Eleven Sports Acquires Team Whistle for More Globalized Content

ELEVEN SPORTS has acquired New York-based global sports media and entertainment company, Team Whistle, in a move that expands ELEVEN’s operations to North America and accelerates the Group’s plans to create a global sports media destination. The deal is subject to HSR approval.

“We have long recognized the opportunities for partnership between Team Whistle and the wider Aser portfolio,” says Andrea Radrizzani, Founder of ELEVEN SPORTS and parent company Aser Ventures. “By welcoming Team Whistle into the ELEVEN Group, we are bringing together two media companies who have a track record of building strong and innovative sports media businesses in Europe, Asia and North America. We will also be adding transformative new scale and capabilities to ELEVEN. Together, we look forward to delivering on our goal of creating a global destination for LIVE and on-demand sports content for audiences everywhere to enjoy.”

The acquisition will bring together ELEVEN SPORTS’ 150+ commercial partners, 20 million+ users and 30,000 hours of LIVE sport each year; with Team Whistle’s slate of original programming, 1,655 distribution channels, 629 million aggregated social media followers and 4 billion monthly video views. The ELEVEN Group will house an extensive network of OTT and social platforms; proprietary streaming technology; data driven production capabilities; and marketing and brand partnership services.

“Upon first meeting Andrea [Radrizzani] years ago, we shared a common bond on how sport and entertainment were being reimagined and now with the pace of media transformation happening at an accelerated rate globally, joining forces with ELEVEN allows us to create a truly unique, global media powerhouse,” says John West, Team Whistle Founder and Executive Chairman.

The newly expanded ELEVEN Group is building on the strong performance of ELEVEN SPORTS’ operations in Europe and Asia and Team Whistle in North America, in the face of Covid-19. Pro forma revenues for the combined Group will be in excess of US$300million for the financial year ending June 30th, 2021.

“At ELEVEN we are committed to building a world leading sports and entertainment ecosystem for fans and partners around the world,” says Luis Vicente, ELEVEN SPORTS Group Chief Executive Officer. “Team Whistle will play a huge part in helping us to deliver on that mission.”

ELEVEN SPORTS and Team Whistle will focus on continuing to grow the Group’s offering in the months ahead – securing more LIVE sports content and developing new on-demand sports and entertainment programming – to lay the foundations for a global ELEVEN sports and entertainment network.

The ELEVEN Group’s shared mission is to build a service that delivers for fans everywhere, across multiple channels. From LIVE coverage of the world’s biggest sporting events, to local sport for underserved communities of fans, to on-demand programming from Team Whistle’s award-winning original content and leading creators such as Dude Perfect and F2 Freestylers. ELEVEN’s plans for a world-wide network began with the acquisition of streaming platform MyCujoo in November 2020. The acquisition of MyCujoo is the basis for a new global ElevenSports.com platform, which will launch with a focus on niche-premium and longtail sport. Welcoming Team Whistle to the Group is another key milestone in realising ELEVEN’s international ambitions.

ELEVEN’s parent company, the sports and media investment platform Aser Ventures, first identified opportunities for synergy with Team Whistle three years ago. Aser invested in Whistle in June 2018 and Aser’s founder Andrea Radrizzani joined the Whistle board.

“We are excited to join such a talented group of people who share our vision of media and collaborative culture,” says Michael Cohen, Team Whistle Chief Executive Officer. “We have a long history of successfully working together and with ELEVEN’s deeper partnership we will be able to rapidly accelerate our growth.”