teams, and they can pick live commentary from the bloggers who support their side and correspond with them directly. Fans can also discuss the match with other supporters through the stream-of-thought SmackTalk widget, a real-time comment system that enables fans to actively participate in and shape the discussion.

The Arseblogger, creator of Arseblog, OleOle’s recently acquired award-winning weblog on Arsenal FC, will also produce an exclusive, fan-driven EURO 2008 report as a podcast – the Eurocast - at the end of each game day. Fans can call in live from the stadium while watching a match and comment on anything – the crowd, team line-ups, and questionable reffing decisions. The Eurocast will feature selected fan messages along with insightful match commentary and will be available to download from OleOle’s MatchCentre and from Apple iTunes. Local call-in phone numbers are:

• UK +44 (20) 7193 6971
• Switzerland +41 (44) 586 62 08

“We see football supporters across geographies and languages looking for ways to interact around live matches other than just following the score. OleOle’s MatchCentre is the first technology that gives every fan the opportunity to become a global reporter or commentator,” said Doug Knittle, CEO and founder of OleOle. “Football news sites just don’t give passionate football fans what they’re looking for – the ability to drive the conversation about their team. MatchCentre is another innovative way OleOle is putting football into the hands of the fans through social media.”

About OleOle
OleOle is the worldwide leading social media site for football fans. Fans around the world need a site that publishes news and information independent from the traditional media, leagues, clubs or organizations who deliver their own content. OleOle’s multi-lingual site enables football fans to connect with each other in an environment that has 100% fan-driven content - blogs, fan clubs, articles, news, podcasts, photos, videos, football scores, stats, and history. Using social media technologies, football supporters can write, contribute, share, rate and vote on multimedia content in 10 languages. Founded in 2006, OleOle is a privately-held international company with headquarters in Beverly Hills, California and offices in New Zealand as well as across Europe and South America. For more information visit: www.oleole.com

The popular football blog and forum is extending its reach on OleOle’s ground-breaking global football platform

LOS ANGELES and DUBLIN, IRELAND -- 19 May, 2008 – OleOle, the provider of the world’s largest social media platform for football, today announced that it has acquired and integrated Arseblog, the award-winning website focused on the Arsenal FC. Readers can now find Arseblog’s daily posts, breaking news, exclusive features, interviews and podcasts (known as Arsecasts) on OleOle.com.

Founded over 6 years ago, Arseblog has become famous for it's unique brand of football blogging and the hundreds and hundreds of comments (arses) it receives every day from avid Arsenal fans and loyal readers. By moving to OleOle, the Arseblogger is expanding opportunities for his readers to participate even more in the discussions around Arsenal – through forums and comments and also by submitting their own Arsenal news, rumours, photos and videos.

OleOle is a global social media site dedicated to football and football only, and now Arseblog readers, along with fans of any other professional football team, can create conversations without geographic or language barriers - unlike on any other place on the internet today.

“We are delighted that Arseblog has decided to move to the OleOle blogging platform, and we offer even more options for its dedicated readers and Arsenal supporters,” said Doug Knittle, OleOle’s founder and CEO. “This is the first of what we know will be many passionate football bloggers moving their blogs to OleOle. This acquisition confirms that OleOle is really the premier place for anyone writing about football - regardless of their team, player or league affiliation.”

“What this merger does is allow Arseblog to become part of something I think will be really huge,” said the Arseblogger. “It allows Arsenal fans to get in on the ground floor on a site which promises to be a fantastic resource and lots of fun. It will also allow Arseblog to develop and provide even more Arsey goodness to Arsenal fans from all over the world.”

About Arseblog
Started in February 2002, Arseblog (arseblog.oleole.com) is the largest and longest running most popular website for commentary on the Arsenal Football Club, providing readers with a daily posts, columns and news as well as a platform to discuss all things Arsenal. The blog is the recipient of numerous rewards, including the Irish Web and Blog Award’s “Best Sport & Recreation Blog” in 2008, and a Weblog Award (Bloggie) in 2007 for the “Best Sports Weblog” in the world - beating notable rivals such as Gawker Media's 'Deadspin' site. Arseblog is one of the most popular independent blogs about football anywhere, and is noted for the hundreds of comments (arses) that are submitted by readers after each new post. The Arseblog podcast (The Arsecast) is one of the most popular football podcasts on iTunes and has featured interviews with guests such as Arsenal chairman Peter Hill-Wood, ex-players Perry Groves, Peter Marinello, Bob Wilson and Danny Karbasiyoon, plus 80s pop stars Wang Chung.

About OleOle
OleOle (www.oleole.com) is the worldwide leading social media site for football fans. Fans around the world need a site that enables news and information that is independent of the traditional media, leagues, clubs or organizations who deliver their own content. OleOle’s multi-lingual site enables football fans to connect with each other in an environment that has 100% fan-driven content - blogs, fan clubs, articles, news, podcasts, photos, videos, stats, and history. With access to today’s leading social media technologies, football supporters can write, contribute, share, rate and vote on multimedia content in 10 languages. Founded in 2006, OleOle is a privately-held international company with headquarters in Beverly Hills, California and offices in New Zealand as well as across Europe and South America.