Learfield IMG College, the dominant force in college sports marketing and multimedia deals, has raised $242 million from a trio of its existing investors: Endeavor, Silver Lake and Atairos.
The company also extended the maturity date of $183 million in existing loans that were scheduled to be paid off this year. Those payments are now due in 2023.
Combined, the two moves will let Learfield IMG College access $425 million in capital to support the business in the near term. That comes at an important time—the COVID-19 pandemic strained resources across college sports, and while that’s certainly affected Learfield IMG College, it’s also forced schools to consider commercial opportunities that they’d previously ignored.
“While the college sports community has navigated dynamic challenges, we have continued to lean-in to unlock new value for our university partners and brand partners alike,” Learfield IMG College CEO Cole Gahagan said in a statement. “We now have the deepest and broadest platform that includes digital sponsorships, contactless mobile ticketing, governance for NIL, esports, content and industry collaborations, with the necessary fan data and analytics to help school partners grow their entire athletics departments.”
The valuation on the $242 million in new equity was not released.
Learfield IMG College took its current form in late 2018, when Atairos-backed Learfield merged with IMG College, its main competitor, whose investors include Endeavor and Silver Lake. The combined company, valued at the time at $2.4 billion, became the primary middleman in connecting brands and media companies with athletic departments across the country.
The group currently works with more than 1,000 schools in some capacity, handling larger multimedia rights for nearly 200 of them, including roughly 83% of the Power 5.
The new raise comes six weeks after Endeavor completed its IPO and began trading as a public company. Its other sports holdings include UFC and the Professional Bull Riders.
Silver Lake, which has more than $83 billion in assets under management, is an Endeavor equity holder and an investor in Madison Square Garden Sports and City Football Group. Atairos’ other sports-related investments include Arcis Golf and GeoComply, the geo-fencing software used across the sports betting industry.
