Football news internet site Teamtalk.com is to be spun off by its owner IMS, the telecom services group, and floated on the stock market.

IMS, which runs a call centre in Keighley, had been considering a range of options on how to best develop Teamtalk since last July.

Chief executive Bill Wilson said the decision to demerge and float Teamtalk on the stock market would allow it to expand its services. "There's nothing like Teamtalk anywhere else in the world," he said. "Most of the football sites are run by the clubs whereas we are independent.

"We cover every single soccer team in the UK and it's our intention to cover the European soccer scene and North American professional soccer."

Mr Wilson said further details about the flotation and its timing would be released when IMS reports its annual earnings results later this month.

Since Teamtalk was set up in 1997 an increasing number of sports fans have flocked to it.

Latest figures show the site registered 15.2 million hits in November, up from 12 million in June.

Teamtalk is based in Leeds where it employs around 30 journalists.

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