Rivals is a service provided by On3.com that focuses on college football, basketball, and softball recruiting in the United States. It releases individual high school athlete rankings each year.

History

The service was founded in 1996 and launched as Rivals.com in November 1998 in Seattle by Jim Heckman, Shannon Terry, William Sornsin, and other investors.

In February 2000, the company raised $35 million from SoftBank Group. In total, the company raised $90 million in venture capital from investors including SoftBank Group, Hummer Winblad Venture Partners, Intel, and Fox Digital Entertainment.

In December 2000, Rivals.com switched to a subscription business model. By March 2001, it had 20,000 paying subscribers.

In January 2000, Rivals acquired AllianceSports, a regional network that primarily covered college sports in the Southeastern United States, founded by Shannon Terry, for $3 million.

At its peak in 2000, Rivals.com employed close to 200 people, operated a network of 700 independent websites, filed for an initial public offering worth $100 million led by Goldman Sachs, and sponsored the Hula Bowl in Hawaii.

In April 2001, the bursting of the dot-com bubble caused the operator of the website, Rival Networks, to cease operations, though it never sought bankruptcy protection. Shannon Terry then bought back the assets for $500,000.

In June 2007, Yahoo acquired Rivals.com for approximately $100 million.

In April 2025, On3.com, led by Shannon Terry, acquired Rivals and Yahoo Sports acquired an ownership stake in On3.

Rivals Football

#1 Ranked Football Players

Rivals Football Camp Series

Beginning in 2012, Rivals hosted "Rivals Camp Series", which features assessment camps and athletic combines for skilled high school athletes in the United States. Notable players to have attended the camp include Lamar Jackson, Joe Burrow, Saquon Barkley, Patrick Mahomes, Puka Nacua, Sauce Gardner and Jayden Daniels.

Rivals Basketball

#1 Ranked Basketball Players

References

External links