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, has raised more than USD2.1 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 USD3.0 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,” SAYS 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,” SAYS 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.
