Comprehensive Sports Information, the home of Covers.com, chooses Ireland for its European Operations Centre.

`Ireland is a great place to create a headquarters' - CSI

Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment Mary Harney T.D., confirmed today that Comprehensive Sports Information (CSI) of Canada,a worldleader in on-line sports news and statistics with its Covers.com website, has established its European Operations Centre in Galway, following discussions with IDA Ireland.

The Centre - known as Covers Media Group - will manage CSI's e.commerce operations and serve as the headquarters for European expansion. It is to create 31 new high quality jobs over four years in content distribution, technical support, customer services, editorial and shared services. With recruitment underway, the jobs will be mainly for graduates with skills in computer science, journalism and customer service. It is located at the Campus Innovation Centre, National University of Ireland (NUI) Galway.

The Tánaiste, welcoming the new Centre, said, "the attraction of CSI to Ireland fits well with the Government's strategies, implemented by IDA Ireland, for the future growth of the digital media sector here and for regional development. It will act as a catalyst in attracting other companies in the digital media sector to consider Galway as a location for such activities."

Paul Lavers, founder of Comprehensive Sports, on choosing Ireland, said "Our on-line properties, such as Covers.com, have experienced rapid growth in North America. We want to leverage our brand and knowledge of providing a unique mix of news and statistics on Covers.com to create new properties for the European market. We think there are tremendous opportunities for us in Europe and Ireland is a great place to create a headquarters."

The opening of Covers Media Group is the first major step in establishing the Covers.com brand outside of North America. In addition to creating and growing on-line sports properties for Europe, it will also manage existing e.commerce properties: Covers Experts and Consensus Club. The Galway Centre will be the cornerstone of Comprehensive Sports' expansion into Europe and will lead all business activities in the region.

Covers Media Group is led by long time Comprehensive Sports executive Bill Organ, who has relocated to Galway to manage the Centre. Mr. Organ was instrumental in the growth of Comprehensive Sports' web portal, Covers.com, and led the development of the editorial team, most recently heading-up the operation for the organisation.

To contact the Galway Centre -

Covers Media Group, Unit 5, Campus Innovation Centre, NUI Galway, Ireland.

Tel: +353 (91) 862 867

(A copy of this release is also available on the Departments website @www.djei.ie/press.htm)

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Notes for Editors

About CSI:

Comprehensive Sports Information of Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, is a world leading on-line media organisation for sports statistics, odds and news from a gaming perspective. Comprehensive Sports operates websites such as Covers.com and Coversexperts.com and was founded in 1995. In addition to publishing on-line properties, Comprehensive Sports provides content to companies in the on-line and wireless industries such as USA Today and MSNBC.

For more information please visit: http://www.covers.com.

Media contact for CSI and Covers.com:

Mr. Rob Begg, Director of Marketing

Tel: +1 902 835 3320 Ext: 228 or e.mail: rbegg@covers.com

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