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Private equity firm BC Partners has entered exclusive talks to buy a minority stake in the EuroLeague basketball competition, edging out rivals including General Atlantic and Saudi Arabia’s SURJ Sports Investment.
London-based BC Partners could agree a deal with the EuroLeague within a month, according to people familiar with the matter. The owners are looking to sell roughly a third of the business at a €1bn valuation, the Financial Times previously reported.
BC Partners, General Atlantic and EuroLeague declined to comment. SURJ did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
BC Partners has been expanding its sports portfolio, including a recent deal by its credit division to buy a stake in sports agency GSE Worldwide.
The EuroLeague comprises 18 clubs, and the current champions are Panathinaikos of Greece. Former EuroLeague players, such as France’s Victor Wembanyama and Bojan Bogdanovic, have been signed by teams in the NBA.
The league’s title sponsor is Turkish Airlines, and its viewer numbers are growing, the league said, driven by increases in Turkey, Serbia, Greece, Spain, Lithuania and Italy.
Private equity firms, including Luxembourg-headquartered CVC, are expanding their investment in sports.
CVC has taken stakes in the commercial arms of the French and Spanish football leagues, English Premiership Rugby and the Six Nations rugby competition. Clearlake Capital is the co-owner of English football club Chelsea since a £2.5bn takeover in 2022, while RedBird Capital Partners owns Italy’s AC Milan.
The US National Football League also recently gave the industry the go-ahead to take stakes in its teams.
In a report this month, asset manager PGIM said sports leagues were “using streaming platforms to push into new regions and expand their potential audiences”. The PGIM research highlighted the opportunity for leagues to increase their international revenues.
User numbers for EuroLeague’s online viewing platform rose 46 per cent to 85,000 in the 2023-24 season.
While sports have been touted as a countercyclical investment with the ability to withstand economic downturns because of fan loyalty, some in the industry have expressed worries about high valuations.
Gerry Cardinale, founder of RedBird, said recently that private equity investors had “massively inflated” sports valuations based on “facile notions” about growth.
The new source of investment has not been welcomed everywhere. Earlier this year, the German football league called off talks on potential private equity investment after mass protests from fans.