Sportal.co.uk today announced that it has secured a long term, multi-sports partnership with the UK’s most popular*1 web site, MSN.co.uk, which regularly attracts 9.5 million visitors per month*2. Sportal.co.uk and MSN.co.uk have finalised an agreement, which makes the sports portal a key content provider across all sports categories.

Sportal.co.uk will supply editorial, features and applications on a wide range of sports including Football, Rugby Union, F1, Golf, Tennis, Cricket, Horseracing, Rugby League to the Microsoft-owned site.

From Thursday, December 14, MSN’s 1.3 million daily users*3 will have access to Sportal.co.uk’s exclusive editorial comment from the site’s dedicated football columnists, Alan Green, Harry Harris and James Richardson.

The strong football offering also carries a snapshot of Sportal’s comprehensive statistics package, with links through to the full service, which will receive branding and links throughout the channel. And of course there’s Sportal’s news and feature content, including links to its F1 Virtual Circuits application and a beginners guide to Horse Racing.

Stuart Anderson, Partner Marketing Manager at MSN UK, said: ‘This deal is a real boon for MSN visitors. It brings together the UK’s number one web site with the country’s top sports portal. The result is great content on a superb sports channel all through the UK consumers’ favourite site.’

Alicia Phelps, Sportal’s Head of Distribution says;
‘We are thrilled to have reached this long-term agreement with MSN. MSN.co.uk selects its content providers based on editorial quality and brand power in the marketplace, which makes Sportal the perfect choice for their sports channel. Through this agreement Sportal will expose millions of MSN users to Sportal’s top quality content, bringing them back to Sportal.co.uk for a wealth of Sport information.’

MSN.co.uk has embarked on a £15m brand awareness campaign in the UK.

Sportal is already providing MSN with a wide range of sporting content in a number of European territories including Spain, Italy, Sweden and Denmark.

*1 – MMXI October 2000
*2 – MSN internal data
*3 – MSN internal data

For further information please contact:
Mark Thursfield
Sportal
020 7350 4825
mark.thursfield@sportal.net

MSN UK Press Office
Scot Devine
020 7465 7768
Scotd@redconsultancy.com