• by Shankar Gupta , September 8, 2006

EPSN.com has tapped contextual ad network Quigo to power pay-per-click text ads on the site, the companies announced Thursday.

Quigo's white-label platform, AdSonar, will replace Yahoo, which currently provides text link ads across the ESPN.com site. Yahoo will continue to provide mobile services as well as maps and Web search, a Yahoo spokesman said. The deal will take effect later this year.

Other sports publishers in Quigo's network include PGATour.com, GolfDigest.com, GolfLink.com, and Scout.com. In addition to serving ads placed by Quigo, ESPN will also be able to sell to text ads from its own site using the AdSonar platform, which will go live later this fall.

Tim Dolman, vice president of strategy and business development for ESPN New Media, said the company moved to Quigo because its platform offered advertisers more targeting options. Quigo will enable advertisers to target ESPN in particular within the network, and to target individual pages, teams and players. "That was an important element," Dolman said, adding that Yahoo did not allow advertisers to arrange for their ads to appear only on ESPN.

One of Quigo's shareholders is Steamboat Enterprises--the venture capital arm of the Walt Disney Corporation, which owns ESPN. Dolman said that Disney's interest in Quigo did not drive the decision to use its ad system.