Liverpool FC announce latest signing - Aura Sports

Aura Sports, a specialist in digital sales and marketing for sports brands, has signed a deal with Liverpool Football Club to generate more online revenue for the Premiership giants.

The deal represents another landmark contract win for London-based Aura Sports, who were named silicon.com's Start-Up of the Month last October, after rising from the ashes of Sports.com.

Media giant Granada, a shareholder in Liverpool FC and the company behind the official Liverpool FC website, has brought in Aura Sports with a specific remit to drive pan-European sales and local advertising sales via the website.

Paul Wright, managing director of Aura Sports, said: “Liverpool is one of the biggest names in world and European football and all of us at Aura Sports are relishing the idea of working alongside Granada Interactive in maximising the potential online revenues for the club.”

Liverpoolfc.tv is one of the most visited club sites in Europe, with more than one million unique users and around 15 million page impressions per month.

Even during the darkest days of the dot-com slump sports properties have offered their owners better-than-average returns from advertising. Football club websites in particular with their clearly defined demographic always appeal to advertisers, for whom the mid-twenties to thirties male, with disposable income, is the prime target.

The Liverpool deal brings Aura Sports Premiership stable to seven, with Chelsea, Everton, Fulham, Leeds, Manchester City and Southampton all already on the books.

That number would be nine but for the relegation of Sunderland and West Ham last season - proving there are still some things effective sales and marketing can't affect.