Bruin Capital and Quadrant Private Equity did it again through TGI Sport, this time acquiring Sportseen, sports digital advertising agency specializing in geo-targeting. This marks the third acquisition in September, 2022 across the virtual, digital and advertising business spaces after deals were made for both Interregional Sports Group (ISG) and Brand Brigade, creating an industry leading global sport media and sales juggernaut. Sportseen brings their leading rights buying abilities through integrated geotargeted and AI-informing advertising across every screen and platform to TGI Sport’s expanded technology portfolio of companies with proven sales, industry experience, leadership, and niche resources, through virtual and LED advertising digital technologies, and all its capabilities. TGI Sport is owned jointly by Bruin Capital and Quadrant Private Equity. The Sports Techie community blog congratulates George Pyne, Founder/CEO of Bruin Capital, once again for his sports technology inspired vision orchestrating these deals and positioning his firm as a top international investment and operating company. Read further about our stories about the previous acquisitions of ISG and Brand Brigade. Sportseen’s established and trusted relationships with major governing bodies throughout a variety of sports and continents, has helped earn it the position as the ‘go-to agency’ for rights holders looking to drive incremental revenue solutions. Bruin specializes in working with capital partners and management teams to build best-in-class, global technology, sports, media, entertainment, and marketing companies. Add the innovative, geo-marketing ad tech, key specialists and clientele track records all together, then look out for TGI.
“This is another great move for TGI, which has unlimited potential as a leading, global media services agency,” said Pyne. He added, “We are delighted with the aggressive approach in this burgeoning space. The addition of Sportseen – and all three companies – embodies how we plan to transform the TGI with aggressive deals in new spaces. Martin and the team will have all the resources of Bruin to build upon this momentum.”
Sportseen + ISG + Brand Brigade = TGI Sport = Bruin Capital
Chris Jones and Vasco Gomes founded Sportseen in 2007 in London and ever since has been pioneering geo-targeting adverting, visit their web site at www.sportseen.tv. The company specializes in rights acquisition, sales, creative, and distribution of LED advertising. The management team at Sportseen counts top-tier leagues and federations as clients including the Football Associations of England, Wales and Scotland, the Welsh and Italian Rugby Unions, Ashes Cricket, The Rugby Football League and many established and emerging brands including Visa, Continental, Just Eat, J.D. Sports, Hormann, Euronics, Sage.
‘The move for us to be at the very heart of all things digital and virtual is one we had to make – as a long-established agency within this space, we are delighted to have joined forces with TGI Sport and the vision and backing of Bruin Capital. There is no doubt that we will continue to build upon our performance history in this relatively untapped space,” commented Jones.
Sportseen works with more than 150 brands to whom it annually delivers and distributes tailored advertising across its worldwide, domestic, regional, and local rights, assets.
‘The move for us to be at the very heart of all things digital and virtual is one we had to make – as a long-established agency within this space, we are delighted to have joined forces with TGI Sport and the vision and backing of Bruin Capital. There is no doubt that we will continue to build upon our performance history in this relatively untapped space,” commented Jones.
Jones and Gomes have committed to staying with the company and leading “Sportseen, powered by TGI Sport” while reporting to TGI Sport Global CEO Martin Jolly.
“We are very pleased to have Chris, Vasco, and the Sportseen team join the family,” said Jolly. He further stated, “They are well-respected leaders who were ahead of the industry on the emerging opportunities in digital, LED, and perimeter advertising. They bring yet another best-in-class capability to our new virtual advertising practice, and our rights acquisition and LED businesses will also benefit greatly with additional resources and expertise.”
Jolly leads combined operations spanning North America, South America, Europe, Australia, and New Zealand, and his teams support around 3,500+ events annually. TGI Sport has built relationships with many of the world’s leading sporting organizations, including UEFA, FIFA, CONCACAF, CONMEBOL, Mediapro, Major League Soccer, U.S. Soccer, Ligue National de Rugby, ECB, ICC, F.C. Barcelona, Manchester United FC, Liverpool FC, and Juventus F.C. TGI’s businesses include TLA Worldwide, QMS NZ, and Sportsmate.
Bruin companies operate across five continents with 2100 employees working out of 34 offices. Bruin investors include The Jordan Company, CVC Capital Partners, Rock Ventures, NNS Chaired by Nassef Sawiris, and a prestigious group of family investment funds.
SportsBiz Big Picture
While operating independently, the collective and complementary capabilities of Sportseen, ISG and Brand Brigade together form a new, best-in-class practice for TGI in virtual, perimeter, and LED media for live sports. The actions quickly adds to TGI’s global infrastructure and add value to other core businesses. By bringing TGI’s leadership onboard, TGI’s executive directors are now made up of a super team of highly-respected tech innovators and business groundbreakers. The change in TGI’s core competencies began to be revealed last year with Bruin Capital and Quadrant Private Equity’s financial backing plus the addition of decision-making personnel like Pyne to help with the change in company philosophies because of the large influx of spendable money.
Quadrant Private Equity was first established in 1996 (firstly as Quadrant Capital) and is a leading Sydney-based mid-market private equity firm investing in companies in Australia and New Zealand. Quadrant Private Equity has raised $7 billion and 12 funds since inception. Its latest funds, QPE No. 7 and Quadrant Growth Fund 2, have $1,240 million and $530 million in equity commitments respectively for private equity investment Quadrant has extensive investment experience, leading 90 investments across 12 funds (with 65 exits) across a range of sectors including retail, healthcare, media, consumer foods, financial services, eCommerce and other sectors.
Sports Techie, my hard-earned and educated sports tech guess is OTT platforms and capabilities for both live sports and on-demand offerings will be the next acquisitions added to CGI’s fast-growing virtual, LED and geo-target advertising power enabling the option to deliver targeted ads direct to consumers on screens, as well as other broadcast and streaming platforms.
Who benefits from geo-targeting? Corporations, business, agencies and even teams, all looking to place ads somewhere directly on the screen for football, soccer and rugby matches and other sporting events, enabling brand exposure to fans based on where they are located. Whether it be in-stadium, tailgating or gathering together around the city, at watch parties, or viewing at home, the office or on vacation. Knowing exactly where each fan or groups of fans are located is marketing gold.
Bravo, Bruin Capital, for being proactive with your funds together with Quadrant Private Equity and executing a dynamic business plan for CGI Sport worthy of today’s tech-enhanced business landscape and well into the future of virtual, LED and geo-targeted advertising.
See you later sportstechie in Seattle, Atlanta and around the world!
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