• by Gavin O'Malley  @mp_gavin, November 25, 2013

Riding a wave of investor interest in digital sports media, the Rant Media Network just secured $3 million in a round led by Hudson Bay Capital.
 
Rant plans to use the capital to expand its current properties and roll out new ones -- all with an emphasis on mobile.
 
Founded in 2012, Rant is not your traditional media property. Rather, Rant says it pays a network of roughly 300 writers to produce anywhere between 200 and 300 articles per day.
 
Brett Rosin, co-founder and CEO of Rant Sports, says the company is differentiating itself in several key ways -- the first being its “edgy content.”
 
“We encourage all our writers to take a hard stance of personal opinion on a subject and defend it with fact,” Rosin told Online Media Daily on Monday. “The other is we have a system that allows us to pay each and every single one of our writers. It's a well-known industry standard where a lot of writers don't and will never be paid for writing for most sites.”
 
The “network” model appears to be working. In October, Rant Sports was ranked as the second-largest independent sports platform -- and 12th largest sports platform in the United States -- according to the company, citing comScore data. Across its entire network, Rant Media expects to rake in upwards of 20 million unique visitors -- and 300 million pageviews -- in November.
 
Pushing its reach through partnership, Rant Sports currently has a partnership with USA Today for content-sharing and advertising. In the past, it has also worked with Fox Sports as a partner for content sharing.
 
As for remaining competitive in 2014, “I believe it's going to be about staying hungry,” according to Rosin. “It's going to be important to remain focused.”
 
In some cases, however, focus apparently means expanding into untested content categories. Rant Media recently debuted Rant Lifestyle and Rant Chic to expand its coverage in the areas of lifestyle, fitness and exercise, entertainment and celebrities.
 
After launching just over a month ago, Rant Lifestyle is anticipating upwards of 6 million unique visitors -- and 100 to 200 million pageviews -- in November. The company expects Rant Chic to produce 1.5 million to 2 million unique visitors -- and 20 million to 25 million pageviews -- this month.
 
The investor group -- which includes interClick founders Barry Honig and Michael Brauser -- has also given a firm commitment for an additional $5 million investment at a step-up valuation in the coming months.