Matchroom’s Eddie Hearn on darts in US, Bruin Capital, Saudi and Dana White
Matchroom Sport chair Eddie Hearn on wooing Bruin Capital, darts breaking America, Saudi Arabian money, AJ-Fury and getting back at Dana White.
A night at the darts might not seem the obvious place to clinch a billion-pound deal but that’s where Matchroom boss Eddie Hearn invited Bruin Capital to show the US firm why it should invest in the family business.
The entertainment at the Manchester leg of Premier League Darts was sufficiently well received for Bruin to buy a minority stake in Matchroom, which effectively owns the sport, in a transaction announced last week that valued the business at more than £1bn.
The Hearns hope the alliance with Bruin, which has stakes in various sports-adjacent ventures including Drive to Survive maker Box to Box Films, will unlock the next stage of growth for darts and other sports in which it is a major player, such as nine-ball pool and boxing.
“We’re good, we’re great promoters, we’re incredible salesmen, and my dad’s one of the greatest chartered accountants to live but there are levels upon levels, and this is going to help us unearth and crack those levels,” Eddie Hearn tells Morning Wire.
“The key is the potential upside in the American market. The real growth from Matchroom over the last few years has been that global expansion, and that was something that I wanted to bring to the business.
“If darts ends up doing a major deal with a US broadcaster, if it breaks through in the American market, which I really believe it can, it will change the sport forever.”
We’ve never relied on Saudi ever to run a profitable business. It’s been a wonderful addition on many levels, because it’s given us a lot of financial success, but we’re not reliant upon them
Hearn on coping with Saudi Arabia’s change of sports strategy
Hearn’s eyes were opened to the value of Bruin’s endorsement when he attended an event hosted by its founder and CEO George Pyne in Florida, where he was seated next to ESPN chair Jimmy Pitaro, who he had until then been pitching to with limited success.
“All of a sudden, George is going to Jimmy, ‘have you looked at darts? Jimmy, this stuff’s out of control. We’ve done the numbers, we’ve been to these events’,” says Hearn.
“There’s nothing done with ESPN yet, but there could be, and that would transform everything in America. They [Bruin] have done their due diligence, and when they’ve seen the numbers [for darts] versus the numbers from boxing or pool or snooker, they’re looking at this business going, ‘this is a monster’.”
Matchroom ‘not reliant on Saudi Arabia’
Bruin Capital’s investment is also good timing, given Saudi Arabia’s pausing of its sports investments following five years of largesse. LIV Golf has been the hardest hit by the retreat but Matchroom has also seen one of its Saudi snooker events scrapped.
“We’ve never relied on Saudi ever to run a profitable business. It’s been a wonderful addition on many levels, because it’s given us a lot of financial success, but we’re not reliant upon them. We like actually working with them,” he says.
Hearn insists PIF’s strategic pivot is not affecting Riyadh Season’s sponsoring of Matchroom’s biggest boxing cards, such as the long-awaited all-British showdown between Anthony Joshua and Tyson Fury slated for November.
“You’ve got [Riyadh Season supremo] Turki Alalshikh and you’ve got PIF. They’re not really intertwined or related,” he says. “At the same time, we appreciate that it may not last forever, and if it doesn’t, we need to make sure we keep pushing the boundaries of new territories.”
Wembley is Matchroom’s preference to stage AJ-Fury, which would create “the hottest ticket at any sporting event ever in the country” and threaten to eclipse the 98,128 crowd for Joshua’s defeat by Daniel Dubois at the national stadium in 2024.
“The venue is completely down to Turki, he’s the guy paying the money. I think he recognises how important this fight is to the UK public, so we hope we see it in London,” he says.
Aspinall said, ‘are you using me to get back at Dana White over Conor Benn?’. ‘I went, ‘yeah, a little bit’. But it was deeper than that
Hearn on signing UFC fighter Tom Aspinall to Matchroom Talent
Hearn on possible IPO or full sale
Hearn recently branched out into talent representation, starting with UFC fighter Tom Aspinall in what was, in part at least, a riposte to UFC boss Dana White poaching Conor Benn from Matchroom to his new boxing promotion.
“He was very unhappy with the UFC, and I said, ‘there is an opportunity right now to create a huge amount of noise’. And he said, ‘well, are you using me to get back at Dana White over Conor Benn?’. ‘I went, ‘yeah, a little bit’. But it was deeper than that,” Hearn says.
“It’s the opportunity to understand that world and their business, but also to sign one of the biggest names in combat sports.” Matchroom Talent has since moved into rugby union by signing England star Henry Pollock. “Rugby has so much untapped potential.”
Hearn is speaking after he and his Matchroom founder father Barry, 77, were named billionaires in the latest Sunday Times Rich List. “My dad is money mad. You have to remember he came from a council estate in Dagenham. It was all about building a financial legacy for him,” he says.
“We’ve made a huge amount of money, but luckily I’ve got the same mindset where it’s like, ‘we’ve made our money, now we’re going to the next level’. Which will probably be a complete sale, or a float – that’s the next level, I guess.
“I don’t know when that’ll happen. We turned down a complete sale because we’re not ready for that yet. We still love what we do. Maybe I’ll be 77 and still going. Who knows?”