in february 2009, fantasy sports ventures bought part of sports reference, the parent company of baseball-reference, for a "low seven-figure sum". in reporting this purchase, journalist eric fisher wrote:the sports reference sites combine to generate more than 1 million unique users per month, according to internal analytics. company president and former college math professor sean forman has become something of a folk hero to baseball fans for the massive depth of data stretching to the 19th century and for the ease of navigation within baseball-reference.com.