Latest news with #DavidBlitzer
Bloomberg
5 hours ago
- Business
- Bloomberg
How Long Before We Get a $6 Trillion Sports Team?
This week we drop in on the Lakers deal, get an update from our reporter in Cannes about where all the sports marketing money is going, and say something nice about AI for once. Plus we start our weekly Club World Cup scorecard. Also check out the latest episode of the Deal, where Alex Rodriguez and Jason Kelly sit with David Blitzer, co-founder of Harris Blitzer Sports & Entertainment, to discuss how his teams use data and analytics.
Business Insider
16 hours ago
- Business
- Business Insider
How a Blackstone exec built a sports investing empire
David Blitzer's interest in sports investing began after he became, in his own words, a "failed athlete." "I thought I was good when I was, you know, like a teenager. Then I realized by high school that I was adequate at best and certainly was not playing past high school," he said in a Thursday episode of the Bloomberg podcast "The Deal." The billionaire, who is a chairman at Blackstone's cross-asset investment group, made a name for himself as a pioneer in sports investing — a now-hot segment of the media and entertainment dealmaking world. On the podcast, Blitzer sat down with hosts Alex Rodriguez and Jason Kelly to talk about the empire of team ownerships he has built. Blitzer is the cofounder and managing partner of Harris Blitzer Sports and Entertainment, which owns the NBA's Philadelphia 76ers and the NHL's New Jersey Devils. He also holds stakes in the NFL's Washington Commanders, the MLB's Cleveland Guardians, and the MLS's Real Salt Lake. "Being an investor in any of these teams and leagues is fun, it's rewarding, it's challenging, it's really difficult," he said. Harris Blitzer Sports and Entertainment did not immediately respond to a request for additional comment from Business Insider sent outside regular business hours. Why Blizter is betting on sports Blitzer's first sports investment was with Josh Harris, the cofounder of Apollo, in 2011 when they acquired the Philadelphia 76ers for $280 million. Together, they founded Harris Blitzer Sports & Entertainment. "We had a lot of experience in corporate carve-outs. We had a lot of experience in bringing in new management teams and thinking about incentive structures in ways that I don't really think sports had had really done in the past," Blitzer said. The early thesis for investing is the same one he has now: supply and demand, he said. There are a set number of sports teams, and more ultrawealthy people and newer entrants, like private equity firms, want to buy them. "These are content and media businesses, and they have some of the best IP in the world. And frankly, in today's world, when you think about live content, there's probably nothing more valuable." He's the first person to own equity in all five of the major men's sports leagues in the US. His portfolio is strategically broad, he said, so he can offer wide, cross-sport reach for advertisers. Earlier this year, for example, they did a deal with Campbell's — the soup company — across the Commanders, the Sixers, the Devils, and Joe Gibbs Racing. As with private equity portfolio companies, the scale of Blitzer's portfolio also allows the company to better spread the cost of cutting-edge tools, such as AI and data analytics, he said. Blitzer is also betting on sports outside pro men's leagues. Last year, Blitzer and Harris launched Unrivaled Sports, a company that specializes in youth sports. Blitzer also holds a stake in NWSL's Utah Royals. Blitzer's advice to would-be sports owners Even though Blitzer takes a strategic, portfolio approach to investing in sport, he points out that owning sports teams goes beyond crunching numbers. He says his best advice for anyone investing in a sports franchise or a league is to go slow. "Don't do anything in your first season, like literally. Just learn. Just go around and meet everyone in the organization, watch what they do, how they do it. Do not come in and do big things in your first season," he said, before adding: "By the way, no one has taken that advice."
Bloomberg
a day ago
- Business
- Bloomberg
How David Blitzer's Blackstone Playbook Helped Him Conquer Sports
David Blitzer is one of private equity's biggest sports fans. He also was one of the first to figure out the massive investment potential in sports business—since it looks a lot like the deals he's learned to do while working for decades at Blackstone Group. When he got into business with Apollo co-founder Josh Harris, he found a kindred dealmaker. 'We had a lot of experience in corporate carve-outs,' Blitzer says on the latest episode of The Deal with Alex Rodriguez and Jason Kelly. 'We had a lot of experience in bringing in new management teams and thinking about incentive structures in ways that I don't really think sports had really done.'
Bloomberg
2 days ago
- Business
- Bloomberg
The Deal: David Blitzer
In this episode of The Deal, Alex Rodriguez and Jason Kelly talk with David Blitzer, Blackstone's chairman and the co-founder of Harris Blitzer Sports & Entertainment, about how his teams use data and analytics to improve fan experience. In this conversation, which was taped in front of an audience at the MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference, Blitzer tells the hosts how a 'failed athlete' came to be the first person to own teams in all five major American sports leagues, what he's doing to invest in the 'massively fragmented' world of youth sports and why having a favorite sports team is like having a favorite child.
Bloomberg
2 days ago
- Business
- Bloomberg
How David Blitzer Invests Across Sports Leagues
Alex Rodriguez and Jason Kelly sit with David Blitzer, co-founder of Harris Blitzer Sports & Entertainment, to discuss how his teams use data and analytics to improve the fan experience. (Source: Bloomberg)
