The paper continued publication until its merger with the Racing Post in May 1998; a proposed relaunch was aborted in 1999.
[2] On 20 December 1996, before the newspaper arm closed, Sporting Life launched an online version of the paper, sportinglife.com.
The site was run as a joint venture between Trinity Mirror and the Press Association until PA Sporting Life Ltd was sold to 365 Media Group[1] (then known as ukbetting plc, now a division of British Sky Broadcasting) on 14 October 2001.
In February 1998 the newspaper lost a High Court libel action brought by racehorse owners Jack and Linda Ramsden and jockey Kieren Fallon.
The eccentric racing pundit John McCririck was a journalist on the paper and later wrote a column for the website.