Capital markets activity in sports technology managed to produce record dollar volume in the first half of the year, according to investment bank Drake Star—despite a spring lurch in activity brought about by the Trump tariff pronouncements.
“We had a bit of a wait and watch with the tariffs and the trade war last quarter, but activity is starting to reemerge in some capacity. I think people have found their peace with it,” Mohit Pareek, a partner at the U.S. investment bank, said on a video call. “We did have some concerns growing in buyers’ minds but now I don’t foresee a lot of deals being dragged along because of the tariffs.”
Even with the trade war worries, sports tech capital markets activity was nearly $40 billion overall in the first half of the year, according to preliminary Drake Star data shared by Pareek, who spearheads the bank’s sports tech banking activity. That beat the back half of 2024, during which its $35.2 billion in deals handily outpaced the prior period. Drake Star, a technology-focused investment bank, will release its periodic “Sports Tech Market” analysis on Wednesday.
Private placements—venture capital and private equity investments—had their best half ever, with $6.6 billion in deals, according to Drake Star. That tally bests the $6 billion in private placement over the prior 18 months in sports tech. The number of deals this year, 239, is actually part of a trend of fewer deals per period since the first half of 2023, when private placement fundings peaked at 355. “While the number of deals are reduced, there were more high-impact deals that happened in the first half of 2025, which is a very encouraging sign for the market,” Pareek said.
Notable deals included Saudi-backed SURJ and billionaire Len Blavatnik’s $1.83 billion funding of sports streamer DAZN, as well as Infinite Reality’s purchase of Napster. Infinite Reality, the Drone Racing League owner and popular VR esports platform, renamed itself Napster with the purchase and plans to cross promote music artists with its esports and drone league fan base, according to the company’s March announcement.
The decrease in VC deal volume does indicate stronger headwinds for smaller ventures, however. Only about $900 million of the $6.6 billion deal volume was for early-stage businesses, while mid-stage companies fared even worse, just raising $400 million to start the year. “This is the time where founders need to dig deep and bring out some of those key performance indicators that investors love,” Pareek said, characterizing VCs as “picky” of late.
M&A continued its very strong recent trend, running up sports tech-related deal value worth $32.2 billion in the first half, compared to last year’s back-half record of $32.6 billion deals, according to the preliminary Drake Star data. By comparison, the first half of 2024 had $8.1 billion in M&A over is 212 deals, compared to 233 deals this year. One notable deal—Disney’s acquisition of the majority of Fubo, which will absorb Hulu, “is a very, very good outcome for the whole sports media rights industry. There’s a clear path of where things are developing here, Disney has been a working at a very strategic level,” the Los Angeles-based banker said. “They’re trying to bring fans under one umbrella to give them what they need.”
Though few of its deals this year rank among the largest, Pareek noted a substantial uptick in youth sports activity, both in VC and PE funding and in M&A. Unrivaled Sports raised $120 million in a deal led by Dick’s Sporting Goods, while Rocket Youth raised more than $100 million from Maverick Carter, CEO of LeBron James’ SpringHill Company, and Daniel Sillman, CEO of Relevant, a sports and media rights group. Currently in play and not part of the deal tally is LiveBarn, a youth sports streamer that has seen a lot of private equity bidders kicking the tires on it after being put up for sale by ownership in March, Pareek noted.
“While we see a lot of folks out there in league apps, I think we’re going to see consolidation happening where video and data and the registration platform are going to be the new norm. I think we’ll very quickly see a couple of more high-impact consolidation plays in that space,” Pareek said. “Someone who owns the youth sports ecosystem from a vertical and horizontal standpoint and can provide a one-stop solution I think is going to be the success story.”
