SPORTS Direct has scrapped plans for a shareholder vote on a share bonus scheme worth £73 million for its founder, Mike Ashley, after failing to secure enough support.

Britain's biggest sporting goods retailer had planned to put the proposal to grant Mr Ashley eight million ordinary shares to a vote this Friday.

Executive deputy chairman Mr Ashley holds a 62% stake in the firm he founded in 1982.

Shares in the company have more than doubled in a year and the firm joined the FTSE 100 index in September.

"It became apparent that while we had the support of some of our largest shareholders, we had not been able to secure the requisite level of shareholder approval," the firm said in a statement