MSN Sports relaunches Web portal in UK

With a new look and content from ESPN in Europe, the MSN Sports website has relaunched in the UK with football, cricket, rugby and Formula One racing coverage.

The alliance is an example of ESPN’s initiative in recent years to expand the reach of its digital products and video content internationally. The partnership follows ESPN signing a deal with Glenfiddich to sponsor its Ashes coverage on ESPNcricinfo.

ESPN will provide a selection of the top daily news, analysis and video, while MSN will oversee the day-to-day editorial management of the pages on their site.

As part of the agreement between ESPN and MSN Sports, users will also be able to click through to ESPN.co.uk and ESPN’s sport-specific sites for additional coverage. Those sites include ESPNCricinfo.com, ESPNSoccernet.com, ESPNScrum.com and ESPNF1.com.

“With the relaunch of MSN Sport, we look to enhance our appeal to new and existing audiences, and our partnership with ESPN ensures sport fans will receive the up-to-the-minute news and videos they want,” said Matt Ball, editor of MSN.

Tom Gleeson, ESPN international vice president of digital media, said both brands would continue to leverage each others’ strengths and boost their audience figures.