Sports promotional company Matchroom has announced that it has sold a minority stake to a US investment firm.
Monday morning brought the news that Bruin Capital had acquired a 15 per cent stake in Matchroom, which is predominantly known for its boxing, darts and snooker events.
Based in Essex, Matchroom is run by father-and-son duo Barry and Eddie Hearn, the former of whom started the business in 1982.
A press release read: “The Hearn family will retain majority ownership and continue to oversee the business, with Eddie Hearn serving as Group Chairman and Barry Hearn as Founder and President.
“Financial terms were not disclosed. Bruin will join Matchroom’s board of directors.”
A report by the Financial Times suggested that Matchroom is currently valued at more than £1bn, which tallies with comments made in last year’s Netflix documentary Matchroom: The Greatest Showmen. That would put the estimated value of Bruin’s stake in the region of £150m.
One section of that docu-series focused on a potential sale of Matchroom to Saudi buyers. Ahead of the show’s release, Barry Hearn told The Independent that a minority stake was up for grabs. When asked whether his family could ever fully let go of Matchroom, he said coyly: “It has to depend on the price.”
And Barry, 77, told the Financial Times this week: “Cash is nice – the kids can have that, the grandchildren can have that. I just want to go to work and live longer. We want to make a massive push into America. We’re going to take darts around the world, especially in America.
“Darts is something new that we’ve seen numbers around the world we could only dream of, and we’ve created this monster from nothing. If you want to create a monster, where do you want the biggest monster to live? Probably the USA.”
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Eddie Hearn, 46, echoed that sentiment in Monday’s press release, saying: “The opportunity for Matchroom in the United States and globally continues to grow. This partnership with Bruin gives us the ability to accelerate that expansion and build on the platform we have created.”
Meanwhile, Bruin founder George Pyne – who previously worked at Nascar and sports agency IMG – said in the press release: “Barry, Eddie, and the Matchroom team have built one of the most important independent sports businesses in the world.
“Matchroom sits at the intersection of live events, global media rights, and premium sports intellectual property, and we see significant opportunities ahead, particularly in the United States.”
One of Bruin’s investments is Box to Box Films, which produced Matchroom: The Greatest Showmen and Netflix’s Formula 1 docu-series Drive to Survive.
Matchroom counts former heavyweight-champion boxer Anthony Joshua and darts world-titlist Luke Littler among its biggest names. “AJ”, 36, is signed to the promotional company, while 19-year-old Littler competes on the PDC tour, which is owned and promoted by Matchroom.
