XLMedia PLC, the global digital publisher, announced an expanded partnership with Advance Local to create premium betting content and a new revenue stream for their MassLive.com brand – a leading Massachusetts news and information website attracting an average of 6.5 million unique visitors every month.

XLMedia has an industry-leading media partnership business (MPB) offering significant scale, high-quality commercial content, and access to high-value advertiser relationships for leading publishers across the US and Canada. MassLive.com represents a significant win for XLMedia’s MPB, offering key US coverage in Massachusetts via MassLive.com’s large audience in the state ahead of its upcoming online betting launch. This partnership will focus on creating highly engaging content, managing commercial deals with regulated sportsbook operators, and executing proven monetization strategies built upon years of industry expertise.

“Massachusetts represents one of the top professional sports markets in the US – we’re very much looking forward to working with the MassLive.com team and adding our high-quality betting content to their already expansive sports coverage. This deal expands upon our strong partnership with the Advance Local team in Ohio and continues our strategic efforts in landing premium publishers in key sports betting markets. The timing is ideal ahead of the anticipated Massachusetts sports betting launch early next year,” Cody Darwick, Director of Partnership at XLMedia, said.

MassLive.com represents the second Advance Local property with which XLMedia has partnered, the first being cleveland.com. XLMedia has helped fuel cleveland.com’s growth in the sports betting segment since the partnership began in February.

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“XLMedia’s impressive betting content and results to date in Ohio gave us great confidence to work with their team in Massachusetts, another key market for us. We’re excited for MassLive.com to become a go-to resource for both novice and experienced bettors as the state moves to legalize sports betting – creating a new content vertical and revenue stream for the property,” Howard Kamen, VP of Sports Betting & iGaming at Advance Local, said.

Cipher Sports Technology Group has announced a sports betting partnership with leading U.S. publisher Advance Local.

The agreement will see Cipher STG’s predictive analytics tools and content integrated into Advance Local’s PennLive.com, LehighValleyLive.com, and GulfLive.com platforms, providing users with data rich information that will help them make more informed decisions when it comes to their sports betting.

With nearly 10 million unique monthly users, PennLive is the premiere source for news, sports, entertainment, and more across Pennsylvania, one of the earliest adopters of online sports betting following the repeal of PASPA in 2018.

“We are really grateful for the opportunity to partner with several of Advance Local’s leading websites. There’s no doubt Advance Local is one of North America’s most trusted publishers, so for them to engage us at this stage of our journey is a huge shot in the arm for our business,” Adam Fiske, CEO of Cipher Sports Technology Group, said.

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“Our flagship brand, Dimers.com, has been operating across the United States, including Pennsylvania, for a number of years now, so the opportunity to get some of our sophisticated sports betting products, tools and content in front of Advance Local’s audience has already produced some great results,” Adam Fiske added.

Cipher STG specializes in predictive analytics and sports-betting-focused content for all major U.S. pro and college sports, PGA Tour golf, ATP and WTA tennis, plus major soccer leagues such as the English Premier League, La Liga, Liga MX and MLS.

In addition to the integration of their Dimers-powered predictions and quality editorial, Cipher STG will also help to position Penn Live, Lehigh Valley Live, and Gulf Live as platforms of choice for North American sportsbooks looking to reach an educated and broader audience of sports fans.

“The international experience that Cipher Sports Technology Group brings to the table was very interesting to us. Their knowledge of the sports betting industry, and how to create new revenue streams from it, made them the ideal partner for Penn Live, Lehigh Valley Live and Gulf Live as we look to add complementary content to what are already highly respected and trusted platforms,” Howard Kamen, VP of Sports Betting and iGaming at Advance Local, said.

• Feature articles for both casual and regular sports bettors
• Free bets and offers pages
• Scoreboards & betting tools with latest odds
• Custom-made sports betting event guides
• Smart content modules and free-to-play games

“We are proud to be partnering with Advance Local as our teams align on a vision of content-rich, localized sports betting experiences that are more than just creating clickbait,” commented Rick Wolf, SVP, Spotlight Sports Group. “The addition of a turnkey sports betting content platform, uniquely tailored to each local market, will give fans in Syracuse, for example, access to highly localized sports betting content, tools and engagement that makes the games more fun to watch. We are excited to roll out localized versions of our partnership across multiple Advance Local outlets, and seeing the investment made by Advance Local into Spotlight Sports Group repaid in new revenue, and a deeper sports experience for their audiences.”

Advance Local VP of Sports Betting & iGaming, Howard Kamen, said “Spotlight Sports Group provides national and local content to drive engagement, but creating community with games and tools to make sports fans smarter is the exciting part of this partnership. Spotlight Sports Group has relationships with regulated sportsbook operators in multiple states which means they are doing the heavy lifting, enabling us to concentrate on our audience and their needs.”

In addition to turnkey sports betting platforms, Spotlight Sports Group’s partner offerings include the provision of betting intelligence and data, smart content modules, and the creation and activation of digital games. The betting intelligence offering provides partners with a targeted betting experience directly to their audiences, or through affiliated partners, that delivers customized editorial content in over 70 different languages. Smart content modules are powered by Spotlights Sports Group’s state-of-the-art content engine, Superfeed, which utilizes best-in-class AI, expert tipping advice and data analysis to further deepen the conversations with sports betting audiences. Finally, Spotlight Sports Group can provide partners with self-service free-to-play games that help build customer marketing databases, and consumer engagement tools that increase contact points with audiences. Each of the four core Spotlight Sports Group solutions are tailored to meet the specific goals of partners, and all are designed to increase revenue, audience engagement and growth.

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