Britain's biggest sporting goods retailer Sports Direct has proposed a joint venture with struggling outdoor retailer Blacks Leisure, the Financial Times reported on Wednesday.

The newspaper cited people familiar with the situation as saying Sports Direct, the biggest shareholder in Blacks, with a 21 per cent stake, has proposed sharing its existing warehousing, supply chain and IT capability with the retailer.

Offered as an alternative to Sports Direct supporting an equity raising, Blacks would pay Sports Direct a fee for running its back-end operations, according to the FT.

This would be substantially less than the cost of Blacks running its own facilities, the article said.

Neither party was immediately available for comment.