French soccer ace Kylian Mbappé has bought a “significant stake” in France’s SailGP team, with the global sailing series’ managing director Andy Thompson telling SportsPro the Real Madrid player will play a hands-on role with the team.
Coalition Capital, the investment arm of Mbappé’s Interconnected Ventures company, will come on board to back the sailing team, while Mbappe’s ‘Inspired by KM’ (IBKM) organisation will become the French outfit’s official charity partner.
Thompson noted the role Accor, the global hospitality group which also serves as a partner of both SailGP and the IBKM organisation, played in securing Mbappé, who was already “a fan of SailGP”, as an investor. The Frenchman was additionally said to be impressed with how the sport is reaching younger audiences, which holds huge value to him and his IBKM organisation.
“[Mbappé] will be involved in the day-to-day decision making of this team,” Thompson said. “He’ll be appearing at our events and will be supporting the team on social media.
“He’ll really be a part of managing this team, and a part of how they drive future value in the team, from a sporting perspective and a commercial perspective.”
“Team valuations have grown by another 20-25% this year”
Now in its fifth season, SailGP has sold ownership stakes in several teams as commercial interest in the league continues to grow.
The league sold its Canadian team to biotech entrepreneur Greg Bailey for a then-record fee last year. That deal came after Abu Dhabi’s sovereign wealth fund Mubadala Capital co-financed the launch of the Brazil SailGP team, while SailGP’s US team was also acquired in 2023 by a consortium led by Ryan McKillen, Margaret McKillen and Mike Buckley.
SailGP has also added a flurry of global partners, including the likes of the Emirates airline and logistics firm DP World. Rolex became the series’ first ever title sponsor last November, which has further strengthened the league’s financial position. Thompson said team valuations had risen “by another 20 to 25 per cent” in the past year and he expected further growth.
“A lot of the huge explosion in team valuations over the last two or three seasons has been driven by the growth of the league itself, in that we’re adding more events and increasing our audience,” he said.
“I think external people are looking at it and are thinking that there’s much more growth to go for us as a league. It’s all very much in line with our plans that we set out in the early days of SailGP.”
Thompson said recent deals meant there were “less and less” investment opportunities currently available, although he said he he was expecting “one or two” more announcements in the next month regarding the addition of team owners to existing teams.
“Certainly with the teams that we have right now, we’ll be in a position by the end of season five where I’d expect that we won’t have any teams available,” he said.
“China and Japan would be attractive for us”
With investor demand unlikely to go away anytime soon, Thompson said the league will consider its next steps once it has concluded any active negotiations.
Ahead of its fifth season, it welcomed two new teams representing Italy and Brazil, taking its total to 12. The series has subsequently seen a significant viewership increase in both markets, and expects to have a major turnout at its event in Rio de Janeiro later this year in May. SailGP has identified several markets it could expand to, with Asia an obvious target.
“Certainly, China and Japan are two markets that would be attractive for us,” Thompson said. “Equally, we also don’t have a Mexican team. That could be something of interest, that’s a pretty significant market.
“So these are the kind of decisions that we’ll been looking to make over the next one to two years, and then we’ll go from there. There’s also European markets that are also in touch. The Netherlands is a huge sailing fanbase that we haven’t touched yet.
“It’s exciting, I think adding these markets is great. Adding new events is fantastic. Ultimately, everything that we’re doing here is growing the sport of sailing and making a long term future for all of those athletes, male and female, within the sport.”
“We’re doing more to engage a broader audience”
Mbappe’s investment follows the appointment of DJ Khaled as SailGP’s “chief hype officer” as part of its partnership with Roc Nation Sports International.
Thompson said that the move represented an ambition to engage a much broader audience beyond the traditional sailing fanbase, particularly at its events.
“A lot of our fans are not actually what you’d call traditional sailing fans,” he noted. “These are people who are coming for an event. Ultimately it’s a racing product and people can understand it straight away.
“We’re doing more to engage a broader audience. We feel that our events experience need to have more and the fan really wants more than just the sport these days, and that’s something that we’re looking to do more of.”
He teased that the series and Roc Nation had plans to do more beyond bringing DJ Khaled onboard as part of their new relationship.
“[Roc Nation president] Michael Yormark, myself and a few others want to put a broader plan together as to how we can do more with our events, and how Roc Nation can support that,” he said.
“So definitely watch this space. It’s the start of something rather than a one-off.”
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