Shark Tank star Mark Cuban joins $750m private equity sports fund
Star of Shark Tank and former Dallas Mavericks majority owner Mark Cuban is part of a new $750m private equity sports fund.
Harbinger Sports Partners Fund will look to acquire minority stakes across a number of sports including Major League Baseball (MLB), National Football League (NFL) and National Basketball Association (NBA).
Other figures included are Steve Cannon and Rashaun Williams while Cuban will be a general partner of the private equity fund, which aims to raise $750m within two years.
“We’re at the very early innings in how we view investing in sports,” Williams said.
“Folks talk about the raw number in terms of valuation of these teams looking from the outside in, we focus inside as owners and operators, valuation growth is a result of core fundamentals.
“As we go from sports 1.0 to 2.0, we see teams moving from ticket and sponsorship sales organisations to media companies and even finding new revenue sources locally to grow revenue.”
Cuban expansion
Cuban’s Harbinger Sports Partners Fund is set to acquire a number of minority stakes in franchises, but reportedly plan to keep their stakes to around five per cent in each.
Unlike English sport, there are limits on ownership rules in the United States, should that be where Cuban’s Harbinger Sports Partners Fund invests.
In the NFL you can acquire a maximum of 10 per cent of a franchise as a private equity fund, but you can have a 10 per cent stake in six different teams as long as the minimum investment is three per cent.
In the NBA you can acquire up to 20 per cent of five different franchises while there’s no limit on the number of teams you can invest in in MBL, though the maximum equity purchase in a single franchise is 15 per cent.
For ice hockey you can buy into five teams at a maximum stake of 20 per cent in each.
Cuban left Shark Tank recently, citing family as his official reason.
He has had involvement in the Dallas Mavericks, where he was formerly the majority owner, while he has expressed an interest in a number of other teams across a number of sports.