Columbus Crew SC Acquisition & Valuation

Suning Sports is the sports arm of Chinese retail and property conglomerate Suning Holdings Group, headquartered in Nanjing, Jiangsu, and incorporated as Jiangsu Suning Sports Industry Co., a joint venture of Suning Holdings, which owned 90% at the end of 2016, and Suning Appliance Group. It built a business spanning sports media, over-the-top streaming, sports retail and youth training. Its digital platform PP Sports bought Chinese broadcast rights to major football competitions, including the Premier League, La Liga, Serie A, Ligue 1, the Chinese Super League and, from 2018-19, exclusive television and online rights to the Bundesliga for five seasons, along with AFC competitions and WWE, earning revenue from subscriptions and advertising. It opened its first flagship fan store in Nanjing in 2017, planning 152 stores by 2020, and developed grassroots training programmes. Through its Hong Kong subsidiary Suning Sports International, it sits above Great Horizon, the vehicle through which Suning bought a majority stake in Inter Milan in 2016, and the group also owned Chinese Super League club Jiangsu Suning. In July 2018 Suning Sports raised a $600 million Series A led by Goldman Sachs and Alibaba, with Evergrande, Yunfeng Capital, SenseTime, CCB International and others, valuing it at about $2.6 billion. Under financial strain, Suning halted operations at its Chinese football clubs, including champions Jiangsu, in February 2021.

Vidio is an Indonesian over-the-top video streaming service based in Jakarta, operated by PT Vidio Dot Com and owned by broadcaster Surya Citra Media, part of the Emtek media group. It offers free-to-air and paid live television, films and series, Vidio Original productions and, since 2025, short-form Vidio Mini Drama, alongside extensive live sport: it is the exclusive digital broadcaster of the English Premier League in Indonesia from 2022-23 to 2027-28 and has streamed the 2022 FIFA World Cup, FIFA youth World Cups and Formula One. Revenue comes from Vidio Premier subscription packages, advertising on its free tier, and content distribution. The platform launched on 15 October 2014 as an Indonesian counterpart to YouTube built on user-generated and Emtek TV content, grew to about 40 million active users by 2020, and in 2022 was recognised as Indonesia's largest video-on-demand provider, ahead of Netflix, Disney+ Hotstar and Amazon Prime Video. Originally owned by Kreatif Media Online, it was taken over by Surya Citra Media, with Emtek having invested IDR 240 billion by March 2019. In 2022 Vidio raised US$45 million from strategic investors led by Sinar Mas group's Dian Swastatika Sentosa through PT DSST Mas Gemilang, with Grab and Bali United's investment arm also participating.

KingMakers is a Nigerian online sports betting and digital entertainment company based in Lagos that operates the BetKing brand and was formerly known by that name. It offers sports betting and online games to African customers through its website and apps and through an agent network, which lets individuals earn income by serving customers in their communities. The company earns revenue from betting margins on the wagers it takes; revenue rose from $131 million in 2022 to $198 million in 2023, while losses grew from $19 million to $28 million as it invested to scale and faced losses on moving cash out of Nigeria. South African pay-TV group MultiChoice bought a 20% stake in September 2020 for R1.9 billion (about $112 million) and raised it to 49% in 2021 for a further $281.5 million, aiming to use its sports broadcasting to grow the betting business; according to KingMakers, 77% of DStv subscribers bet or make match predictions. In 2023 MultiChoice wrote down the investment by R2 billion, citing naira devaluation and expansion costs. KingMakers dropped planned expansions into Kenya and Ethiopia and hired Ronnie Whelan as chief operating officer. Its corporate parent is AGV Holdings Limited.

OneFootball is a German football media and technology company headquartered in Berlin, operating as OneFootball GmbH. It was founded in Bochum in 2008 by Lucas von Cranach, who in 2009 launched the iLiga app that was later renamed and merged under the OneFootball brand. Its free app and website combine live scores, statistics, news and video from more than 200 leagues in multiple languages, produced by a Berlin newsroom, and the company also streams matches directly through the app, starting in 2019 with La Liga in the UK via Eleven Sports and 2. Bundesliga and DFB-Pokal games in Germany via Sky. OneFootball makes money mainly from advertising and brand partnerships, together with OTT streaming, publishing and services for clubs, leagues, federations and players; it says more than 200 million fans use the platform each month. In 2020 it acquired the video platform Dugout, bringing its founding clubs, including Arsenal, Barcelona, Bayern Munich, Liverpool, Manchester City, PSG and Real Madrid, in as shareholders. In April 2022 it raised €300 million in a Series D led by Liberty City Ventures with Animoca Brands and Dapper Labs to expand into Web3, then cut its workforce to about 240 after the crypto downturn; Patrick Fischer became chief executive in 2023.

Alisports (阿里体育, now renamed Orange Lion Sports) is the sports arm of Alibaba Group, founded in Shanghai's Yangpu district in September 2015 by Alibaba with Sina and Yunfeng Capital. It was led from its founding by chief executive Zhang Dazhong, a former vice president of Shanghai Media Group. It was set up to apply Alibaba's e-commerce, media, cloud computing, big data and payments capabilities to China's sports industry. Early businesses included event rights and operations, ticketing, sports e-commerce and broadcasting. In 2016 it launched the World Electronic Sports Games (WESG) esports tournament with the International e-Sports Federation, and the first edition drew about 63,000 participants from 125 countries. It won exclusive operating and marketing rights to the Hangzhou Marathon for 2018 to 2021 and has run China's university basketball league (CUBAL). In April 2017 it raised a Series A of about RMB 1.2 billion (roughly US$190 million) led by Yunfeng Capital. In 2022 it renamed itself Orange Lion Sports (橙狮体育) and now focuses on running and upgrading public sports venues under the 乐动力 (Le Dong Li) brand. These include centres in Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai, Hangzhou, Suzhou, Chongqing, Chengdu and Shenzhen.

Cannae Holdings is an American holding company and principal investor headquartered in Las Vegas, Nevada, and listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker CNNE. William P. Foley II is its vice chairman and Ryan Caswell its chief executive. It takes minority and majority stakes in restaurants, technology-enabled services, financial services and, increasingly, sports and entertainment. Its main holdings include about 42% of Black Knight Football Club, which owns AFC Bournemouth, FC Lorient and a majority of Moreirense, and a 50% stake in the activist hedge fund manager JANA Partners. It also owns a restaurant group made up of 88.5% of Ninety Nine Restaurant & Pub and 65.4% of O'Charley's, along with interests in the flavourings maker Watkins (acquired in 2024) and Alight. In 2025 it sold its Dun & Bradstreet stake to Clearlake Capital for total proceeds of US$630 million and bought back US$323 million of its own stock. Its board has since said it will concentrate the portfolio on sports and entertainment, and in June 2026 its Black Knight Rugby subsidiary acquired English rugby club Exeter Chiefs. It earns returns from equity-accounted investments and consolidated operating revenue, and has about 6,600 employees.

Pickleball Inc. is an American professional pickleball company that owns the Carvana PPA Tour and Major League Pickleball, the sport's two leading professional competitions. It was formed in 2026 by combining the two tours with the retailer Pickleball Central, the tournament-software platform PickleballTournaments.com, the consumer portal Pickleball.com, the court builder Just Courts and the channel Pickleball TV. The business earns revenue from media rights, sponsorship, events, retail sales and software, and on a combined basis its units generated more than $140 million of revenue in 2025. It has more than 150 signed professional players and more than $33 million of combined annual prize money, its platforms hosted 4,500 tournaments and 2,000 league seasons in 2025, and a PPA Tour broadcast on CBS in January 2026 averaged 791,000 viewers. On 1 May 2026 Apollo Sports Capital, an investment platform of Apollo Global Management, led a $225 million structured investment in the company. Tom Dundon and the Pardoe family remain the majority shareholders, and PPA Tour founder Connor Pardoe is chief executive.

Juventus Football Club is an Italian professional football club based in Turin, founded in 1897, that plays in Serie A and is listed on Euronext Milan. It is controlled by the Agnelli family through Exor, which holds 65.4% of the share capital. Tether, the stablecoin issuer, became the second shareholder in 2025 with a holding of more than 10%. Revenues and income for the 2024/25 financial year were EUR 529.6 million, up 34.2% from the previous year, and revenues fell to EUR 474.7 million in 2025/26. The group's income comes from matchday, broadcasting rights, sponsorship and commercial activities, and player trading. Its share capital is EUR 16,731,359.80. A capital increase of up to EUR 250 million was proposed to shareholders in autumn 2026.

Ollamani SAB is a holding company that operates through its subsidiaries in various businesses, including the Football Business, which is the Company that owns Club America, a professional soccer team with championships in Mexico and considered one of the popular teams. Estadio Azteca is the company that owns and operates the Estadio Azteca. Games and Sweepstakes Business under the PlayCity brand, the company operates eighteen casinos in Mexico with food and beverage service, as well as a website in the one that offers sports betting and casino betting. The Company's operations are classified into three segments: Football Segment, Gaming Segment, and Publishers and Distributors Segment.

LiveScore Group is a British sports media and betting group based in London whose brands include LiveScore, the real-time football and sports scores service, and the sportsbooks LiveScore Bet and Virgin Bet. The LiveScore app and website deliver live scores, news, statistics and free-to-air live streams to millions of users worldwide, and the group uses that consumer traffic to acquire customers for its betting brands. It earns revenue from advertising and media partnerships on LiveScore and, above all, from sports betting and gaming through LiveScore Bet and Virgin Bet; annual revenue was about £100 million in 2022. The group grew rapidly in the three years to 2022 under chief executive Sam Sadi. In September 2022 Swiss media group Ringier made a £50 million strategic investment that valued the business at £500 million. The partnership, run through Ringier Sports Media Group, focused on expanding LiveScore in Central and Eastern Europe, where Ringier owns Sportal Media Group and Digital Ventures in Bulgaria, Gazeta Sporturilor in Romania and Sportal.rs in Serbia.

Unrivaled is an American professional women's three-on-three basketball league based in Miami, Florida. WNBA stars Napheesa Collier and Breanna Stewart founded it in 2023 to give top players a domestic off-season league; players earn a minimum six-figure salary and share an equity pool, and the salary pool for the 2025 season was $8 million. The first season, with six clubs and 36 players, opened in January 2025 in Medley, near Miami; the 2026 season expanded to eight clubs and 54 players and took games on the road, drawing a record 21,490 fans in Philadelphia and a sell-out at Barclays Center in Brooklyn. Games use a 72-foot court, an 18-second shot clock and a target-score fourth period, and air on TNT, truTV and HBO Max. The league earns revenue from media rights, sponsorships such as Ally Financial and Under Armour, ticketing and merchandise. After raising more than $35 million in seed and Series A funding in 2024, it was valued at $340 million after a Series B led by Bessemer Venture Partners in September 2025, and in August 2026 closed an oversubscribed Series C of more than $100 million, led by Ten Pillars Sports Fund, at a $650 million valuation.

Aston Martin F1 Team is a British Formula One constructor based at Silverstone, Northamptonshire, that races as the Aston Martin Aramco Formula One Team. It is owned and operated by AMR GP Limited, a company set up on 2 August 2018 as Racing Point UK Limited by an investment consortium led by Lawrence Stroll to take over the Force India team from administration; the Silverstone operation traces its origins to Jordan Grand Prix, founded in 1991. After Stroll took a 16.7% stake in carmaker Aston Martin in January 2020, the Racing Point F1 Team was rebranded as Aston Martin for the 2021 season. The team competes with title partner Aramco, and its drivers since 2023 have been two-time world champion Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll. It switched from Mercedes customer engines to a Honda works partnership in 2026, with Adrian Newey as team principal and managing technical partner and Lawrence Stroll as chairman. The team had about 800 employees by 2023, when private equity firm Arctos Partners acquired a minority stake at a valuation of about £1 billion. Aston Martin had first entered Formula One in 1959 and 1960 with its own DBR4 and DBR5 cars.

Matchroom Sport is a British sports promotion and media company headquartered in Brentwood, Essex, that owns, produces and promotes sporting events worldwide. Founded in 1982 by Barry Hearn, it runs businesses across 12 sports, including Matchroom Boxing, the Professional Darts Corporation, the World Snooker Tour, pool, golf and other events, and it represents athletes such as boxers Anthony Joshua and Katie Taylor. The group produces more than 600 event days and about 2,500 hours of original programming a year, with a library of some 20,000 hours, and supplies content to virtually every major sports broadcaster. It earns revenue from media rights sold to broadcasters and streaming platforms, sponsorship, ticketing and event hosting fees, and athlete representation. The Hearn family controls the business, with Barry Hearn as president and his son Eddie Hearn as chairman. In May 2026 Bruin Capital acquired a 15% stake that valued Matchroom at more than GBP 1 billion, joining the board to support growth, particularly in the United States.

Borussia Dortmund GmbH & Co KGaA operates a football club. The company conducts its business through the following segments: Borussia Dortmund GmbH & Co. KGaA operates a football club that includes a professional football squad and leverages revenue potential from player transfers, catering, TV marketing, sponsorship, and ticketing. The BVB Merchandising segment consists of a separate merchandising business. The BVB Event and Catering GmbH segment conducts tours, provides and arranges event staffing services, plans and organizes, caters, and manages events of all types. The Besttravel Dortmund GmbH segment arranges travel by air, rail, and ship. The company earns the majority of its revenues from the Borussia Dortmund GmbH & Co. KGaA segment.