CVC Capital Partners hire former EE boss to new sports arm
CVC SportsCo, a new entity created by private equity giants CVC Capital Partners, has been bolstered by the hire of former mobile phone network EE boss Marc Allera.
Allera will take a the role central to the firm’s sporting portfolio, which once owned Formula 1.
The current CVC Capital Partners portfolio includes stakes in Premiership Rugby, volleyball, Six Nations Rugby, LaLiga football and the WTA tennis tour.
They’re also set to acquire the Madrid and Miami 1000 tennis tournaments across both the ATP and WTA Tours.
CVC SportsCo is a new arm established by the Amsterdam-listed private equity group ahead of further reported asset diversification across sport.
But the results have thus far been mixed. WTA Ventures chief Marina Storti told City PM that any further investment in tennis is “testament to the success of WTA Ventures”, adding that “if they are investing in the sport, it just shows how well that’s going”.
CVC Capital Partners returns
But their returns in Premiership Rugby are uncertain, with the private equity giants extending support, alongside other top-flight clubs, to help Newcastle Falcons from going under. The northern rugby union outfit may now be purchased by energy drinks leader Red Bull.
Returns are expected to be healthy for the Six Nations and Spanish LaLiga, while volleyball has been a hidden winner.
“For the first two or three years we spent a lot of time investing in the product, because the sport is immensely popular around the world, but it has largely been under capitalised,” Volleyball World CEO Finn Taylor told City PM in April.
But in the aftermath of a 13 per cent stake purchase in French football’s Ligue 1 media rights in 2022, CVC Capital Partners reportedly had their Parisian offices raided in 2024 in relation to a potential corruption investigation.
Allera was the UK general manager of the Sega video game firm before moving to phone network Three. He then moved on to EE before being named chairman of the board of game developer Jagex, owned by CVC Capital Partners.