{"id":665836,"date":"2026-05-12T10:58:10","date_gmt":"2026-05-12T10:58:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/665836\/"},"modified":"2026-05-12T10:58:10","modified_gmt":"2026-05-12T10:58:10","slug":"bruin-capital-buys-stake-in-sports-promoter-matchroom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/665836\/","title":{"rendered":"Bruin Capital Buys Stake in Sports Promoter Matchroom"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.sportico.com\/t\/bruin-capital\/\" id=\"auto-tag_bruin-capital_1\" data-tag=\"bruin-capital\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Bruin Capital<\/a> has agreed to purchase a minority stake in sports promoter Matchroom, the companies announced on Monday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tFinancial terms of the deal were not disclosed. But according to a person familiar with the matter, Bruin Capital is buying a 15% stake at a valuation north of $1.35 billion (\u00a31 billion). Matchroom\u2019s majority owner, the Hearn family, will maintain control of the business, while Bruin Capital will join the company\u2019s board of directors.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tThe promotion outfit, founded by Barry Hearn in 1982, produces more than 600 events and 2,400 hours of programming annually. Its portfolio includes Matchroom Boxing, the Professional Darts Corporation and the World Snooker Tour, among other businesses, and the company represents star boxers Anthony Joshua and Katie Taylor, as well as the reigning two-time darts world champion Luke Littler.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tSuccessful as it may have been, Matchroom was a modest operation, pulling a $1 million profit on $10 million in annual revenue when Hearn\u2019s son, Eddie, joined the family business in 2000, according to Forbes. Just over a decade later, Eddie approached his father with a radical plan to ramp up the firm\u2019s boxing business. In 2024, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.forbes.com\/sites\/justinteitelbaum\/2024\/04\/18\/the-most-valuable-combat-sports-promotions-2024\/\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/www.forbes.com\/sites\/justinteitelbaum\/2024\/04\/18\/the-most-valuable-combat-sports-promotions-2024\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Forbes<\/a> valued that division at $850 million on $134 million in revenue, making it the fifth-largest promotion in the combat sports industry.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tFor the past few years, Matchroom has been a highly coveted asset among institutional investors. In 2022, <a href=\"https:\/\/news.sky.com\/story\/hearn-duo-eye-150m-windfall-from-sale-of-matchroom-sports-stake-12640169\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/news.sky.com\/story\/hearn-duo-eye-150m-windfall-from-sale-of-matchroom-sports-stake-12640169\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Sky News<\/a> reported that the company was in talks with CVC Capital Partners, KKR and Searchlight Capital about a potential stake sale that could value the entire enterprise between $735 million (\u00a3600 million) and $860 million (\u00a3700 million). After those talks fell through, U.K.-based sports marketing agency Pitch International bought a piece of Matchroom two years later.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tWith Bruin Capital aboard, Matchroom is expected to continue its push into the U.S. market, where its already started ramping up its footprint. The Westchester, N.Y.-based investment firm was founded in 2015 by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sportico.com\/t\/george-pyne\/\" id=\"auto-tag_george-pyne_1\" data-tag=\"george-pyne\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">George Pyne<\/a>, who previously worked at NASCAR and IMG. Bruin has invested in a slew of sports related businesses including TGI Sport, AS1, Full Swing, FairPlay Sports Media, PlayGreen and Proof of the Pudding. Its portfolio also includes <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sportico.com\/business\/finance\/2024\/box-to-box-films-investment-bruin-capital-1234762858\/\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/www.sportico.com\/business\/finance\/2024\/box-to-box-films-investment-bruin-capital-1234762858\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Box to Box Films<\/a>, the creator of Netflix\u2019s Drive to Survive docuseries that chronicles Formula 1.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tBruin Capital has raised more than $2 billion since its inception, including a <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\" data-id=\"https:\/\/www.sportico.com\/business\/finance\/2026\/bruin-capital-1-billion-raise-josh-harris-26north-1234880378\/\" target=\"_blank\" data-type=\"link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.sportico.com\/business\/finance\/2026\/bruin-capital-1-billion-raise-josh-harris-26north-1234880378\/\">$1 billion funding raise<\/a> that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sportico.com\/t\/josh-harris\/\" id=\"auto-tag_josh-harris_1\" data-tag=\"josh-harris\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Josh Harris<\/a>\u2019 26North Private Equity participated in earlier this year.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\t(EDITORS NOTE: Bruin Capital partners with Sportico in hosting an exclusive, multiday global leadership summit.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Bruin Capital has agreed to purchase a minority stake in sports promoter Matchroom, the companies announced on Monday.&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":665837,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[571],"tags":[64,63,802,321523,321524,157806,85],"class_list":["post-665836","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-boxing","tag-bruin-capital","tag-george-pyne","tag-josh-harris","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/665836","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=665836"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/665836\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/665837"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=665836"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=665836"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=665836"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}