Melbourne – Global digital sports specialists Perform announced the acquisition of a majority shareholding in Sportal Australia, the preeminent provider of web, mobile and news services in the Australian and New Zealand sports markets. The deal furthers Perform’s global expansion and creates a major digital sports media player in a market that is set to expand significantly as broadband and 3G matures and the Australian betting market starts to liberalise. Sportal Australia has been operating on a standalone basis under the management of its founders since 2001, when the ambitious UK Sportal Network collapsed in the dot-com crash. Since then, cofounders Chris Mutimer and Chris Hume have developed the business into the leading provider of digital solutions, content and advertising services to sports rights holders and distributors. During this time Sportal’s sixty strong team have developed an extensive client list including Cricket Australia, NRL, PGA of Australia, Golf Australia, Australian Grand Prix Corporation, FFA, Yahoo 7, Telstra, Hutchison 3G, Vodafone, Optus and their own flagship portal Sportal.com.au, one of Australia’s premier sports portals. The acquisition by Perform, who have recently opened offices in Singapore and New York, will see many immediate synergies, in particular around the exploitation of online video, an area where Perform already works with major Australian rights holders Cricket Australia and Tennis Australia. The combined Sportal and Perform business will look to offer an enhanced range of internet and mobile video content and services to all regional sports rights holders and media distributors. Sportal will continue to operate and service its clients with its current team, and with no change to its management; Chris Mutimer will continue as CEO, and Chris Hume will remain with the company, whilst Alex Peebles the Perform general manager will also remain with the company. Perform owns, manages and represents one of the largest catalogues of new media sports rights in the world, streaming over 10,000 live events and distributing 600,000 sports video highlight clips a year to publishers, sports associations, media groups, betting companies and mobile operators globally.