The IMG Worldwide agency will form a joint venture sports, fashion and entertainment company in Turkey with local conglomerate Doğuş Group that it is planned will be involved in the sale of sports media rights, amongst other initiatives.
The companies said the over-arching purpose of the joint venture was to create and develop sports, fashion and entertainment projects in Turkey and the Turkic Republics including Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.
As well as being involved in sports media rights sales, the company is planned to be involved in sponsorship rights exploitation; the creation of sports academies, camps and clinics; the building, construction, ownership and operation of stadiums, sports and entertainment venues; and staging and managing sports events.
Mike Dolan, chairman and chief executive officer of IMG, said: “Turkey is now playing a significantly greater role in the world of sports and entertainment. We believe that we have a number of outstanding opportunities ahead of us here in Turkey. We have a vision – to bring together IMG’s global reach and proven expertise in high profile sporting events, stadia management, fashion events and media rights, with the impressive reach of one of Turkey’s most successful conglomerates, Doğuş Group. Our goal is to create a formidable new international company, capable of developing compelling content that could have a meaningful impact on the people of Turkey.”
Ferit Şahenk, chairman of Doğuş Group, said: “As part of this joint venture agreement we signed with IMG, we aim to establish a fully equipped sports school with a professional team, in order to raise world class athletes. Thanks to our venture with IMG, we are setting our sights on forming a brand-new structure, where young athletes coming from all over Turkey will be trained and raised as world-class athletes. The athletes will be able to compete and successfully represent Turkey in the global arena. The athletic training will be accompanied with foreign language and academic education.”
IMG has created similar partnerships in India, with the Reliance Industries conglomerate, in Brazil, with the EBX Group conglomerate, and in China, with state broadcaster CCTV.