LONDON: Footballco, the world鈥檚 largest digital football content and media business, announced the purchase of Kooora, the largest digital sports publisher in the Middle East, in a mid-eight-figure all-cash deal.

Kooora, the Dubai-based online sports publisher, has dominated online sports news and data in the Middle East since its launch in Bahrain in 2002 by founder Khalid Aldoseri.

Published in Arabic and English and reaching an average of 25 million unique users monthly, Kooora has always been known for its immediacy, promptness, consistency, credibility and integrity in covering sports news.

Koora also amasses 7 million followers on its social media and covers more than 42 different sports, 85 percent of which is about football.

The acquisition will complement Footballco鈥檚 current footprint in the Middle East which is served by seven local editions of GOAL, published in both English and Arabic, and will more than double Footballco鈥檚 audience in the region and increase its monthly global reach to 640 million fans.

The acquisition comes at a time when fans across the world are looking ahead to the first FIFA World Cup in the Middle East.

Kooora鈥檚 founder, Khalid Aldoseri, said: 鈥淚鈥檓 proud to have founded Kooora and to have taken it to this level and I鈥檓 excited to see how far it can grow as part of Footballco.

鈥淪ince the day it was launched, we worked hard to build and maintain the pioneering position of Kooora.com at all levels.

鈥淪etting standards and sustaining them is one challenge that was not subject to any compromise.

鈥淲e look forward to Kooora.com growing and expanding onto higher realms as part of Footballco, striving to always serve a valuable and precious Arabic-speaking user base of sports fans.

鈥淚t is all about the solidarity, synchrony, harmony and hard work that have always been common elements within Kooora鈥檚 work environment.鈥�

Mustafa Mohamed, COO of Karmic Consultancy, the management company of Kooora.com, said: 鈥淭he family and team spirit brought us to this point. Thanks to each member in the team and look forward to achieving more great results with the massive global value Footballco would bring to the formula.鈥�

Footballco CEO Juan Delgado said: 鈥淜ooora supercharges our global and Middle East footprint at a time when more eyes will be on the sport and the region.

鈥淎s a core market for Footballco, being the number one football platform in the Middle East is a must, allowing us to serve its young, growing and football-mad population.

鈥淚t is an affluent digital market, which allows us to continue to populate our map with leading local publishing brands alongside GOAL鈥檚 global scale.鈥�

To further expand Footballco鈥檚 presence in the Middle East, the company will be moving its regional headquarters to 萝莉视频, integrating both Kooora and GOAL鈥檚 operations in the region.