December 16 – Spain’s LaLiga is hiving off its digital product into a new company which it has valued at €450 million and is now being touted to private equity investors.
The new business – LaLiga Tech – will take charge of the commercialisation and sales of the league digital products including the ‘Mediacoach’ tactical analysis tool, digital business intelligence services, LaLiga’s stadium capacity management system, the ‘LaLiga SportsTV’ television platform, the anti-piracy system and the management platform.
Speaking at the Icade Business Club, LaLiga president Javier Tebas said: “We are going to transfer all this digitization to a commercial company with assets valued at €450 million. We have invested €200 million in these years, but we calculate that with the value generated it is worth €450 million.”
Up to 60% could be offered to private equity investors.
“We already have it on the market, we have spoken with several well-known investment funds, such as CVC Capital Partners and Bruin Sports Capital to see if we should put 60% on the market,” said Tebas.
LaLiga’s testing of private equity opportunities is different to other sports league and federation proposals – including recent Serie A and Bundesliga fund raising – that generally offer a stake in audiovisual and commercial rights.
LaLiga believes that the dynamics of the private equity markets are the best way to maximise the commercial potential of their digital initiative, as well as develop further develop the technology. While primarily a sales business, the IP in the technology is expected to remain with LaLiga.
Included in the offer to private equity is the LaLigaSportsTV streaming platform. While the OTT platform does not broadcast or have the rights to LaLiga’s matches, the platform does generate content consumption data from its base of about 1 million users.
LaLiga said it will move 110 staff who work on its digital projects into the new company. Tebas said they already have agreements with 70 leagues and federations who they will sell digital product and systems.
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