Sportal, the leading global provider of interactive sports content, have announced a revamp to their commercial and marketing departments.

Chris Rolfe has been promoted to Commercial Director, while John Gleasure steps up to become Head of Marketing.

Rolfe, 28, joined Sportal in June 1999 from Columbia Business School, New York and has been acting Commercial Director at Sportal for over 3 months. He has made a significant impact in the generation of revenues for the Sportal network, including a major strategic alliance with Eurobet and a partnership with Stepstone over the EURO 2000s competition. The new role will see him co-ordinating all of Sportal’s advertising, sponsorship, e-commerce, syndication and gaming revenues.

‘Sportal is undoubtedly at the top of its field and this is a fantastic opportunity to play a major role in the future success of the rapidly growing organisation,’ says Rolfe. ‘Sportal’s role within the market will allow us to develop new revenue streams such as content syndication and subscriptions.’

Gleasure, 29, formerly with BSkyB, joined Sportal in March 2000 as European Marketing Manager. He was responsible for Sportal’s highly successful ‘It’s a ball!’ TV advertising campaign featuring Kevin Keegan – the first TV ad campaign for the sports Internet sector.

‘We have enjoyed a very exciting period building our brand recognition right across Europe in the run up to EURO2000s,’ says Gleasure. ‘We have established the Sportal brand in all our key territories and now that the tournament has kicked off we are looking to further build on our consumer awareness with moves into other high profile sports and events’.

Rob Hersov, CEO Sportal, adds ‘These promotions will make a valuable contribution to our excellent management team and are proof of our commitment to provide people with fresh challenges and develop strong teams with a commitment to the company’s success.’

For Further Information Contact:

Mark Thursfield
Mark.thursfield@sportal.net
Tel: +44(0) 207 350 4825

Kevin O’Reilly
Koreilly@bell-pottinger.co.uk
Tel: +44(0) 207 820 9911