A company with the stated ambition of developing a chain of hi-tech sports bars has seen its shares soar on the Aim share market after it was linked with a possible tie-up with the Shoeless Joe's bar chain.

Coliseum Group, which is currently just a cash shell with no business activities, joined the Alternative Investment Market (Aim) this month at 25p a share.

Its price has now risen to 70p as it continued to hunt for potential "acquisition targets in the specialist licensed retail and sports hospitality sectors".

Coliseum raised £2.6m when it floated on July 3 to help fund any deals, although it has not revealed details of any specific targets.

Its stated aim is to create "a leading sports and leisure group, which will operate a chain of sports entertainment venues and provide sports hospitality services.

Each venue will offer continuous live or recorded televised coverage of "all major sports, sports-related promotional events, games, internet facilities, high quality food and hospitality at sporting events."

Coliseum's executive chairman and finance director is Rodger Sargent, co-founder and finance director of Sports Internet Group, the bookmaking and sports website company which was sold to Sky last year.

A fellow director is Chris Akers, a backer of James Brown's I Feel Good publishing business, owner of Viz magazine, and an investor in Leeds United.