- Fund has closed on initial investments and is expected to be US$50m when fully capitalised, according to Sportico
- Athlete investors include NFL’s Emmanuel Sanders, James Develin, DeMarco Murray and Brian Westbrook, as well as MLS player Alejandro Bedoya
- Fund interested in analytics, data and tech startups across sports industry
Technology venture capital firm SeventySix Capital has formed a second fund focusing on betting, esports and sports technology companies.
The new fund has closed on its initial investments and is expected to be US$50 million when fully capitalised, according to Sportico.
Investors in the new fund include Arthur Blank, owner of the National Football League’s (NFL) Atlanta Falcons, and Robert Nutting, who owns Major League Baseball’s (MLB) Pittsburgh Pirates. The pair have also been named strategic partners for the fund.
Blank’s participation came from early-stage investment fund AMBSE Ventures, a subsidiary of AMB Sports and Entertainment (AMBSE), which launched last month.
The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania’s Ben Franklin Technology Development Authority has also put US$1 million into the fund, according to information contained in Pennsylvania’s investment tracking database.
Additionally, SeventySix Capital has expanded its roster of athlete investors. The Buffalo Bills’ Emmanuel Sanders is joined by former NFL players James Develin, DeMarco Murray and Brian Westbrook, as well as Alejandro Bedoya, who captains Major League Soccer’s (MLS) Philadelphia Union.
The new fund plans to invest in startup companies that SeventySix Capital believes are ‘disrupting and innovating the sports industry through the use of analytics, data and technology’.
In particular, SeventySix Capital aims to capitalise on the growing legal sports betting industry. The American Gaming Association (AGA) has already confirmed that US commercial gaming revenue for the first seven months of 2021 nearly matched the entirety of 2020, and is 17.4 per cent ahead of the same period in 2019. Gambling giant DraftKings believes the US online sports betting market could eventually be worth US$22 billion, assuming there is 100 per cent legalisation among states.
Esports and gaming is also on the fund’s radar. Gaming analytics and market research firm Newzoo reports that close to one-third of the global population games. According to market research firm The NPD Group, the US video game industry in 2020 was larger than those for music and movies combined.
“This next fund is an important milestone as we continue building SeventySix Capital as the go-to investment company in the sports industry,” said Wayne Kimmel (pictured above), SeventySix Capital managing partner.
“We have proven that we have access to the deals and entrepreneurs seeking to transform the sports world and that we are able to help them build their businesses with our capital investment as well as our sports relationships, knowledge and expertise.”
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