FLOSPORTS LAUNCH NEW SPORT VERTICAL DEDICATED TO BJJ

FloSports recently announced that it will expand its stable of sports sites this month with the launch of FloGrappling, which will provide comprehensive coverage of Brazilian jiu jitsu. This new dedicated sports vertical will join FloTrack, FloWrestling, FloElite, MileSplit, FloSoftball and Gymnastike under the FloSports banner.

“This is an incredible opportunity to offer these global communities of sports fans exceptional and unprecedented coverage of their favorite sports at all levels of competition,” FloSports co-founder and CEO Martin Floreani said. “Brazilian jiu jitsu fans crave authentic content, in-depth storytelling and live streams of top events, and we look forward to delivering it.”

The new site will follow the successful acquisition and launch of FloSports’ FloSoftball (formerly Full Count Softball), as well as $3 million in venture debt funding from Silicon Valley Bank, in June. Along with an $8 million investment from Causeway Media Partners in 2014, FloSports has raised $11 million in the past 12 months, doubling its network of sites.

Having launched on Aug. 18, FloGrappling will stream its first live event, the Polaris Professional Jiu-Jitsu Invitational, 2 on Sept. 12 in Cardiff, Wales. The competition, founded in 2014 by grappling apparel brands Scramble and Tatami Fightwear, features eight matches pitting the top BJJ athletes in the world against one another. Top competitors include three-time IBJFF  World Champion Vitor ‘Shaolin’ Ribeiro, 2014 IBJFF World No Gi Champion AJ Agazarm, eight-time IBJFF  World Champion Michelle Nicolini, and Japanese mixed martial artist Masakazu Imanari.

"Polaris is extremely excited to be working with FloSports on bringing our next event to the public,” Scramble founder and owner Matt Benyon said. “We've seen what FloWrestling has been doing on the wrestling scene for many years, so it's our great pleasure to partner with them for the online distribution of Polaris 2."

For more information, visit www.flosports.tv.