FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: TAKKLE
JEFF RUTHERFORD
[email protected]
413.369.4128

TAKKLE AND BASEBALL FACTORY ANNOUNCE STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIP

BASEBALL FACTORY, LEADER IN PLAYER DEVELOPMENT AND COLLEGE PLACEMENT FOR HIGH SCHOOL ATHLETES, GAINS SOCIAL NETWORKING PLATFORM VIA TAKKLE.COM
 

NEW YORK – June 15, 2007 – TAKKLE, Inc. (www.takkle.com), the premier online social network for high school sports, today announced a partnership with Baseball Factory (BF), the industry leader in player development and college placement. Since its founding in 1994, over 15,000 BF players have successfully been placed in college baseball programs, while more than 2,000 BF players have been drafted and over 150 BF players are currently in the major leagues, including All-Stars Roy Halladay, David Wright, and Brian Roberts.

With this new partnership, TAKKLE will provide Baseball Factory with its unique social networking platform, which includes high school athletes, coaches, and scouts. Via TAKKLE, baseball players entering tournaments will be able to upload videos of their best game and practice highlights, scout and rank upcoming opponents, post game and season stats, and showcase their talent to sports fans, college teams, and scouts across the country.

“We are thrilled to be aligned with Baseball Factory, the premier baseball scouting and training organization for high school athletes,” said David Birnbaum, CEO and co-founder of TAKKLE. “Through this partnership, TAKKLE will provide our unique brand of social networking to the Baseball Factory program, enabling some of the top baseball players in the country to upload stats and highlights, view top-tier instructional videos, and compare themselves against the best athletes in over 25 different sports.”

“We’ve built Baseball Factory into the leader in baseball instruction and college placement for high school baseball players. Our partnership with TAKKLE gives us an exciting social networking platform to communicate with current Baseball Factory players and other high school baseball players looking for that edge to improve their game,” said Steve Sclafani, Baseball Factory’s CEO and Founder. “In addition, TAKKLE’s partnerships with the leading sports brands in the country will help drive Baseball Factory’s growth.”

TAKKLE’s partnership with Baseball Factory follows the company’s launch of BATTLE ON TAKKLE (www.takkle.com/battle), a competition in which high school athletes compete against one another via online video. Sponsors for the BATTLE ON TAKKLE include P&G’s Tampax brand and MET-Rx.

The BATTLE ON TAKKLE launch followed the announcement of TAKKLE’s strategic partnership with SPORTS ILLUSTRATED. TAKKLE is now the exclusive high school nomination platform for SPORTS ILLUSTRATED’s iconic Faces in the Crowd feature. In addition, TAKKLE features a weekly Video Face in the Crowd in both the magazine and on SI.com with the athletes’ video highlights and profile available exclusively on TAKKLE (www.takkle.com/videofaces). Recent Video Faces in the Crowd honorees include top high school athletes across the nation, including Trey Vice, Chase Mejia, Blake Lawrence, Kaitlyn Hiltz and Darquavis Tucker.

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About TAKKLE:

TAKKLE, the premier online social network for high school sports, connects athletes, coaches, fans, friends and recruiters for all high school athletics. On TAKKLE, high school athletes can track and compare their stats, post team schedules, scout rivals, and share videos and photos with their teammates and opponents.

TAKKLE offers advertisers and marketers the ability to strategically target a passionate, engaged audience of high school athletes and fans.  TAKKLE’s investors include Wasserman Media Group LLC, Greycroft Partners LLC, IJ Smith Enterprises LLC, and Jack Schneider, Managing Director at Allen & Company, Inc.

About Baseball Factory:

The Baseball Factory provides baseball players nationwide with the very best instruction, tournament competition, and college planning and placement. From day one, the Baseball Factory has understood the challenges facing high school players heading to college. That is why the Baseball Factory has developed programs to provide players, parents, high school coaches, college coaches, and professional scouts with year round guidance and information so that they all can benefit from Baseball Factory’s longstanding relationships in the baseball community.  The Baseball Factory holds over 125 events nationwide each year and has over 30 full-time employees on staff featuring some of the best scouts, former college coaches and professional players in the business.  In 2004, Baseball Factory acquired Team One Baseball, the nation’s leading showcase company for top-flight high school baseball players.