Roundtable is shaping the future landscape of sports journalism and media, and that is illustrated in their latest news announced a merger with digital payments company RYVYL (NASDAQ: RVYL). The $75 million deal aims to meld the innovative media platform with financial technology as announced in a press release on Sept. 30.

What does this mean for the future of sports journalism and a sense of community in this landscape? Here’s how Roundtable is pioneering the charge.

For those who have interacted on Roundtable, it’s clear that it distinguishes itself from typical media companies with an emphasis on community and fan-driven experience.

The Web3 digital media SaaS platform has made it possible for us publishers and journalists to not just create premium content, but to monetize that distribution while also enhancing the experience, and highlighting the voices, of the fans of sports teams within our growing network.

With over 150 Roundtable journalists at time of launch covering a variety of teams across college football and major college sports, the NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL, and European Soccer, the communities are poised to grow in this landscape. Thanks to this merger, RYVYL’s global payment infrastructure will improve the fan experience while introducing new streams of revenue and the ability for Roundtable to expand at a fastidious rate.

That will include distribution growth for Roundtable’s media clients including Yahoo, TheStreet and Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) European Football Club.

In layman’s terms: this is more than just another source of sports news and content. It’s an innovative and intelligent one that is looking to directly involve fans in an experience that they’ve been pushed away from with creators and content sites directly and have been funneled into various social network sites. We hope to be a landing board for premium content and fan experience and interaction.

Roundtable founder James Heckman will become the CEO of the combined company under the merger set to close at the end of 2025. Heckman is known for turning Maven (NYSE: AREN) into a media powerhouse worth nine-figures, with that work including Sports Illustrated, Maxim, History.com, and more than 300 premium brands, with a reach of more than 150 million users monthly.

For fans who have been interacting on Roundtable, and any new fans this may reach, we hope you can see how the brand name itself outlines what we’re aiming to build. This isn’t just another attempt at a Twitter, Blue Sky, Threads, etc. It’s one where fans can directly interact with each other as well as the premium journalists on the site, contribute to game threads and community posts, as well as create their own and feel the importance of their voices in these spaces.

For journalists who have felt the effects of the corporate media landscape, one that fails to keep up with changing times and cutting-edge technology, this is a way towards a new future that can sustain a living and have a greater reach to not just those skimming over content, but also those who want to talk about it. We’re grateful to have you here with us.