Sports.ru

What is Sports.ru?

Sports.ru is a Russian sports website. The front page retrieved on 20 September 2026 carried football, hockey, basketball, tennis, boxing and MMA, motorsport, figure skating, biathlon and skiing, with news, live match coverage, statistics, photo and video, fantasy leagues across several sports, betting guides and bookmaker ratings, a shop, and a user-blog section the site calls the tribune. Its footer carries the line «copyright © 1998-2026, Sports.ru».^[1]

Ownership has a dated record. RBC reported on 26 February 2021 that Eskadra-Capital, the investment fund of Alexey Nechaev, founder of the cosmetics company Faberlic, had acquired 100 per cent of Sports.ru. The sellers were German Tkachenko with 67.75 per cent, Dmitry Navosha with 23.75 per cent, Dmitry Stepanov with 8 per cent and the blogger Yuri Dud with 0.5 per cent. RBC reported that Nechaev declined to disclose the price and that market participants it spoke to put it between 25 and 40 million dollars, with 25 million described as the more realistic figure. RBC quoted Nechaev saying he had no wish to influence editorial policy and was simply an investor.^[2] Sports.ru published its own report of the same transaction the same day, adding that the sale took in the United network of sports bloggers and the marketing agency Fever Pitch, that Navosha and Stepanov joined the board as observers, and quoting its chief executive Mark Ten on a plan to build a group of thematic media and services.^[3] No later change of ownership could be retrieved.

What does Sports.ru cover?

The sports covered on the front page retrieved on 20 September 2026 run from football and hockey through basketball, tennis, boxing and MMA, motorsport, figure skating, biathlon and skiing, with live scheduling and match updates running through the day.^[1]

Two features distinguish the site from a straightforward news desk. The first is the user-blog network: the tribune section carries material written by readers rather than staff, and the 2021 transaction included a separate network of sports bloggers.^[1][3] The second is the fantasy and prediction layer — fantasy leagues across several sports, betting guides and bookmaker ratings — which sits alongside the editorial output.^[1]

The site also reports on the Russian media industry itself: its report of 15 February 2026 that the printed edition of Советский спорт would end from 1 March 2026, citing the journal Родина, is an example of that beat.^[1]

How large is Sports.ru's audience?

No audited current audience figure for the site could be retrieved. Mediascope's WEB-Index is the measurement the Russian market uses for internet resources; Mediascope states that its internet data covers the population aged twelve and over and that detailed reports go to project subscribers, and the public dashboard could not be retrieved.^[5] The figures available for the domain come from traffic-estimation services, which are not audited measurement.

Two dated figures from the 2021 transaction can be reported, and they do not measure the same thing. RBC stated, on Mediascope data, that in December 2020 the monthly Russian audience of Sports.ru on mobile and desktop devices exceeded 5 million people aged twelve and over.^[2] Sports.ru's own account of the transaction put monthly users of the platform at more than 20 million, without a stated geography or measurement source.^[3] The first is a Russian audience aged twelve and over for one month; the second is the site's own figure for the platform.

For pick-up by other media, Medialogia's sports-sector rating for 1 April to 30 June 2026 places Sports.ru tenth of its twenty entries with a citation index of 168.94, against 2,256.64 for Championat.com and 1,206.09 for Sport24.ru. Medialogia states that the index draws on more than 111,000 sources and excludes systematic and anomalous mutual cross-citation by algorithm. That index counts citations, not readers.^[4]

Since when has Sports.ru existed?

RBC's report of 26 February 2021 states that Sports.ru was established in 1998 by Dmitry Navosha, who is described there as a citizen of Belarus.^[2] The site's own footer carries a copyright line beginning in 1998, which is consistent with that year.^[1] No document establishing a day and month of launch could be retrieved, and the year rests on a single secondary source together with the site's own copyright line.

The corporate history since then has a firmer record. Before February 2021 the shareholding was divided between German Tkachenko with 67.75 per cent, Dmitry Navosha with 23.75 per cent, Dmitry Stepanov with 8 per cent and Yuri Dud with 0.5 per cent; in that month Eskadra-Capital took 100 per cent. RBC reported that the international projects Tribuna.com and Betting Insider were excluded from the transaction and remained separate.^[2][3]

Why does Sports.ru matter in Russia's sport?

The site's documented distinctness is structural rather than a matter of scale. It combines a staff news desk with a reader-written blog network and a fantasy and prediction layer, and the 2021 transaction treated the blogger network and a marketing agency as separate assets alongside the site.^[1][3]

Its ownership is documented and privately held: RBC's report of 26 February 2021 records a single owner, Eskadra-Capital, with the price undisclosed and market estimates of 25 to 40 million dollars, and quotes the buyer disclaiming influence over editorial policy.^[2]

Its measured pick-up by other media is tenth of twenty entries in Medialogia's sports-sector rating for the second quarter of 2026, at 168.94.^[4] The December 2020 figure of more than 5 million monthly Russian users aged twelve and over remains the most specific audience number that could be retrieved for the site, and it is nearly six years old.^[2]