Tampa Bay Lightning 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.

Chicago White Sox is a professional baseball club that competes in the American League Central division of Major League Baseball. The club was founded in 1901 as a charter member of the American League and plays on the South Side of Chicago at the ballpark now known as Rate Field, which opened in 1991. It has won three World Series titles, in 1906, 1917 and 2005. A group led by Jerry Reinsdorf and Eddie Einhorn bought the club in 1981, and Reinsdorf has remained chairman and control person since. The White Sox earn money from media rights, sponsorship and advertising, and ticket, concession and merchandise sales. In 2025 the club agreed a framework under which Justin Ishbia may acquire control after 2029.

Baltimore Orioles is a Major League Baseball team based in Baltimore, Maryland, that plays in the American League East Division. The franchise was established in 1894 as the Milwaukee Brewers, became one of the American League's eight charter teams in 1901, played as the St. Louis Browns from 1902 to 1953 and moved to Baltimore in 1954 after a syndicate of local business and civic leaders bought it. Its home ballpark, Oriole Park at Camden Yards in downtown Baltimore, opened in 1992. The club has won three World Series titles, in 1966, 1970 and 1983, seven American League pennants and ten division titles, most recently in 2023, and its Hall of Famers include Brooks Robinson, Frank Robinson, Jim Palmer, Eddie Murray, Cal Ripken Jr. and manager Earl Weaver. It also holds a majority stake in the regional sports network MASN. In January 2024 John Angelos agreed to sell the team for about $1.7 billion to a group led by Carlyle Group founder and Baltimore native David Rubenstein that includes Cal Ripken Jr., Michael Arougheti, Kurt Schmoke, Michael Bloomberg and Grant Hill. The group bought an initial 40% stake in March 2024 and took full control on 1 August 2024.

OneTeam Partners is an American sports licensing, athlete marketing, media and investment company that commercializes the group name, image and likeness rights of professional and college athletes. It was launched in November 2019 as a joint venture between the NFL Players Association, the MLB Players Association and RedBird Capital Partners, which seeded it with a $125 million investment for a 40% stake. OneTeam negotiates group licensing deals for video games, trading cards, apparel and other consumer products, sells sponsorship and athlete marketing programmes to brands, and produces original and branded content and live events. It describes itself as the commercial engine behind twelve players associations and tens of thousands of professional and college athletes, including the players of the NFL, MLB, MLS, WNBA, NWSL and the U.S. Women's National Team. In September 2022 HPS Investment Partners, Atlantic Park and Morgan Stanley Tactical Value bought RedBird's stake. In 2025 an FBI probe of OneTeam extended from the MLBPA to the NFLPA. In April 2026 it launched EnOne Ventures with EnTrust Global to back companies across the sports ecosystem, and the NWSL Players Association became an equity partner. Sean Sansiveri is chief executive.

The Tampa Bay Rays are an American professional baseball team based in St. Petersburg, Florida, competing in Major League Baseball's American League East Division. MLB awarded the expansion franchise to an ownership group led by Vince Naimoli on March 9, 1995, and the team began play as the Tampa Bay Devil Rays in 1998 at Tropicana Field, the domed stadium that has been its home in every season except 2025. Stuart Sternberg bought a controlling interest in 2005 and renamed the club the Rays before the 2008 season, when it won its first AL East title and American League pennant; it won a second pennant in 2020 and five division titles in total, but has not won a World Series. The team earns revenue from media rights, ticketing, sponsorship and merchandise, although its attendance has historically ranked among the lowest in MLB. After Hurricane Milton badly damaged Tropicana Field in October 2024, the Rays played the 2025 season at George M. Steinbrenner Field in Tampa and returned to the dome in 2026 after nearly $60 million of repairs. A group led by Jacksonville home builder Patrick Zalupski agreed in July 2025 to buy the franchise for about $1.7 billion, and the sale closed on September 30, 2025.

Miami Marlins is an American professional baseball team based in Miami that competes in Major League Baseball's National League East Division. Blockbuster Entertainment chief executive Wayne Huizenga was awarded the expansion franchise in June 1991 for a $95 million fee, and the team began play in 1993 as the Florida Marlins at Joe Robbie Stadium, which it shared with the NFL's Miami Dolphins. In 2012 it moved into LoanDepot Park, then called Marlins Park, and changed its name to the Miami Marlins under its stadium agreement with Miami-Dade County, the park's owner. The Marlins won the World Series in 1997 and 2003, both as a wild card, but have made only four postseason appearances and have never won a division title. In October 2017 an investment group led by Bruce Sherman and Derek Jeter completed the $1.2 billion purchase of the club from Jeffrey Loria, with Sherman, who held about 46%, as control person and Jeter running baseball and business operations. Jeter stepped down as chief executive in February 2022, and in 2020 the club hired Kim Ng as the first woman general manager in the major North American leagues. In January 2026 the Marlins terminated their local television contract with FanDuel Sports Network's parent after a missed rights payment.

NZ Rugby (New Zealand Rugby, NZR) is the governing body of rugby union in New Zealand, headquartered in Wellington with an office in Auckland. It was founded at a meeting in Wellington in April 1892 as the New Zealand Rugby Football Union, affiliated to the International Rugby Football Board in 1949, and shortened its name in 2006. NZR selects and manages the national representative teams, including the All Blacks, the Black Ferns and the sevens sides, represents New Zealand in World Rugby, runs domestic competitions with its 26 provincial unions and promotes participation in the community game. It has a staff of about 90 people and is led by chief executive Steve Lancaster. Broadcasting rights are a core income source: NZR helped form SANZAAR, now shared with the South African, Australian and Argentine unions, which sells television rights for major southern hemisphere competitions. In June 2022 its provincial unions approved Project Future, under which US technology investor Silver Lake invested NZ$200 million at a NZ$3.5 billion valuation for a 5.71% to 8.58% stake in NZR CommercialCo, a new entity holding all NZR's revenue-generating activities.

Teamworks is an American sports software company headquartered in Durham, North Carolina, that sells an enterprise platform it calls the Operating System for Sports. Its applications cover communication and scheduling, recruiting and player personnel evaluation, compliance, nutrition, strength and conditioning, athlete wellness, game strategy and video, combining SaaS workflows with proprietary data and AI analytics; acquisitions have added INFLCR, ARMS Software, Smartabase, Zelus Analytics, Telemetry Sports, Sportlogiq and the enterprise business of Pro Football Focus. The company says it serves more than 7,000 elite sports organisations worldwide, including every NFL, NHL and Premier League team, 90% of MLB clubs, 87% of NBA teams, 99% of NCAA Division I athletic departments and more than 65 Olympic federations in 24 countries, and it earns revenue mainly from software subscriptions. Teamworks was founded in 2004 by chief executive Zach Maurides. In June 2025 it raised a $235 million Series F led by Dragoneer Investment Group at a pre-money valuation above $1 billion. In April 2026 Hg led a further growth investment, joined by AllianceBernstein, that more than doubled Hg's total investment to $200 million and lifted Teamworks' valuation above $1.5 billion.

Smith Entertainment Group is a sports and entertainment holding company based in Salt Lake City, Utah, controlled by Qualtrics co-founder Ryan Smith and his wife Ashley Smith. The Smiths bought the NBA's Utah Jazz from the Miller family in 2020 for $1.66 billion, and SEG joined David Blitzer in buying Major League Soccer's Real Salt Lake in January 2022. SEG also operates the downtown Salt Lake City arena formerly known as Vivint Arena, now the Delta Center. In 2024 it acquired the hockey assets of the Arizona Coyotes and launched a National Hockey League franchise in Utah, now named the Utah Mammoth. The group earns revenue from ticket sales, sponsorship, media rights, arena events and concessions across its teams and venues.

Seattle Mariners is an American professional baseball team based in Seattle that competes in Major League Baseball's American League West division. The club joined the American League as an expansion team in 1977, created after Seattle, King County and Washington State sued the league over the Seattle Pilots' 1970 move to Milwaukee, and played at the Kingdome before moving in July 1999 to T-Mobile Park in the SoDo neighbourhood. Nintendo of America bought the team after the 1992 season, with Nintendo chief Hiroshi Yamauchi holding a 49% share; in August 2016 Nintendo sold control to First Avenue Entertainment, a partnership led by John W. Stanton, while keeping 10%, in a deal that valued the franchise, including regional sports network Root Sports Northwest, at $1.4 billion. The team earns revenue from ticket sales, media rights, sponsorship and merchandise. On the field it won AL West titles in 1995, 1997, 2001 and 2025 and set the American League record of 116 wins in 2001, with players including Ken Griffey Jr., Edgar Martínez, Randy Johnson and Ichiro Suzuki, but it is the only active MLB franchise never to reach the World Series. Jerry Dipoto runs baseball operations and Kevin Martinez business operations.

MSG Rangers Corp owns and operates the New York Rangers of the National Hockey League (NHL) and the Hartford Wolf Pack of the American Hockey League (AHL). It also operates the Madison Square Garden Training Center in Greenburgh, New York, which serves as a sports team performance and training facility. It earns revenue from several primary sources: ticket sales and a portion of suite rental fees at The Garden, a share of distributions from NHL league-wide national and international media contracts and other league-wide revenue sources, sponsorships and signage, food and beverage sales at The Garden and merchandising.

ONE Championship is a Singapore-based combat sports promotion and media company operated by Group ONE Holdings. It was founded on 14 July 2011 as ONE Fighting Championship by Chatri Sityodtong, who remains chairman and chief executive, and Victor Cui, and held its first event in September 2011; it took its current name in January 2015. Originally a mixed martial arts promotion, it now stages MMA, muay thai, kickboxing and submission grappling bouts, has held more than 200 events across Asia, and runs the flagship numbered series, ONE Fight Night cards aimed at North America, and the weekly ONE Friday Fights series at Bangkok's Lumpinee Stadium, launched in 2023. The company earns money from media rights, sponsorship, ticketing and digital content; its broadcast partners include Amazon Prime Video, which holds US and Canadian rights from 2022 to 2027, beIN Sports and the Seven Network. In October 2018, when its fights were broadcast in 136 countries, it raised a $166 million Series D led by Sequoia Capital with Temasek and Greenoaks Capital at an implied $1 billion valuation; it raised $150 million more in 2021 at a reported $1.35 billion valuation, and in 2022 it moved the parent company's legal domicile from Singapore to the Cayman Islands.

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.

New York Mets is a Major League Baseball franchise based in the New York City borough of Queens that competes in the National League East Division. The club was founded in 1962 as one of baseball's first expansion teams, created to replace the departed Brooklyn Dodgers and New York Giants, and its blue and orange colours evoke those two clubs. After playing at the Polo Grounds in 1962 and 1963 and at Shea Stadium from 1964 to 2008, the Mets have played at Citi Field since 2009. The team has reached the postseason eleven times, winning the World Series in 1969 and 1986, five National League pennants, most recently in 2000 and 2015, and six division titles. Hedge fund manager Steve Cohen became majority owner on October 30, 2020, buying 95% of the club from the Wilpon family for $2.4 billion, with the Wilpons keeping the remaining 5%. Forbes valued the franchise at $3.2 billion in 2025, the sixth most valuable MLB team. Under Cohen the Mets have spent heavily on players, including a three-year, $130 million contract for pitcher Max Scherzer in 2021.

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.

Atlanta Braves Holdings Inc is a holding company. It operates through its wholly-owned subsidiary, which is the owner and operator of the Atlanta Braves Major League Baseball Club and the mixed-use real estate development, The Battery Atlanta, and is the operator of the Atlanta Braves Major League Baseball Club’s stadium, Truist Park. The company predominantly derives revenue related to the Braves baseball franchise and Truist Park from ticket sales, concessions, local broadcasting rights, advertising sponsorships, suites and premium seat fees, retail and licensing revenue, shared MLB revenue streams, including national broadcasting rights and licensing, and other sources. The company's reportable segments include: Baseball which generates key revenue, and Mixed-Use Development.

Manchester United PLC operates as a professional football club with related activities, generating revenue prominently through commercial, broadcasting, and matchday segments. The commercial segment monetizes the various brands via sponsorships, retail, merchandising, apparel, and product licensing. Broadcasting revenue comes from television rights linked to football leagues and competitions, alongside content delivered through its dedicated TV channel all over the globe. Matchday income includes ticket sales, hospitality, merchandise, and services at its stadium. Manchester United is based in England. The company’s operations and fan base extends to many countries, supporting a diversified revenue model based on brand engagement and football-related content.

Sportradar is a Swiss sports technology company headquartered in St. Gallen that supplies sports data, content and related services to bookmakers, media companies and sports organizations. Through its Betradar brand it provides bookmakers with sports data, odds suggestions, managed trading services and streaming, and it also sells integrity services that monitor betting markets for match-fixing, audiovisual distribution, OTT streaming and digital advertising services. Its partners include the NFL, NBA, NHL, NASCAR and the International Tennis Federation, and its customers include hundreds of bookmakers and state lotteries such as Veikkaus, Svenska Spel and Norsk Tipping. It earns subscription and revenue-share income, and reported revenue of 1.29 billion euros and net income of 100 million euros for 2025, with about 3,900 employees in 29 offices across 20 countries. The business began in 2001 in Trondheim, Norway, as Market Monitor AS, founded by Petter Fornæss and Tore Steinkjer to extract betting odds from online bookmakers, with Carsten Koerl, now group chief executive, buying 51%. EQT invested in 2012, and Michael Jordan and Mark Cuban came in through a Revolution-led investment in 2015. Sportradar listed on Nasdaq (SRAD) on 14 September 2021 at a valuation of about $8 billion.