• by Erik Sass , Staff Writer @eriksass1, February 11, 2015

It's hard to think of anything better suited to social media than spectator sports, what with all the victories to gloat over, highlights to share, rumors to mill, and stats to bandy about in endless debates. In fact, there are now a whole passel (that’s a technical term) of new social networks and social media platforms devoted to professional sports, promising fans closer connections with their favorite players.

One of the networks, Sqor Sports, features news updates, videos and photos, and collects content posted by current and former pro athletes on other social networks like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, aggregating it in one place for easier consumption and interaction. The network offers athletes additional income through a revenue sharing model. Because its users are nothing if not competitive, the network offers athletes an “AthleteSqor” index to measure their digital influence relative to their peers. Sqor sells this data to marketers as a measure of return-on-investment for their social media campaigns.

Sqor recently got a boost when Brett Favre joined the board of directors; Favre has been helping raise the social network’s profile, including an interview earlier this week with CNBC Fast Money and Sqor CEO Brian Wilhite at NASDAQ.

As noted, there is plenty of competition in the sports social media arena. Last month Sprylogics launched a new app, Breaking Sports, that allows sports fans and fantasy players to see sports news aggregated from all their favorite social media channels, conveniently collected in one virtual spot.

Then there’s BreatheSport, a mobile platform with a broadcast-style area called the “lockerroom,” where players and pundits can post their responses to breaking news and live events, and a more social area, the “fan zone,” where fans and players can interact with each other.

Another new sports-focused social network, Fancred, allows fans to share memorable moments from sporting events via pictures, gifs, and text. And yet another new social network for sports fans, Sportlobster, includes a “fanzones” section with game scores and blogs from teams, players, and pundits.