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Eric Grubman, John Collins and Chris Shumway hope to raise US$350m from IPO.
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- Sports Entertainment Acquisition Corp offering 35m units at US$10 each
- Company also exploring opportunities in technology and services associated with sports and entertainment
- SPACs have already raised US$38bn in 2020, according to SPAC Research
Eric Grubman, the former executive vice president of business operations at the National Football League (NFL), and John Collins, most recently chief executive of premium hospitality company On Location Experiences (OLE), have formed a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) targeting the sports and entertainment sectors.
Sports Entertainment Acquisition Corp, which also counts US investor Chris Shumway as a co-founder, filed with the securities and exchange commission (SEC) on 14th September for an initial public offering (IPO) it hopes will raise as much as US$350 million.
The Florida-based blank-check company, which plans to list on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol SEAH.U, is offering 35 million units at US$10 apiece, with each comprising one share common stock and one half of a warrant, exercisable at US$11.50.
An official filing said that Sports Entertainment Acquisition intends to focus on acquisition opportunities in the sports and entertainment sectors, in addition to ‘the technology and services that are associated with these verticals’.
The filing continued: ‘Examples of these technology/service areas include media, ticketing, payments processing, entertainment travel, gaming, loyalty programmes and many others.
‘Our founders have knowledge of these areas and we believe a business operating in one of these areas would benefit from our operational expertise and the experience and networks of our management team.’
Grubman (pictured), a former Goldman Sachs partner who was most recently chairman of OLE, will serve as chairman and chief financial officer for Sports Entertainment Acquisition, while Collins, who spent nine years as chief operating officer at the National Hockey League (NHL), will be the company’s chief executive. He left OLE after the company was acquired in January by agency giant Endeavor for a reported US$660 million.
Joining the management team at Sports Entertainment Acquisition are Natara Holloway, who has held various positions at the NFL since 2014, and Timothy Goodell, the brother of NFL commissioner Roger Goodell and the senior vice president and general counsel for energy company Hess Corporation.
Explaining its decision to focus on businesses in sports and entertainment, Sports Entertainment Acquisition said many companies in those sectors ‘achieve high growth’ and ‘have the potential to serve as platforms that can be utilised for future acquisitions’.
‘The application of third-party capital and expertise has the potential to enable growth outside of the original focus area,’ the company’s filing added. ‘Examples of businesses that have followed this trajectory include ESPN, Ticketmaster/StubHub, Fanatics, On Location and many others.’
Sports Entertainment Acquisition is the latest sports-focused SPAC to file with the SEC in recent times. In July, RedBird Capital Partners, the US investment firm led by Gerry Cardinale, and Oakland A’s executive Billy Beane launched RedBall Acquisition Corp. The company raised US$575 million in its IPO which it hopes to spend on acquiring a professional sports franchise.
Several private companies have gone public this year by merging with SPACs, which are publicly traded companies formed specifically to make an acquisition.
Daily fantasy sports and betting operator DraftKings, for example, completed a three-way merger in April with gaming technology specialists SBTech and investment firm Diamond Eagle Acquisition Corp (DEAC). Sportradar, the Swiss sports data intelligence company, is also reported to be considering going down the SPAC route.
SPACs have already raised a record US$38 billion in 2020, according to SPAC Research.
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