Eurosport Arabia celebrates a year of winning online and mobile sports coverage and launches new services for the coming Asian Cup

Eurosport Arabia, the web and mobile sports portal developed by du and Eurosport, celebrates its first birthday having already established itself as one of the top destinations for Arab sports fans across the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). It is now also available on anayou, the online and mobile social networking and entertainment hub recently launched by du.

Developed by Arabs for Arabs, the site has become popular with the region’s advertisers and those wishing to target the passionate sports communities throughout the MENA. Last year, Eurosport Arabia formed key partnerships with a number of brands including Visa, Nike and Etihad Airways.

Laurent-Eric Le Lay, Eurosport’s Chairman and CEO, says: “With over half a million online unique visitors each month and nearly a hundred million page views since launch, Eurosport Arabia has established itself as a reference in the Arab sporting world. Our focus on finding a unique voice that sparks the passion of sports fans combined with the depth and quality of our editorial coverage has clearly proved successful.”

“This first anniversary is a significant milestone and the ongoing success of Eurosport Arabia in the diverse and dynamic MENA demonstrates the strength of our global digital strategy, and our increasing appeal for those wishing to advertise in the region.”

The success of Eurosport Arabia reinforces Eurosport’s position as a leading sports entertainment group with a global digital footprint. Eurosport Arabia is Eurosport’s 11th local language site and it leverages the expertise of the Eurosport network to keep passionate MENA sports fans up to date and in the know.

Eurosport Arabia is published both in Arabic and in French; it is available on-line as well as via a mobile portal (http://m.eurosport.anayou.com), and apps for Apple iPhone and RIM BlackBerry smartphones.

“Eurosport Arabia is the first project launched by anayou: its success confirms that residents of Digital Arabia are hungry for quality, relevant content that’s tailored to their interests, says Raghu Venkataraman, Chief Strategy and Investment Officer for du. By expanding our presence beyond the web to mobile platforms, we are building a comprehensive platform for brands to promote their products and services by targeting consumers wherever they may be.”

After recently becoming part of anayou, the social networking and entertainment online and mobile portal power by du, Eurosport Arabia will be deploying new digital services in the coming weeks. A set of online and mobile forums will be rolled out so as to facilitate content browsing and access to sports results from across the Arab world, in time for the coming Asian Cup which will be held in January in Qatar.