Verio,
NBC Sports And GolfServ Jointly Sponsor American Century
Championship [July 13, 2004]
Non-stop coverage of golf championship by NBC Sports
and Verio-hosted Golf.com
Englewood, Colo.; New York City; and
Chicago, July 13, 2004 - Verio, a subsidiary of NTT
Communications and a leading global IP solutions provider;
NBC Sports; and GolfServ, the premier provider of online
golf content, today announced they will continue a joint
sponsorship of the 15th Annual American Century Championship,
providing round-the-clock coverage of the most prestigious
and richest celebrity tournament in golf. The 54-hole
event, played at scenic Edgewood Tahoe Golf Course on
the shores of Lake Tahoe, features current and former
professional athletes and entertainers who have a USGA
registered handicap of 10 or less, competing for $500,000
in prize money.
Live coverage will be broadcast on NBC
Saturday, July 17 from 3-5 p.m. EDT, and on Sunday,
July 18 from 3-6 p.m. EDT. Friday's round will be televised
by The Golf Channel from 4:30-7 p.m. EDT. GolfServ's
Golf.com, hosted by Verio, is the exclusive site of
NBC Sports' golf telecasts and will provide breaking
news stories and real-time scoring updates from the
event. More than 500,000 users are expected to log-on
to Golf.com during the American Century Championship.
As an associate sponsor of the Tahoe
event, Verio will work with Golf.com to provide cutting-edge
hosting solutions for the site's golf content. As the
preferred Web hoster for Golf.com, NTT/VERIO Managed
Hosting provides the site with a complete managed hosting
and security solution, including NTT/VERIO Smart Content
Delivery (SCD), a caching solution further enhancing
the performance of the site during high-profile events.
Mike Caspar, chief technology officer of GolfServ, said
“Our SCD solution has allowed Golf.com to handle
more than five times the traffic previously handled,
without adding additional servers or bandwidth to our
solution. We hit a new high watermark in terms of unique
visitors and page views with each successive major tournament,
and we're expecting another flood of visitors with the
American Century Championship tournament.”
Dozens of celebrities will compete in
this year's event, including well-known names such as
Donald Trump and Carson Daly, plus sports figures Michael
Jordan, John Elway, Peyton Manning and Charles Barkley.
“This event has carved out a permanent
niche in the golf and sports television landscape,”
stated Jon Miller, senior vice president of programming
for NBC Sports. “Verio and GolfServ are industry
leaders and the Golf.com site complements our coverage,
providing fans with around-the-clock detail on what's
happening in Lake Tahoe.”
“Golf.com is one of the best-known
sites in golf, and Verio is pleased to be supporting
their hosting and security needs as the site continues
on its steady growth path. Verio is also excited to
continue its relationship with NBC Sports as a sponsor
of this tournament,” said James Treuting, president
of global sales for Verio. “This major sporting
event presents Verio with a considerable opportunity
to increase visibility with customers and partners and
we appreciate the opportunity to work with these organizations
on continuous coverage of the championship.”
The
American Century Championship has donated more than
$2 million to charity over the years and has set a 2004
goal of raising $750,000 for the Mark Cuban Foundation's
Fallen Patriot Fund, which provides support for the
families of American soldiers killed or injured in Iraq.
Cuban, the billionaire businessman, philanthropist and
owner of the Dallas Mavericks, matches every dollar
raised at the tournament through live auctions, fundraising
events and individual donations from the celebrities
and sponsors.
About
GolfServ
GolfServ is the premier provider of online golf content,
commerce and services. GolfServ's interactive content
and tools allow golfers to follow the professional tour,
improve and manage their game, track and analyze their
online handicap, search for courses in the U.S. and
Canada, find instruction, purchase golf equipment and
much more. GolfServ distributes its content to hundreds
of sites across the Internet, including GolfServ's flagship
site, Golf.com, Yahoo! Golf, MSN.com, FoxSports.com,
the America Online service, NBCSports.com, MSNBC.com,
Knight Ridder's RealCities Network, NYTimes.com, Excite
and iWon.com. With this comprehensive network, GolfServ
is the leading conduit between golfers and companies
that want to reach golfers, and delivers the most cost-effective,
targeted and highly efficient marketing program on the
Web. Founded in 1998, Chicago-based GolfServ is backed
by NBC Sports, The New York Times Company, Comdisco
Ventures and angel investors. To learn more about GolfServ,
visit http://www.golf.com or http://www.golfserv.com
or call 1.877.465-3337.
Verio
and the Verio logo are trademarks and/or service marks
of Verio Inc. in the United States and other countries.
All other names are trademarks or registered marks of
their respective owners. ©2004 Verio Inc. All rights
reserved.
About
Verio
Verio Inc. is a wholly owned subsidiary of NTT Communications
(NTT Com), which provides complementary global network
access reaching over 200 countries worldwide. Verio
is one of the world's largest operator of Web sites
for businesses and a leading provider of global IP solutions.
NTT Com and Verio market their global IP solutions under
the NTT/VERIO brand. The company offers businesses a
broad range of Internet services, including Web hosting,
dedicated access, virtual private networks, and managed
service offerings, among other enhanced services. Verio
supports its operations with highly reliable and scalable
global infrastructure and systems including the NTT/VERIO
Global IP Network, and provides Web hosting services
to customers in more than 146 countries. The combination
of Verio and NTT Com offers services to meet the growing
and diverse needs of all businesses, including small
to medium businesses, large global enterprises and multi-national
corporations. More information can be found at www.verio.com
and www.ntt.com/index-e.html. |
