Going with the Flo

From Niche to National

Words by Sam Lauron  Photos by Shelby Bella

Founded in 2006 by brothers, Mark and Martin Floreani, FloSports was born out of a personal desire to see more coverage of nontraditional sports. It was this desire that drove FloSports to become the innovator in sports media.

As track and wrestling athletes, the Floreani brothers were looking for more information about their sporting events but couldn’t find any coverage. So, they set out to capture the stories that no one else was telling. They packed up a van and traveled across the country, cameras in hand, determined to shed light on nontraditional sports by filming live track and wrestling events and interviewing coaches and athletes.

While the athletes and organizations they encountered were receptive to the brothers and appreciative of the coverage, these groups had long been underserved and didn’t realize how this attention could make an impact on their sport. 

Back then, content and social media were completely different than now. “There was no understanding of what that coverage could mean to a community or sport,” explains Ryan Fenton, Director of Global Rights Acquisition for FloSports. 

Ryan, who has been with FloSports for 11 years, has seen the company through its humble beginnings and tremendous growth. In fact, he was one of five who lived and worked out of a two-bedroom house in East Austin while they were building the company. Living and working in a crowded space was not without its challenges; it meant that “every minute was work,” he remembers. But being on the Eastside, he adds, provided a “sense of community” that allowed them to keep going strong. 

As the videos they shared online gained traction, so did the company. What began with filming and posting one sporting event a week, turned into one a day, and eventually, FloSports discovered a new channel for delivering content: live streaming. Transitioning to live streaming marked a turning point for the company that allowed them to expand their offerings and launch subscriptions. With the shift into live streaming, they were not only able to “start investing more into the sports we were currently in,” Ryan says, “but also expand into sports that were lacking coverage and content and the ability for people to watch the events.” 

FloSports has since expanded their network to include more than 20 sports channels—everything from dance and cheer to grappling and rodeo—and employs hundreds of passionate people, but the core of what they do remains the same. Their mission is to share the stories of all sports communities, whether traditional or nontraditional. “What ESPN does for football, we’re going to do for marching bands,” he explains. 

This growth took the company from working out of East Austin homes to moving into an office downtown, a natural progression for growing startups. But they eventually made their way back to the Eastside, which Ryan says, “felt like home.” The once small, niche company has transformed into a national, and even international, one that has grown alongside the community. “To be able to grow the way we did and come back to the Eastside was really cool,” Ryan smiles. “East Austin is part of the fabric of who we are.” 

All In This Together
It probably comes as no surprise that many FloSports employees are sports enthusiasts, if not athletes themselves. Staying active by participating in group workouts or joining outside leagues is “definitely something that is embraced,” Ryan says. 

Contact:
flosports.tv
@flosports