Media Corp expands web with sport portal buy

by Tristan O'Carroll, Media Week 21-Jan-08, 14:00

LONDON - Online group Media Corp is beefing up its web publishing arm with the £135,000 acquisition of sports portal www.sport.co.uk.

Announcing the deal, Media Corp said it plans to quickly develop Sport.co.uk during the first quarter of this year, with the aim of establishing the site as a leading sports stats service.

"All facts and figures on matches, athletes, teams, results, competitions, tournaments, stadia and sponsors will be provided in what eventually aims to be one of the world's largest sports information websites," the company said in a statement.

Justin Drummond, Media Corp chief executive, said that the value of the sport.co.uk domain name, allied to the successful implementation of an ad model around the site, could help to grow the value of sport.co.uk. Media Corp recently sold casino.co.uk in a deal that could net it £3.63 million.

He said: "We are aiming to replicate this success with Sport.co.uk, as we continue to increase the scale and diversity of the group's web publishing business."