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RULE 425
FILER: QUOKKA SPORTS, INC.
SUBJECT COMPANY: TOTAL SPORTS INC.
SUBJECT COMPANY SEC FILE NO.: 333-90905
[TOTAL SPORTS LOGO]
NEWS RELEASE
Contact: Meredith Geisler
Total Sports
(919) 573-8081
[email protected]
TOTAL SPORTS TO OFFER REAL-TIME WORLD SERIES
COVERAGE ON TOTALBASEBALL.COM
The World Series TotalCast(TM) coverage will provide fans throughout the
world with real-time coverage over the Internet and on digital wireless devices.
RALEIGH, NC (OCTOBER 19, 2000) - Baseball fans throughout the world will be able
to experience the excitement of Major League Baseball's (MLB) 2000 World Series
between the New York Yankees and New York Mets over the Internet and on their
digital wireless devices by logging on to www.totalbaseball.com. Total Sports,
an official licensee of Major League Baseball Enterprises, is in its fourth year
of providing live TotalCast (real-time cybercast) coverage of the Fall Classic
on www.totalbaseball.com.
Developed and hosted by Total Sports, an online sports media company,
www.totalbaseball.com offers comprehensive Internet coverage of the World
Series, including complete player and team profiles, real-time pitch-by-pitch
game coverage, a real-time scoreboard, news and notes and a myriad of
statistics.
Primary features of Total Sports' TotalCast(TM) World Series coverage include:
- GAME STATUS - Fans can view the position of each pitch for the player
at-bat as well as a textual description of all the current action. The
fielders and runners on base are depicted graphically and the current
pitcher, batter and on-deck batter are listed at all times.
- SITUATIONAL STATISTICS - Includes a complete breakdown of a player's
batting results for different situations encountered during the 2000
season. For example, a batter's average, hits, doubles, triples and home
runs are broken down by appearances versus left-handed and right-handed
pitchers.
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- REAL-TIME PLAY-BY-PLAY INFORMATION - Includes a pitch-by-pitch
description of each at-bat, as well as a count of balls, strikes and
outs, inning by inning throughout the course of the game.
- HIT AND PITCH CHARTS - Features a "Balls in Play" chart for each team,
showing the distance and position of each ball hit and each out,
indicating which are grounders, line drives, pop ups and fly balls. An
"At-bats" chart for each team provides the location of each pitch to
individual players, indicating balls, strikes and hits.
- LINE-UPS - Provides each team's line-up, as well as individual at-bats,
runs, hits, walks, strike-outs, RBI's and errors. In addition, a link is
provided to an individual player register of each player in the line-up
with 2000 stats and career averages.
- BOX SCORE - Includes a box score for each team as well as batting
averages.
- NEWS AND NOTES - Feature stories, game previews and wrap-up stories
following each game of the series.
- INDIVIDUAL AND TEAM STATISTICS - Complete statistical profiles of all
World Series participants, including career stats and post-season stats.
Additionally, fans will be able to follow the complete TotalCast(TM) coverage of
the 2000 World Series on their wireless devices. The MLB/Total Sports wireless
application is available for the Palm VII devices as well as Palm V devices
equipped with the OmniSky modem. Fans can sign up for this service at
www.totalsports.net/wireless. The application for Palm Organizers will provide:
- World Series headlines and complete news articles;
- Updated scores and stats;
- Pitching changes;
- Final scores, with pitchers statistics; and
- Real-time coverage, which means as it happens on the diamond, it
will be happening on the Palm.
In addition, Total Sports has partnered with Air2Web, Inc. to create a
comprehensive wireless application for digital cell phones. This application
allows the fan to follow the World Series teams with the option of being alerted
when any of these following events happen during the course of the game:
- When the game begins and who the starting pitchers are;
- Whenever there is a run scored;
- Scores every half inning or every three innings;
- Pitching changes during the game; and
- Final score reports.
All information will be sent directly to the user's digital phone through
wireless text messaging. Text messaging must be available on their cell phone in
order to use this application. This service can also be set up through Total
Sports web site, www.totalsports.net/wireless. Air2Web and Total Sports have
created one of the first sports updating applications for fans and their
cellular phones.
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In July 2000, Quokka Sports, Inc. (Nasdaq: QKKA), a leading provider of sports
entertainment for the digital world(TM), announced it signed a definitive
agreement to acquire Total Sports. The acquisition is expected to close in
November 2000 and will create critical mass in Quokka Sports' U.S. mainstream
sports presence.
Total Sports is a leader in developing and marketing technology and
content-based solutions for sports rights holders, media companies and companies
invested in sports as a core piece of their strategy. These custom solutions
range from providing and licensing innovative content for existing websites, to
creating and managing a client's complete digital presence, to the total
integration of all aspects of an organization's digital needs.
Investors are urged to read proxy statements and documents relevant to Quokka
Sports' acquisition of Total Sports described in this announcement that are
filed with or that will be filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange
Commission because they contain important information about that transaction.
After they are filed, you can obtain the relevant documents that are filed with
the Securities and Exchange Commission for free on the Securities and Exchange
Commission's web site at http://www.sec.gov. If you write Quokka Sports at 525
Brannan Street, Ground Floor, San Francisco, CA 94107, Attention: Investor
Relations, or call the company at (415) 908-3800, Quokka Sports will send you
for free the final joint proxy statement/prospectus that the company filed in
connection with obtaining their stockholder approval of the Total Sports
transaction and in connection with the registration of the shares to be issued
in the Total Sports acquisition.
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