The CBS eye sat on SportsLine's home page. In 1997 the Fort Lauderdale startup signed a deal with CBS, and its site became CBS SportsLine, promoted on the network's broadcasts of events such as the NCAA basketball tournament and the 1998 Winter Olympics. Fans came for live scores, stats, news and fantasy leagues they could play all season. When SportsLine went public in November 1997, few websites had a television network pushing viewers their way.

Michael Levy's Sports Wire

Michael Levy founded the company in Florida in February 1994. The bet was that sports fans wanted more scores, numbers and news than a newspaper or a nightly highlight show could give them, and that they would come back every day. SportsLine sold advertising and merchandise and charged for premium content and fantasy games. The CBS deal traded a stake in the company for promotion that SportsLine could never have afforded to buy.

Back to the Network

SportsLine priced its offering at $8 a share in November 1997 and listed on Nasdaq. The stock soared in the internet boom and fell after the crash, as ESPN and others built rival sites. The company renamed itself SportsLine.com, cut costs and leaned harder on its CBS partnership. In 2004 Viacom, then the parent of CBS, bought the rest of SportsLine. The site later became CBSSports.com.

Cover: The Boxers, Jean Louis André Théodore Géricault. Art Institute of Chicago, public domain. Chosen for two boxers squaring off before a crowd (sport, live).