Start-up of the month: Aura Sports

On 31 May this year, the very day the World Cup kicked off in Japan and Korea, Sports.com closed down.

The timing served as a reminder as to just how crazy the past few years have been for anyone working in the dot-com sector.

Putting aside the fact that Sports.com was teetering on the brink of collapse it had actually positioned itself well for the World Cup. The site's gambling operations in particular were poised to make a killing. With a little more time - not to mention patience and money - it could all have turned out very differently.

To measure these things in headline grabbing terms of dot-com excess (and it would be silly not to) Sports.com burned its way through around £50m. It pales alongside the best efforts of boo.com but it's still a serious sum of money.

And speaking of serious money, I find myself on millionaire's row in Holland Park on a sunny day in mid-Autumn. I'm here to visit a company which has risen from the ashes of Sports.com.

Aura Sports, in its own words, is a specialist media sales and consultancy business dedicated to helping sports companies generate revenue from their digital properties. In layman's terms Aura Sports helps businesses, such as football clubs, make more money online.

Paul Wright, MD of Aura Sports, seems at ease with his current situation. Just four months after being laid off by Sports.com, where he was group sales and marketing director, he is already back in the saddle and seeming to love it.

He doesn't appear to be affected by the implosion of his former employer, though he does express regret at the short-sightedness of the investors - particularly the fact the plug was pulled with such inopportune timing.

This time around there are no outside investors - something which gives Wright a freedom he appears to be relishing.

Over time I suspect he has become accustomed to talk of 'failure' and 'risks'. Eleven years ago he was working as part of a team trying to convince the market that Sky television could take off. Second only to flogging office space at Canary Wharf it was the toughest sell of the early nineties as the UK limped out of recession.

Having seen Sky blossom he then turned his hand to the online world, working for Sports.com for three years until it folded.

Wright denies being a serial risk-taker, but in launching Aura Sports, and returning to the hazardous waters of online advertising, he is clearly taking a gamble. He tells me I'm not the first person to question the sense of launching a new company into a crowded market which is still a recessionary area. I'd guessed as much from the wedding ring.

But, the quick turnaround was essential if he was to keep in touch with key contacts, and the early signs suggest his gamble is paying off.

In just a couple of weeks Wright managed to assemble a team of four. All were formerly of Sports.com and as a result were out of work when he approached them. (Unemployment certainly helps you overcome the hurdle of tempting people back into a sector rife with pitfalls.)

The company launched on the back of its first major contract win with Chelsea FC. A second major win followed soon after - this time working with leading rugby site Scrum.com.

Since then Aura Sports has sealed deals with the Premiership's official sponsor site, 4thegame.com, as well as Wright's former employer Sky which brings with it partnerships with the official sites of Leeds United, Manchester City, Southampton, Sunderland and West Ham.

In just under two months the company has climbed into bed with six major football clubs - a feat even Dani Behr would be proud of.

Wright attributes this sparkling early season form in part to the fact that his team is focussed on the one area. But more fundamentally he says it boils down to their work ethic.

"Back in 2000 any half-wit could get a campaign out of somebody. Things now are a lot more hard work than they used to be, but if you put in the effort things will happen for you."

And Wright is confident about his business going forward. "The online marketplace is fine," he says. "The feedback I am getting from agencies suggests next year is going to be good. In fact I think more money will be spent on advertising in 2003 than has ever been spent before."

One reason for Aura Sport's success, is the choice of market. Premiership football is still a very affluent sector, and as the old adage states, 'money attracts money'.

Wright tells me only 11 per cent of football fans ever change their club. This kind of loyal following, predominantly male, often middle class and with the kind of disposable income that enables them to follow Premiership football, means that while chelseafc.com won't get as many 'hits' as AOL or Yahoo! for example, Aura Sports can do more with the brand because it is offering advertisers a very clearly defined demographic that will keep on returning to the site.

These days advertising is more about who you know - and what you know about them - than just how many people you can expose to a brand.

Similarly the day-to-day running of a football website means clubs accrue data on their site visitors, as they register for chatrooms, news letters and special site access. Aura Sports is now showing clubs just what they can do with the kind of email database advertisers would kill for.

With such a captive audience of core consumers, companies such as bookies, breweries and car firms are tripping over themselves to spend money pushing their brand via football club's official websites.

Wright and his Aura Sports team are just there to make sure they can... And to make sure it is with one their clients.

For more information on Aura Sports, visit: http://www.aurasports.com