Arctos Sports all set to ‘Elevate’ business

Article posted by Coliseum, May 18^th, 2022

Image: Arctos & Elevate

The private equity platform Arctos Sports Partners (US) has closed its investment into global consulting firm Elevate Sports Ventures, the latest addition to a rapidly growing portfolio of sports teams and other related businesses.

The ‘yahoo!sports’ stated that Arctos, which has raised at least $5 billion to deploy across the industry, will join current Elevate partners Oak View Group (American Global Advisory, Development and Investment Company for Sports and Live Entertainment industries), the National Football League (NFL) team San Francisco 49ers, the American global entertainment company Live Nation, and the Harris Blitzer Sports & Entertainment (HBSE) (American sports and entertainment company), the parent company of the National Basketball Association (NBA) team Philadelphia 76ers and the National Hockey League (NHL) team New Jersey Devils.

The Arctos Sports Partners is a private equity platform dedicated to the professional sports industry and sports franchise owners. Its mission is to partner with owners and leagues to increase liquidity and financial flexibility for ownership groups using a collaborative, thought partner approach.

The Elevate Sports Ventures is a best-in-class sports and entertainment consulting firm providing proven, innovative solutions to organizations across the global sports and entertainment landscape. Elevate taps into the extensive resources, relationships and expertise of its partners to innovate and execute comprehensive strategies and solutions in Venue Renovations, Sales and Marketing, Stadium Licenses, Premium Ticketing, Corporate Hospitality, Customer Research, Strategy and Analytics, Sales Training, and more.

The ‘yahoo!sports’ further stated that its unclear how much Arctos is investing, or how the deal values Elevate.

Elevate Chairman and head honcho Al Guido said in a statement, “Arctos’ dedication to driving the global sports industry forward through investment, strategic approach and access to best-in-class insights, analytics and technology mirrors our own. It is a privilege to be so intrinsically connected to a firm that continues to make bold and pointed investments in the sports industry, with ambitions to advance the greater industry ecosystem.”

Launched in 2018, Elevate’s expertise includes hospitality sales, naming rights deals, brand consulting, business analytics, and sponsorship sales. The firm does business with some of the biggest sports and entertainment properties across the globe, and its 170-plus clients include the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), NHL, U.S. Open, College Football Playoff, and dozens of pro sports franchises around the world.

Arctos – led by private equity veteran Ian Charles and David “Doc” O’Connor, the former Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the 20,789-capacity Madison Square Garden in New York (US) – has raised at least $5 billion to date. That includes $3.9 billion in its first fund, according to recent regulatory filing, and $1.1 billion in a second fund, as per an email sent to clients recently.

To date, most of Arctos’ publicly reported investments have been sports teams or leagues, but there are obvious synergies between Elevate’s business and the rest of the Arctos portfolio. Arctos has made more than a dozen investments into franchises across the NHL, NBA, Major League Baseball (MLB), Major League Soccer (MLS), and European soccer. They include the NBA team Golden State Warriors, and the MLB teams Boston Red Sox and the Los Angeles Dodgers, three of the 10 most valuable franchises in the United States.

There are other business ties between Arctos and Elevate – Arctos is an investor in the MLS club, Real Salt Lake, which HBSE co-founder David Blitzer bought earlier this year.

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