Goldman Sachs is on the cusp of closing a nearly $1 billion acquisition of Excel Sports Management from Shamrock Capital, the Financial Times reported.
The deal reflects the rising investor appetite for athlete representation businesses in recent years, a market that has scaled in step with a boom in the broader sports industry. Private capital has flooded into assets like sports teams, venues and related businesses that tend to deliver lucrative returns.
Meanwhile, the NCAA’s 2021 rule change, which allows college athletes to profit from their personal brands and likenesses, has provided another revenue source for agency businesses.
In March, tech-focused PE firm Silver Lake took private Endeavor Group—the parent company of talent agencies WME and IMG.
Founded in 2002 by Jeff Schwartz, Los Angeles-based Excel represents a roster of sports heavy-hitters, including Tiger Woods, Nikola Jokic, Caitlin Clark and Derek Jeter. The company in recent years has expanded into other areas such as executive search and marketing consulting.
Shamrock first invested in the company in 2020.
Excel has increased its estimated maximum commissions by 57% over the last three years, to $783 million, according to a Forbes’ report in July.
Goldman Sachs is no stranger to the sports agency market. In 2020, the firm backed a continuation fund that held a stake in Creative Artists Agency, the Los Angeles-based talent powerhouse owned by TPG. In 2023, TPG sold CAA to the family office of French billionaire François-Henri Pinault for $7 billion.
That deal reaped a windfall for Goldman Sachs’ secondary team, which doubled the money it had invested.
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