DALLAS & NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Arctos Sports Partners (“Arctos”), a private investment platform dedicated to providing growth capital and liquidity solutions to professional sports franchise owners in major North American leagues and European soccer, today announced it had raised more than $2.1 billion for its first flagship fund. The fund complex, Arctos Sports Partners Fund I, along with co-investors and parallel affiliated vehicles, closed with more than $3.0 Billion in Regulatory Assets Under Management from a large, diverse group of global institutional investors. Arctos, which launched in April 2020, has already closed 14 investments into the fund, including ownership stakes in Fenway Sports Group, the Golden State Warriors and Sacramento Kings.
“In forming Arctos, we saw an opportunity to bring institutional capital to a previously inaccessible ecosystem and create a new asset class in the process,” said Ian Charles, co-founder and managing partner of Arctos. “Sports franchises and leagues benefit from numerous qualities that make them particularly valuable: deep customer affinity and loyalty, global must-see content, the live experience ecosystem, and scarcity. We’re privileged to collaborate with the greatest leagues, owners, and institutional investors to create the investment platform that is Arctos.”
“At Arctos, we’ve built a firm exclusively focused on, and dedicated to, the sports ecosystem, and our firm has been built to reflect that dedication. We are a special combination of institutional investing experience combined with deep sports domain knowledge and operating experience,” said Doc O’Connor, co-founder and managing partner of Arctos. “We bring investment capital and unique expertise to leagues, franchises, and owners to support and enhance their incredible growth trajectory.” With the successful close of Sports Fund I, Arctos is positioned to accelerate its pace of investment and expand its leadership position at the forefront of the professional sports ownership market. To date, Arctos has invested in more than a dozen professional sports franchises and has seen a rapid increase in deal flow and investor interest over the last six months. Arctos is currently approved and an existing owner in franchises from multiple North American sports leagues as well as several European soccer federations.
Arctos leverages its unique position in the market to unlock growth opportunities by working strategically to become a true “thought partner” with its franchises, working alongside owners who are actively engaged and investing to grow the team locally and in adjacent markets such as data analytics, local real estate, fan engagement, sports betting and more.
About Arctos
Arctos Sports Partners works with innovative and visionary ownership groups and leagues across North American professional sports and European soccer. With offices in Dallas and New York, Arctos is led by its six-person partner group—which includes co-founders Ian Charles, David “Doc” O’Connor, Joseph Nasr and Jordan Solomon—and has a team of more than 25 investment and operational professionals. In addition to liquidity solutions and growth capital, Arctos’ portfolio franchises are able to leverage the deep industry knowledge and operational expertise of the firm’s 17 senior advisors, including Theo Epstein, to help drive additional value. To date, Arctos has invested in more than a dozen sports franchises, and is poised to capitalize on expanding investment opportunities.
