Sports Direct ups stake in Goals Soccer

Mike Ashley's Sports Direct International has upped its stake in Goals Soccer Centres, the AIM-listed five-a-side football operator.

The canny retailer lifted the stake to 9.81% from 4.77%, having in August added shares to increase the holding from 3.8% previously.

Sports Direct holds the stake through a contract for difference over 75.2m shares.

In July, Ashley bought a 26% stake in bombed-out computer games retailer Game Digital to add to his interests fellow sector players Debenhams and French Connection.

Goals Soccer Centres has 48 sites, including two in California and a third under construction, and last month kicked off a 50:50 joint venture with City Football Group, the group which owns Manchester City, New York City and Melbourne City, "to accelerate the growth of the Goals brand in North America".

In May, Goals investors were told the company had made “encouraging progress” despite there still being “much to do”, according to chairman Nick Basing.

The company reinvested in and relaid 219 of its 'arenas' by the end of the first half.