Lycos in Ad, Site Design Deal for Superbowl.com

The National Football League and Lycos Inc. said they have jointly designed and built the official Web site for Super Bowl XXXIII.

Superbowl.com features interactive, up-to- date content on the game, the players and the stories behind the event. The site is the only NFL-sanctioned Super Bowl Web site, Lycos said.

As part of this alliance, Lycos will be featured in television programming leading up to the Super Bowl including the NFL’s “Under the Helmet” (2 p.m. EST on Saturday, Jan. 30 on Fox TV) and the “NFL All-Star Comedy Blitz” (8 p.m. EST on Saturday, Jan. 30 on CBS TV).

Lycos advertising also will run during the “Road to the Super Bowl” show (5 p.m. EST on Saturday, Jan. 30 on Fox TV) and a Lycos ad will be included in the official Super Bowl XXXIII program. Additional TV advertising will promote the official Super Bowl site on CBS, ABC and Fox throughout the playoffs. Spending was not disclosed.

Lycos said it will sell advertising sponsorships on the Superbowl.com site and the resulting revenues will be shared with the NFL.

“Lycos reaches more than 45 percent of the online audience in the U.S. and the NFL is the most popular sport in the country,” said Ann Kirschner, vice president of NFL Interactive. “Lycos’ technology and content have helped make the official Super Bowl site extremely easy to navigate, informative and fun for fans of the NFL.”

The site will include:

• Live chats with NFL players, coaches and analysts
• Interactive fan areas including chat rooms, message boards and instant polling
• Video and audio files of current match-ups and the previous 32 Super Bowl games
• Free fan homepage building using Lycos’ homepage builder
• Super Bowl and NFL trivia
• Searchable football image gallery including pictures of favorite NFL stars in action
• Official NFL and Super Bowl XXXIII merchandise
• Travel and CityGuide information on Miami and ProPlayer Stadium, site of Super Bowl XXXIII
• Online sweepstakes for a free trip for two to Super Bowl XXXIV in Atlanta, GA in January 2000, plus thousands of instant win prizes including NFL and Lycos merchandise
• Football related merchandise from Barnes & Noble, CDNow, Just Balls, NetMarket, American Greetings and AuctionConnect

The Lycos Network is composed of Lycos.com, Tripod, WhoWhere, Angelfire, MailCity, HotBot, HotWired, Wired News, Webmonkey and Suck.com.