Sportal, one of the best-known brand names of the British internet boom, has been given a new lease of life by telecoms giant BT.

BT's internet subsidiary BT Openworld is using the Sportal name to launch a new online sports news service for subscribers using ultra-rapid 'broadband' internet connections.

The new service, called Sportal On Demand, offers video coverage of UK, European and Latin American football, as well as boxing and US sports, for a basic monthly subscription fee of �4.99 ($7.89).

Online bookmaker UK Betting, the owner of the Sportal brand name, will provide the new site with a fixed odds betting service.

Comeback

BT Openworld said Sportal On Demand was aimed at busy executives, expatriates who could not find coverage of their favourite sports elsewhere, and sports betting enthusiasts.

"All three audiences will find significant added value from Sportal On Demand, which in many sports categories will offer content available nowhere else in the UK," said BT Openworld's John Raczka.

Sportal On Demand marks a return to the limelight for the Sportal brand one year after the company which launched it went under.

The original Sportal, which offered online news coverage of major sporting events, and also built official websites for leading football clubs including AC Milan and Bayern Munich, was one of Britain's best-known dot.coms.

Downfall

At the height of the internet boom, the firm was valued at about �275m

The company was courted by French pay TV firm Canal Plus, but fell victim to the dot.com bust before a deal could be signed.

Faced with plunging advertising revenues, Sportal quickly ran out of cash, and was bought out by UK Betting for a nominal �1 in November last year.