Greg Bobolo is our Tectorian of the Week for July 11th, 2014.
Greg Bobolo and the team at Tectoria’s own SendtoNews have signed an agreement for the global syndication of short videos for Major League Baseball and Minor League Baseball, a deal SendtoNews estimates will bring in more than $100 million over five years.
The vast library of content generated during the 2,500-game baseball season is the “holy grail of sports video highlights,” according to Greg (think of all the baseball highlights, interviews, top plays you have ever watched on TV), and now SendtoNews has the global syndication rights “across a variety of platforms.”
The Wharf Street-based company generates revenue via the ads attached to each video. Ad revenue from the video is distributed between the rights holder, media outlets and SendtoNews.
Prior to MLB, SendtoNews had already inked deals with NASCAR, the American Hockey League, and other organizations. These sports highlights are sent to more than 1,000 newsrooms all over North America.
Not bad for a tech startup that’s just four years old.
SendtoNews is the based on the vision of Keith Wells, a veteran broadcaster and familiar local face who understood that a rapidly changing media landscape presented a lot of opportunities.
In response, Keith developed a platform that allowed non-accredited media to relay video from the 2010 Olympics to their local station.
Greg Bobolo then led an A-Team of some Tectoria’s most talented tech veterans to transform Keith’s vision into a grand-slam success story.
Before joining SendtoNews, Greg Bobolo had already founded and built two startups into multimillion-dollar operations in seven years, winning him an Ernst & Young Entrepreneur Award finalist nomination at just 31 years old.
“When I was brought on to SendtoNews I saw enormous potential,” he told BIV recently, “News organizations have a huge need for sports content and are lacking in resources to purchase it. I saw a clear direction for the company and started developing partnerships.”
Greg’s hard work pounding the pavement in Los Angeles, London, New York and other global media hubs has paid off.
By the end of 2013, Victoria’s own SendtoNews was the largest provider of short-form sports video content in Canada.
“We have a digital network that sees millions and millions of viewers every month, and it’s growing steadily at about 100 per cent month-over-month,” Greg told the Globe and Mail about a year ago.
By the end of 2014, Greg is predicting there will be more than 100 million monthly viewers on the SendtoNews network in North America.
Besides Greg’s energy and drive, what sets him apart is his ability to “network at a high level” to develop the partnerships that drive SendtoNews’ success.
He estimates he’s met with over 120 sports owners, from the NHL to the NBA, preferring to go directly to the top.
Never feeling self-conscious about his Tectorian “small island in the Pacific Ocean” roots, Greg always feels confident when negotiating with a room full of Ivy League graduates, relying on “doing his homework” to secure a deal.
Greg Bobolo and the team at SendtoNews provide a lot of inspiration for fellow Tectorians trying to make it big. Congratulations on the newest major league partnership, and we’re pretty sure this is just the beginning.
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