Oakwell Sports Advisory was delighted to advise Interregional Sports Group (ISG) – an industry-leading virtual media solutions provider, on its acquisition by TGI Sport – the global sports technology, media, and marketing company and portfolio company of Bruin Capital
The acquisition:
1. Adds to TGI’s best-in-class capabilities and expertise in the next wave of live sports advertising and media; and
2. Accelerates TGI’s overall transformation into a technology-led, full-service global media and marketing agency
Founded in 2015 by Tony Ragan and Simon Burgess, ISG has since become a market leader in the rights sales, content creation, and distribution of virtual media through live sporting events for clients, including Serie A, La Liga, and Formula 1. Headquartered in London, ISG also operates a Milan-based, state-of-the-art innovation lab for all its virtual media production, data analysis, client services & technology systems testing.
TGI Sport is a multi-discipline sports infrastructure and technology company which includes a media rights trading unit and a talent business representing around 300 athletes. It specialises in LED and virtual advertising products, having acquired the exclusive global sports licence to Parallel Ads (PADS), the hardware-based multi-broadcast feed technology developed by Appario Global Solutions.
The deal brings together TGI Sport’s digital replacement technology (DRT) solutions with ISG’s experience in DRT rights sales, content creation, and distribution of virtual media to create a “technology-led”, full-service offering in the space.
Following the deal, ISG will become a standalone unit within the global firm, called ‘ISG, powered by TGI Sport’, with ISG’s joint founders Simon Burgess and Tony Ragan continuing to run the unit as co-chief executives and reporting to TGI Sport’s global CEO Martin Jolly.
Oakwell Sports estimates that the global sports sponsorship market was c.$57bn in 2020. Andrew Umbers, Managing Partner at Oakwell, expects this to grow to c.$90bn by 2027.
“Out of the total global ad spend of c.$740bn, the proportion allocated to ‘digital’ has grown to c.50% because of the ability to target audiences more effectively and generate enhanced ROI.”
“ISG has demonstrated that the continued growth of live sports, combined with increased ad spend in more accurately targeted media, suits the medium of in-play branding and advertising. With their advanced technology, ISG/TGI are uniquely positioned to deliver this multi-billion dollar market opportunity to the rights holders in sport.”
“Further, and increasingly in the future, traditional in-stadia advertising will only be useful for actual attendees whilst AI driven virtual advertising will cater for the individual in any country and in any language. It will become more bespoke, personal, targeted, and will deliver extraordinarily better ROI for brands.”
Oakwell served as exclusive financial advisor to ISG and assisted on structuring and negotiating the deal on behalf of the shareholders. This deal further highlights Oakwell’s position as a leading sports advisor in Europe.
