According to a report in The Observer, the newspaper is backed by Zac and Ben Goldsmith, sons of the late James Goldsmith, and will launch in spring 2006 backed by a £12m budget, with Deedes as chairman.
With a breakeven target of 40,000 copies, the launch date is scheduled to coincide with the 2006 World Cup in Germany.
"The Punter might have been a more apt title. This is not a sports section. This is a betting newspaper for people who are interested in betting on sport," Deedes told the paper.
The launch will seek to take advantage of the growing army of punters who bet on sporting events and gamble online in the burgeoning world of online poker.
The coverage of games like poker in newspapers, magazines and on television has soared in recent months. Ladbrokes estimates that in the UK alone £19m is staked a day on online poker and globally the figure is £94m and growing.
The value of this market is underlined by the £5bn stock market flotation of online gaming firm PartyGaming, which is the world's biggest online poker company.
The launch will be one of the biggest in British newspaper history rivalling that of the Independent in 1986 and Today in 1985.
The paper will be distributed nationally and have a rolling seven-day operation, employing more than 100 journalists and edited by former Daily Telegraph journalist Charlie Methven.
As well as sport the paper will also include business and political coverage according to the Observer.
The idea is said to be Methven's, along with Max Aitken, great-grandson of Express Newspapers proprietor Lord Beaverbrook.
Also involved in the launch is Compton Hellyer, founder and chairman of Sporting Index the spread betting firm, who will have a non-executive directorship.
Dummies are due to be ready to show to media agencies as soon as next month with the task of winning over advertisers crucial to the paper's launch.
If you have an opinion on this or any other issue raised on Brand Republic, join the debate in the
_1.jpg)
.jpg)
