Marc Lasry, the CEO and co-founder of Avenue Capital Group, has announced the launch of a sports fund with a unique focus. This fund aims to invest in women’s sports teams within the United States, basketball teams across Africa, and other sports teams in Asia.
The introduction of the Avenue Sports Fund follows Marc Lasry’s sale of his ownership stake in the NBA’s Milwaukee Bucks team.
In a remarkable transaction, Marc Lasry recently sold his stake in the Milwaukee Bucks basketball team for an impressive $3.5 billion. This came after his initial acquisition of the team nearly a decade ago for a fraction of that amount, approximately $500 million.
“I’ve always been interested in sports, and I’ve wanted to do a sports fund,” he told the opening panel at the SALT iConnections conference. “There’s massive interest in sports worldwide. With the new fund, we thought we’d invest in women’s sports, basketball, teams in Africa, Asia, and lend money to teams. There’s a huge opportunity and a lot of it is in media rights,” he said.
“As more people watch sports, you’ve got a media company, not just a sports team,” Mr. Lasry said.
Sports venture funds targeting teams are increasingly growing with Isos launching one a few months ago.
There are rumors that Alex Rodriguez could be involved as well.
