BackPageLead is an independent sports commentary and opinion website. We aim to produce quality commentary and analysis of sports events and issues as they unfold, both here and overseas.

Charles Happell is publisher, Ashley Browne the editor and a stable of between 14 and 16 experienced, well-known and well-credentialled sports columnists make up the BackPageLead team, with expertise in most major sports.

We will also link to sports stories we like from newspapers and websites around the world, that are newsworthy and/or entertaining. So there will be plenty of sports opinion, analysis, debate and conjecture - and, hopefully, not a little humour.

The site will publish up to six fresh stories each day - and run regular segments such as Podcasts, Video of the Day, What We're Watching on TV and While Your Were Asleep. We will have a UK-based editor, Michael Reid, who will update BPL overnight, covering all the important sports news in the UK and Europe.

Sports betting will be another key feature of the site, and a professional punter - who will go by the nom de plume of The Shark - will present his Bet of the Day.

We aim to update the site with fresh material by 7.30am each morning, and then have another edition at lunchtime. In time, a daily email will be sent out at lunchtime highlighting the day's offerings. A similar service will be offered to mobile phone users.

There will also be a strong interactive component so that you, our readers - and the citizen journalists among you - will get a chance to have your say, via blogs and feedback forums. You can even submit your own columns, some of which we will run. Please let us know your views; we want to make BackPageLead the best site we can.

In publishing the site, we want to thank many people for their help and advice, notably Crikey founder Stephen Mayne, Business Spectator editor Alan Kohler, managing director of George Patterson's Y&R, Russel Howcroft, seek.com.au founder Paul Bassat, former Crikey editor Jonathan Green and, last but not least, our site designer Will Mahon and tireless developer, Mark Lowe from mark•a multimedia.

(PUBLISHER'S NOTE: Charles Happell's wife is a non-executive director at Tabcorp, one of the advertisers on BackPageLead.)