Citizen Sports acquires a Sportacular trio of app developers

Citizen Sports Inc., a San Francisco-based company that builds sports-focused applications for social networks spanning Facebook, MySpace and hi5, has just acquired app developers Sportacular, Sport Interactiva and FantasyBook. The newly formed trio will expand Citizen Sports’ offerings across existing platforms. Apps include fantasy sports (Fantasy Football 2008 on Facebook is Citizen Sports’ top-ranked app) and over 600 individual team applications that extend even to Formula One racing and rugby.

The deal also secures Citizen Sports a coveted spot in mobile, as Sportacular has a leading sports application of the same name for the iPhone. The founders of Sportacular and FantasyBook, Jeff Hamilton and John Brelig, are signing on as full-time employees at the company.

This acquisition points to an ongoing trend of smaller, related startups being snapped up as funding opportunities dwindle. In addition to giving major league fans the ability to heckle each other across social networks, Citizen Sports smartly targets fanatics-in-training (a.k.a. high schoolers) with applications that let teens track and follow their own school’s teams (pom poms and body paint not included).

Launched in 2005 as ProTrader, a sports trading and information site, Citizen Sports has raised over $10 million in funding to date from Radar Partners, NCD Partners, Deerwood Associates and Maverick Sports Ventures.