SportsInvest Newsflash (by Oakwell Sports Advisory)
Stay up-to-date with sports investment trends & events worldwide
Top Stories of the Week:
Todd Boehly’s consortium bid set to win race to buy Chelsea
Todd Boehly’s consortium’s bid to buy Chelsea is now expected to be put forward for Premier League and government approval.
On the day that Roman Abramovich denied he wants his £1.6bn loan to Chelsea repaid, the likelihood of the Boehly bid being successful moved a step closer.
The prospect of Boehly’s consortium completing its takeover of the European champions was plunged into major doubt this week because of fears of Abramovich reneging on his promise to write off the club’s debt. Sources close to the process said that Chelsea informed the government they wanted to restructure the sale during talks last week.
Audi and Porsche to enter F1 in 2026
Audi and Porsche are set to enter Formula One from the 2026 season, the chief executive of their parent company Volkswagen has revealed.
Speaking at an event in Wolfsburg on 1st May, Herbert Diess said that the entry would coincide with the introduction of the series’ new engine regulations in four years’ time.
In February, it was reported Porsche and Red Bull Racing were in advanced talks about a potential partnership covering the team’s new engine division.
Audi, meanwhile, is set to come in as its own factory team and could buy out an existing entrant. Audi has reportedly held talks with McLaren, Sauber, Aston Martin, and Williams.
Arctos Sports Partners raises $1.1bn for second investment fund
Sports-focused private equity firm Arctos Sports Partners has raised $1.1bn for a second investment fund, bringing the firm’s total assets to more than $5bn.
Arctos closed on the first fundraising round this week. The new fund, Arctos Sports Partners Fund II, includes additional investments from about half the firm’s clients in the original fund. Arctos is targeting a total of $2.5bn in capital for the second vehicle.
Peloton eyes investor to acquire 15% to 20%
Peloton is pursuing potential investors that could acquire a stake of around 15% to 20% in the fitness company.
No deal is imminent, but the fitness giant is looking to sell a piece of its business to another leader in the industry, or to a private equity firm. Potential investors include Amazon and Nike.
Its value currently sits at around $5.6bn but has reached nearly $50bn.
Football:.
Sir Jim Ratcliffe vows to continue Chelsea acquisition bid despite Raine Group rejection
Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s bid to buy Chelsea has been rejected by the bank overseeing the sale but Britain’s richest man is not accepting defeat in his Stamford Bridge quest.
Ineos director Tom Crotty revealed Raine Group handed Ratcliffe a “rapid rejection” on his last-minute £4.25bn bid for Chelsea.
Ratcliffe, chief executive of the petrochemicals giant, will continue to press ahead to win the race to take over the Chelsea reins from Roman Abramovich, despite that setback.
Elliott-owned AC Milan receives bid interest from RedBird Capital
Former Goldman Sachs executive Gerry Cardinale is in talks to acquire AC Milan, challenging asset manager Investcorp in a more than €1bn takeover battle for the Serie A club.
Cardinale’s RedBird Capital Partners, which owns a minority stake in the parent company of English Premier League side Liverpool FC, is looking to buy AC Milan from US hedge fund Elliott Management.
Investcorp had been in exclusive talks to acquire the Italian club or take a minority stake, but that period of exclusivity has lapsed.
Goldman launches $900m junk bond for Spanish football
Banks led by Goldman Sachs launched a €850m high-yield bond to back CVC Capital Partners’ investment in Spain’s national football league.
Deutsche Bank AG and Credit Suisse Group AG are also participating in the debt arrangement.
The deal, which is expected to be BB-rated, will come during a difficult time for the high-yield market, which has suffered significant outflows and poor performance in recent months amid inflationary pressures and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Durant expands soccer portfolio with Gotham FC investment
Kevin Durant has expanded his US soccer portfolio by securing a minority investment in NWSL club NJ/NY Gotham FC.
Thirty Five Ventures, the investment company run by Brooklyn Nets forward Durant and business partner Rich Kleiman, also has an equity stake in Major League Soccer’s Philadelphia Union.
Thirty Five Ventures is the third group of investors to take a stake in the franchise, joining fellow minority owners Kristin Bernert and Karen Bryant in March, and former Gotham FC forward Carli Lloyd in April.
Brazil star Ronaldinho buys into indoor soccer expansion team
Ronaldinho Gaucho is headlining a new ownership group buying an expansion Major Arena Soccer League club.
Ronaldinho is part of the ownership syndicate led by Rob Striar, the owner of M Style Marketing, a New York firm that has worked on branding and strategy with the National Hockey League, CONCACAF and the NFL Players Association. The expansion fee is not being disclosed, and the location and nickname of the franchise are still to be determined.
Cricket:
Rajasthan Royals add Chris Paul, Larry Fitzgerald, and Kelvin Beachum as minority investors
The IPL's Rajasthan Royals have secured investment from NBA point guard Chris Paul and NFL icon Larry Fitzgerald.
Kelvin Beachum, a teammate of Fitzgerald during his time at the Arizona Cardinals, has also come onboard as a minority owner in the cricket franchise.
The trio have invested through Emerging Media Ventures, which owns the Royals and is controlled by venture capitalist Manoj Badale.
Knight Riders Group to help fund $30m MLC stadium in LA area
Knight Riders Group, the owners of Indian Premier League franchise Kolkata Knight Riders, has announced plans to invest in a $30m, 10,000-capacity Major League Cricket stadium in Irvine, just outside of Los Angeles.
Major League Cricket has entered into an exclusive negotiating agreement with the City of Irvine to move forward with lease negotiations and design approvals to build a cricket venue on a 15-acre plot at Great Park.
The facility would be home to Major League Cricket’s Southern California-based franchise.
Basketball:.
DC United co-owner Jake Silverstein acquires 20% of Brisbane Bullets
Jake Silverstein, the co-owner of DC United and Swansea City, has acquired a minority stake in Australia’s National Basketball League (NBL) team the Brisbane Bullets.
Silverstein, who is chairman and chief executive of Stormlight Holdings, the private investment arm of the Silverstein family, has purchased roughly 20% of the Bullets. The deal reportedly values the NBL outfit at $30m.
The 36-year-old previously held a stake in Houston Dynamo, which he sold last year as part of the deal that saw real estate developer Ted Segal take control of the franchise.
North America:
Magic Johnson part of group bidding to buy Denver Broncos
Johnson has joined a group led by Philadelphia 76ers co-owner Josh Harris to bid for the franchise.
The Pat Bowlen Trust announced on Feb. 1 that the Broncos were officially up for sale. Bowlen originally purchased the franchise in 1984 and remained the principal owner for 35 years before his death in June 2019.
Dormer Walmart chairman Rob Walton is viewed as a "strong contender" to buy the Broncos, who could be sold for a record $4bn.
DeGods DAO snaps up $625k of NFTs to secure stake in Big3’s Killer 3s outfit
Decentralised autonomous organisation (DAO) DeGods has acquired a significant stake in Big3 team Killer 3s by purchasing non-fungible tokens (NFT) that promise a stake and considerable influence over any of the 12 franchises that comprise three-on-three basketball league.
DeGods, the largest NFT community on the Solana blockchain, has purchased all of Killer 3s’ 25 ‘fire tier’ NFTs. These tokens give owners intellectual property and licensing rights for team names, logos and merchandise, as well as other gameday activations and cost $25,000 each, pegging the DeGods investment at this level in Killer 3s at $625,000.
Media:
M6 shareholders approve TF1 French broadcaster merger
Shareholders of the M6 French commercial TV business have approved its merger with the Bouygues-controlled free-to-air broadcaster TF1.
German media conglomerate Bertelsmann, which owns M6, announced in May 2021 it was in exclusive talks to merge the network with domestic rival TF1.
The deal to combine TF1 and M6 will create a media company controlling approximately 70% of the French broadcast advertising market.
Len Blavatnik to provide further funding for lossmaking DAZN
Billionaire Len Blavatnik is set to inject more capital into sports streaming platform DAZN, redoubling his commitment to the lossmaking group less than three months after wiping its debt.
DAZN could raise around $140m from Blavatnik’s Access Industries. The capital injection will take the form of equity rather than debt, although Access is yet to rubber stamp the move. The additional firepower could be used to fund rights fees or expansion into new areas.
Jomboy Media pulls in $5m amid plans for multisport expansion
Jomboy Media, founded by Jimmy O’Brien, announced a $5m raise Thursday. WWE, C.C. Sabathia and Dwyane Wade are among new investors in the company, joining a round led by Connect Ventures, an investment partnership between CAA and New Enterprise Associates.
O’Brien and business partner Jake Storiale were early among baseball creators during a time when MLB was becoming more comfortable with social media content.
Jomboy Media now boasts over 1.5m YouTube subscribers, multiple popular podcasts, and over 500m Twitter impressions in April.
Esports, Gaming, & Fantasy:
FaZe Clan’s SPAC merger in doubt after missing the mark on financial forecast
FaZe Clan could be taking a financial stumble. In October, the North American brand declared that it would go public on the NASDAQ at a $1bn valuation through a merger with the SPAC B. Riley Principal 150 Merger Corp. (BRPM).
According to FaZe’s initial plans, the merger was supposed to be completed sometime during the first quarter of 2022.
FaZe Clan’s management had crafted financial forecasts, but an amendment to its merger filing disclosed that FaZe Clan’s de facto financial performance in 2021 deviated significantly from that forecast.
FaZe’s bottom line turned out to be a lot worse than expected. FaZe planned an adjusted EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization) loss of $19m but recorded an actual adjusted EBITDA loss of $28.7m.
Generation Esports secures $19m in funding
Generation Esports (GenE), the founder of the High School Esports League, has secured $19m from its Series B funding round.
In addition to the funding, the platform has acquired content creation platform Wizard Labs Inc.
The funding was led by Altos Ventures, which also led the platform’s Series A funding round in May 2021. The previous funding round secured $10.8m for the platform, taking the amount of capital raised over the past 12 months to nearly $30m.
Health & Fitness:
Therabody acquires So Sound, pushing further into wellness
Massage gun maker Therabody has acquired So Sound, an acoustic therapy startup, expanding its wellness ecosystem.
Rebranding to TheraSound, its technology will be integrated into Therabody products. First up, a zero-gravity recovery chair called Therabody Lounger.
After adding new funding in February 2021, Therabody acquired EStim company PowerDot for $34m. Earlier this year, it entered beauty with TheraFace, a facial massager with light therapy.
Epicore Biosystems acquires IP for precision sweat patches
Epicore Biosystems, creators of the Gx Sweat Patch, acquired assets and IP from Eccrine Systems, makers of a patch measuring stress, pain, and more from human sweat.
Despite raising $20m over its history, Eccrine ceased operations in 2020. Now, Epicore is reviving its IP, complementing its own sport-specific patch with Eccrine’s focus in precision medicine.
Speede Fitness secures $2.5m in seed round
Speede Fitness, creators of a smart strength training system, raised $2.5m in an oversubscribed seed round.
The startup will launch its newest machine this summer, leveraging endorsements from top athletes to reach weight rooms and living rooms alike.
Betting:
Stakes raises $5.3m for NFTs for sports wagering fans
Stakes has raised $5.3m for non-fungible tokens (NFTs) aimed at sports wagering fans.
New York-based Stakes wants to make sports wagering more social by offering a new web 3.0 experience for fans using NFTs as rewards.
The money came from Digital Currency Group, FBG Capital, CMS Holdings, LD Capital, Cadenza Ventures, Matrixport Ventures, and Sterling Select Group. The company also announced the appointment of Sam Li, former Vice President at the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a strategic investor and advisor.
AR/VR:
PGA Tour grabs equity in augmented reality startup
The PGA Tour is taking equity in augmented reality startup Quintar as part of its ongoing effort to turn putting greens into green screens in order to make watching golf more immersive.
The Tour has been working with Quintar to develop its PGA TOUR AR app since 2020. At 10 courses this year, attendees can hold up their phones to see data not available to the naked eye, like ball locations and shot trails of previous drives.
Private Equity and Venture Capital:
NBA player launches a $50m VC fund
Veteran NBA Star Omri Casspi launched a unique, early stage VC fund. For over a decade, Casspi was an NBA player as well as captain of Israel’s national basketball team. Even prior to his retirement last year, he was determined to join the growing Israeli entrepreneurial scene and become an active angel investor.
He has co-founded Sheva, a $50m early-stage investment fund together with veteran early stage investor David Citron.
Sheva will focus on pre-seed, seed stage and opportunistic Series A investments. The fund intends to make $1m-2m investments in each of about 20 companies. It has already invested in fintech, cyber security and web3 ventures companies.
HCF announces cornerstone investment in sportstech VC fund XT Ventures
Private health insurer HCF is the cornerstone investor for venture capital fund XT Ventures.
XT Ventures invests in a portfolio of companies in the sport, fitness, wellness and health sectors that leverage emerging technologies including Web3, blockchain, NFTs, the metaverse, AI, ML and 5G.
The initial $5m investment was made through HCF’s corporate supported health tech accelerator program Catalyst, the first of its kind in the country, which has backed over 80 start-ups and scale-ups since its inception.
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