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Sofanatics goes after social-network sports fans

Sports is one of the biggest topics on Twitter, yet until Univision began hosting the World Cup soccer championships online for free, many people seem to have been unaware of high-bandwidth sports services like ESPN3, MLB.TV, and NBCSports.com.

Sofanatics is a Helsinki-based startup aimed directly at people who keep a computer in their lap while watching games on TV. Its differentiating feature (from, say, status-update aggregator Twackle) is video web chat.

The company announced an undisclosed amount of seed funding from Jaiku founders Jyri Engeström and Petteri Koponen of Lifeline Ventures, plus Finnish football star and London Times columnist Aki Riihilahti.

Sofanatics doesn’t bother with trying to create yet another social network. You log in with your Facebook account. CEO Toni Laturi says, “it’s like having your friends next to you on your sofa.”

One thing I’ve learned as a reporter is that there’s a huge demographic of sports fans who’ve figured out Facebook and Twitter without ever coming near VentureBeat, Mashable or TechCrunch. They’re on the other side of the geek/jock firewall. Sofanatics does sports fans the favor of sticking to talking about the game, without gushing about how awesome Twitter downtime is. That’s my job.

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