Bruin Sports Capital, the private equity firm founded by former IMG and Nascar executive George Pyne, is exploring a sale for its sports streaming technology company Deltatre.
The company has been analysing its strategic options, including a sale valuing the company at $1bn (€885m) or above, a source familiar with the matter told Bloomberg.
SportBusiness understands that Evercore, the New York-based investment advisory firm, has been appointed as Bruin mulls its options.
If achieved through a sale, a $1bn figure would represent a handsome return for Bruin, which bought the technology firm in 2016 in a $160m deal.
Bruin holds a 75-per-cent stake in Deltatre with co-founders Giampeiero Rinaudo and Luca Marini having retained a 25-per-cent share in the company at the time of the 2016 sale (through their LMGR company). It remains to be seen if that minority stake will be included in any sale.
Deltatre provides an array of streaming services to major sports and entertainment clients including Fifa, Uefa and the Premier League and the NFL as well as broadcasters such as the BBC, BT Sport and Fox. In September, it also signed a deal to provide content management systems for over 300 Major League Baseball digital destinations, including the flagship MLB.com.
Bruin has sought to beef up Deltatre’s technical capabilities in the time it has owned the company, funding a $127m deal (including a cash transaction value of $92m) to acquire OTT software company Massive Interactive in November 2018.
There is expected to be particular interest among private equity firms in Deltatre, or potentially media companies looking to boost their own digital capabilities in a burgeoning sector.
In August 2017, Walt Disney acquired majority ownership of BAMTech, the interactive media and internet company founded by Major League Baseball, valuing the company at $3.76bn. The company’s technology was behind the launch of its ESPN-branded multi-sport video streaming service launched in 2018. IMG parent company Endeavor paid $250m for US streaming technology firm Neulion in March the same year.
Bruin was also reported to be in discussions with Endeavor to acquire its On Location Experiences premium hospitality business earlier this year, but a deal has yet to be completed.
In November the private equity firm secured a combined investment of at least $600m (€528.4m) from CVC Capital Partners and the Jordan Company (TJC) designed to support an expansion of the four-year-old company.
Bruin chief executive George Pyne said at the time: “This begins the next chapter for Bruin, on an even bigger and more global scale.”
The new deals brought the total capital investment in Bruin thus far to nearly $1 billion. Other Bruin investors include Rock Ventures, the holding company of investments for Dan Gilbert, owner of the National Basketball Association’s Cleveland Cavaliers, and NNS Group, the investment company led by Egyptian billionaire Nassef Sawiris, among others.