Pro Sports Teams and Their Fans Connect Online with KickApps : Top U.S. Professional Sports Teams Use Social Media to Drive Deeper Relationships with Fans & New Revenue Opportunities

NEW YORK (EMWNews) August 18, 2008 —

KickApps (www.kickapps.com),

the industry’s leading on-demand social media,

video player and widget platform, today announced that the NFL’s

San Francisco 49ers, the New

York Knicks and New York Rangers, have deployed KickApps powered social

media websites. MSG Interactive launched KnicksNet

and RangersNet, which were

designed in collaboration with award winning interactive marketing

agency, Deep Focus.

The teams are using their new social media websites to increase online

interactivity and engagement with fans, present video and photos in

video players and widgets, and generate incremental revenue from new

advertising and sponsorship opportunities. These websites further

KickApps’ industry leadership in the

professional sports category. KickApps also powers community, video and

widgets within the NBA’s Phoenix Suns (PlanetOrange.net),

the NFL’s Seattle Seahawks (Spiritof12.com),

the Arena Football League and Real Madrid America, among others.

“We believe that the 49ers Faithful are the

best fans in the NFL and that social networking, online photo and video

sharing are perfect web based complements for diehard fans who already

live and breathe football,” said Michael

Williams, director of marketing for the 49ers. “Our

fans express and share their passion for the 49ers at games, at home

watching games on TV or listening to radio broadcasts, by the coffee

maker at the office, and over the phone. In today’s

Internet world, they should also get the chance to show that loyalty and

support online with other fans! We feel the enhancements we’ve

made with KickApps to our 49ersfaithful.net site will enable us to

achieve deeper relationships with our fans and gives us a channel to

engage with them every minute of every day, 365 days a year.”

The KickApps hosted platform powers sports-oriented websites with a wide

range of integrated social networking applications, where fans establish

their identities by creating their own profile pages, friend other fans

and send public and private video and text messages to each other.

KickApps also enables rich media sharing capabilities where fans can

upload videos, photos, audio clips and blogs that express their passion

for the teams. Members of the online communities can leave comments,

rate, share, and ‘snag’

content as widgets and place them on other social networks, such as

Facebook and MySpace, as well as on their own blogs or other fan

websites. These widgets create virtual gateways back to the team’s

website, sending traffic from across the Internet.

“The New York Knicks and New York Rangers

have some of the most passionate fans in the world and creating a

destination for them to gather online is an important objective for us,”

said Scott Richman, senior vice president and general manager, MSG

Interactive. “The KickApps Platform allowed

us to very easily and quickly put together a website which features

applications that create a highly interactive environment for our fans.

This combined with the strategy and design guidance from Deep Focus

resulted in a perfect branded experience that speaks directly to New York’s

basketball and hockey fans.”

“Our KickApps website is a huge asset in

uniting our fans and enabling them to express their Seahawks spirit with

tools that are easy to use,” said Mike Flood,

vice president of community relations, Seattle Seahawks. “The

KickApps team understands both broad goals and finer points of social

networking. Combined, they helped us focus on creating a website that

addressed the needs of fans of various Internet ability, featured

easy-to-use administration on the back end, and is optimized to

encourage participation.”

The KickApps Platform also features a broad set of media applications

that are easily integrated into existing websites. The KickApps Widget

and Video Player Studio invites even non-technical web developers to

create and deploy highly customized video players and widgets. The

KickApps drag-and-drop application building environment removes the need

for expensive technical resources to quickly deploy new editorial media

content and is supported by industry-leading RSS feed and media

management tools.

“Social media has proven to grow and

reinforce the fan community, strengthen team and brand affinities, and

create new revenue opportunities through merchandising, sponsorships and

online advertising,” said Alex Blum, CEO of

KickApps. “As leading brands in professional

basketball, football and hockey, these teams are paving the way in their

industries by defining new channels for fan interaction and engagement,

and revenue.”

KickApps currently powers over 30,000 social media websites for large

media and entertainment brands, professional sports teams, as well as

fan created sports sites, such as My

Jets Nation and The Lakers

Nation.

About KickApps

KickApps provides on-demand social media, online video and widget

applications that enable web publishers and marketers to grow, engage

and monetize online audiences. Its SaaS platform includes social

networking, user-generated content, programmable video players,

drag-and-drop widget building, WidgeADs™ and

other applications that are tightly integrated with robust media

moderation, member management and reporting. The KickApps Platform

seamlessly integrates with any website using HTML, CSS, JavaScript,

feeds, Widgets and APIs (REST and SOAP). Customers include: SOAPnet, CW

Television, Guinness World Records, Scripps Network Interactive, HBO,

Cinemax, Cox Television, the Phoenix Suns, the New York Knicks, the New

York Rangers and thousands of other sites. For more information, visit www.kickapps.com

and www.kickdeveloper.com.