A unique opportunity in an iconic business
We intend to focus our search on iconic businesses, including sports franchises, which will complement our expertise in the sports data, media and technology sectors, benefit from our strategic and hands-on operational leadership and where we believe there are opportunities for attractive risk-adjusted returns, and to build a platform for future investments.
Sports and adjacent technology and services markets are among the most attractive segments in the broader media entertainment ecosystem, supported by macro tailwinds, large addressable markets, and the ability for organic growth and consolidation. Our sponsor group and management team, which brings together a powerful combination of experience, industry relationships, global expertise across sports, finance and management, and highly complementary attributes, is uniquely positioned to identify and execute an attractive transaction that will leverage macro trends and create significant shareholder value as a result of our investment and operating expertise.
Leading industry expertise with proven track record
With decades of combined global experience across the sports, media and financial investment landscapes, and with significant transactional expertise, access to capital and a track record of value creation, both in the United States and in Europe, we believe Iconic is a differentiated sponsor that will have competitive advantages in sourcing and executing an attractive business combination and drive long-term value for our shareholders.
Unique Capabilities
Our unique capabilities are driven by the deep industry experience and extensive deal sourcing and execution capabilities of our sponsor group and management team.
Experience
Sponsor group and management team made up of senior executives with access to capital, financial expertise and complementary business profiles and experience in a variety of relevant industries.
Network
Deep and broad network of relationships in the sports, media and technology industries creating a significant pipeline of opportunities both in the United States and Europe.
Deal-Making
Extensive experience of sourcing, structuring, acquiring, operating, developing, growing, financing and selling businesses.
Value Creation
Track record of driving value in existing businesses, including operating leading sport franchises.
Experience
Sponsor group and management team made up of senior executives with access to capital, financial expertise and complementary business profiles and experience in a variety of relevant industries.
Network
Deep and broad network of relationships in the sports, media and technology industries creating a significant pipeline of opportunities both in the United States and Europe.
Deal-Making
Extensive experience of sourcing, structuring, acquiring, operating, developing, growing, financing and selling businesses.
Value Creation
Track record of driving value in existing businesses, including operating leading sport franchises.
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Sponsors
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Sponsors
James G. Dinan -
Mr. Dinan founded York Capital Management in September 1991 and is the Chairman, Co-Chief Executive Officer and a Managing Partner of the firm. From 1985 to 1991, he worked at Kellner, DiLeo & Co., where he became a General Partner and was responsible for investing in risk arbitrage and special situation investments.
In 2014, Mr. Dinan purchased a stake in the Nation Basketball Association’s (“NBA”) Milwaukee Bucks, partnering with Marc Lasry and Wes Edens. Over the course of the following five years, from the 2013/14 season to the 2018/19 season, as owners of the Milwaukee Bucks Messrs. Dinan, Lasry and Edens completely reimagined, rebuilt and re-energized the team’s business operations, resulting in substantial improvements across all metrics. Together with his partners, Mr. Dinan is credited with the turnaround that saw the Milwaukee Bucks win the 2021 NBA Championship for the first time since 1971.
Mr. Dinan is a member of the NBA’s Board of Governors and among other positions, is currently the Vice-Chair of the Museum of the City of New York as well as serving on the Board of the Lincoln Center, the Hospital for Special Surgery, the USA Wrestling Foundation and the Harvard Business School’s Board of Dean’s Advisors.
Mr. Dinan received a B.S. in Economics from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School.
Alexander Knaster -
Mr. Knaster is the Chairman of Pamplona Capital Management, a global investment management firm that he founded in 2005. As of 2020, Pamplona Capital Management has managed over $13 billion in private equity, hedge funds and fund of funds assets.
Prior to founding Pamplona Capital Management, Mr. Knaster served as the Chief Executive Officer at Alfa Bank from 1998 to 2004. From 1985 to 1998, he has held senior positions at Credit Suisse First Boston, Bankers Trust Company, Deutsche Bank, Morgan Grenfell and Simmons and Company in New York, London, Moscow and Houston.
Mr. Knaster has a B.S. degree in Electrical Engineering and Mathematics from Carnegie Mellon University, M.B.A. from Harvard Business School and Ph.D. in Economics from Russian Academy of Science. Mr. Knaster is currently concluding a Master of Science program in Molecular Biology at New York University. He is an active philanthropist focusing extensively on funding cancer research and educational activities.
Mr. Knaster is already an investor in the sports sector, having acquired a majority stake in the Italian professional football team A.C. Pisa 1909 in January 2021.
Edward Eisler -
Mr. Eisler is the Founder and Chief Investment Officer of Eisler Capital, a global investment management firm established in 2015 with $4 billion of assets under management. Eisler Capital pursues a multi-strategy investment framework on both a discretionary and systematic basis, utilising directional, relative value, mean reversion and volatility trading strategies across all asset classes.
Prior to founding Eisler Capital, Mr. Eisler had a 20-year career at Goldman Sachs. He was a Partner and Co-Head of the Global Markets Division, where he oversaw the firm’s global trading activities. Additionally, he was a member of the Management Committee, the Firmwide Risk Committee and the Finance Committee.
Mr. Eisler holds a B.S. in Economics and Finance and an M.S. in Applied Mathematics from New York University. Mr. Eisler serves as an Executive Trustee of the Tate Foundation.
Tifosy SponsorCo -
Tifosy SponsorCo LLC is an affiliate of Tifosy Capital and Advisory. Tifosy is a leading boutique sports advisory firm. The firm has an extensive track record of sourcing and executing transactions in sports and providing strategic financial advisory services to clients across the sports sector.
Tifosy was founded by Fausto Zanetton and Gianluca Vialli. Mr. Zanetton is a sought-after and trusted advisor in the sports industry with over 20 years of experience advising global media, sports and technology companies including as an experienced investment banker at Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley. Mr. Vialli is one of the most iconic and successful European professional footballers of the modern era, having played at Sampdoria, Juventus and Chelsea.
The firm employs an experienced team comprised of leading individuals from the worlds of finance and sports as well as other talented and focused individuals from across top-tier investment banking, legal and sports marketing institutions.
Tifosy represents a powerful complement to the Iconic Sports investor group given its deep sports sector relationships, industry expertise and global platform with integrated investment and advisory capabilities. Tifosy has served as an advisor to numerous leading private equity funds, high net worth individuals and professional football clubs on various mandates focusing on some of the biggest names in world football: Inter Milan, Inter Miami CF, Chelsea, Melbourne Victory, Parma Calcio 1913, Sampdoria, Glasgow Rangers, Queens Park Rangers, Pisa Sporting Club, Norwich City and Venezia.
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Management
Fausto Zanetton +
Co-Chief Executive Officer & Chief Financial Officer
Mr. Zanetton is a much sought-after and trusted advisor in the sports industry and has over 20 years of experience advising global media, sports and technology companies.
Mr. Zanetton is the Chief Executive Officer of Tifosy, which he co-founded with Gianluca Vialli after seeing an unprecedented need for high-quality advisory services and financing solutions in professional sports. Mr. Zanetton directs Tifosy’s strategy and is responsible for managing the firm day-to-day, as well as in the sports sector advising clients on large-scale mergers and acquisitions and financing transactions. Mr. Zanetton has worked with professional sports franchises across Europe and the United States and has recently advised on transactions involving Inter Milan, Inter Miami CF, Parma Calcio 1913, Sampdoria, Glasgow Rangers Football Club, Queens Park Rangers Football Club, A.C. Pisa 1909, Norwich City Football Club and others. He has also been a speaker at various industry conferences, including Leaders in Sport, Soccerex Global Convention and Web Summit.
Mr. Zanetton previously held various positions as an experienced sports, media and entertainment banker at Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs, with additional sector experience at PricewaterhouseCoopers in Brussels and Boston. Mr. Zanetton has a successful track record in leading high-profile transactions.
Over the course of his career, Mr. Zanetton has developed a vast network within the global sports, finance and private equity industries and brings to the management team significant experience as a leader on large-scale mergers and acquisitions, capital markets and private financing transactions.
Mr. Zanetton holds an M.B.A. from London Business School, is a qualified chartered accountant and is fluent in several languages.
Gianluca Vialli +
Co-Chief Executive Officer
Mr. Vialli is one of the most iconic and successful European professional footballers of the modern era, having played at U.C. Sampdoria (“Sampdoria”), Juventus and Chelsea Football Club (“Chelsea”). He represented Italy in 59 matches and was inducted into the Italian Football Hall of Fame. He is one of the only nine players who have won all three major Union of European Football Associations (“UEFA”) club competitions: the UEFA Champions League/European Cup, the UEFA Europa League/UEFA Cup and the UEFA Cup Winners’ Cup.
Mr. Vialli was also the first Italian to have been appointed manager to a Premier League club, having led the first teams of Chelsea (1998-2000) and Watford (2001-2002). During his tenure at Chelsea, Mr. Vialli led the team to two international (the 1998 UEFA Cup Winners’ Cup and the 1998 UEFA Super Cup) and three domestic titles (the 2000 FA Cup, the 1998 League Cup and the 2000 Football Association Charity Shield).
After his professional playing and coaching career, Mr. Vialli spent 15 years at Sky Sports Italia as an ambassador, an advisor to the CEO on sporting matters and a highly respected commentator and media personality with deep expertise in Serie A, Premier League, UEFA Champions League and FIFA World Cups.
Mr. Vialli is also a Co-Founder and Non-Executive Director of Tifosy Capital & Advisory. He focuses on advising clients on sporting strategy, organisational matters including recruitment and capital allocation decisions.
In addition, Mr. Vialli currently serves as Head of the Italian national football team delegation and is a mentor to players and management. In July 2021, as part of the team led by Italian manager Roberto Mancini, Mr. Vialli oversaw Italy’s triumph in the 2020 European Championships. Mr. Vialli has a Masters in Football Business from the Johan Cruyff Institute and a Masters in Marketing and Sponsorship from University Bocconi.
Marco Re +
Executive Vice President
Mr. Re is a Managing Director and the Head of Italy at Tifosy. At Tifosy, Mr. Re is primarily responsible for the Italian market and office, but also leads the firm’s strategic client coverage as an adviser to top-tier clubs and clients across Europe. Mr. Re has an in-depth knowledge of the sports industry and is valued by clients for his holistic view on the sports financing market.
Prior to joining Tifosy, Mr. Re served at Juventus FC in various roles, including as Chief Financial Officer and Secretary of the Board, where he held responsibility for all financial and non-sporting operations. During his 20 year career at Juventus, Mr. Re led capital market transactions including the Juventus initial public offering, a €300 million rights issue, stadium construction financing, Juventus Village financing (real estate fund structure) and a €175 million senior unsecured bond issuance. As an experienced Chief Financial Officer, Mr. Re has a detailed understanding of not only industry-specific financing arrangements, such as factoring of broadcasting and player receivables, but also related developments, having assumed senior leadership roles in the J Medical and J Hotel projects.
Mr. Re holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Economics from the University of Turin and has been enrolled in the Italian Register of Chartered Accountants and in the Register of Auditors since 2003.
Tommy Aylmer +
Executive Vice President
Mr. Aylmer is a Managing Director and the Chief Legal Officer at Tifosy. At Tifosy, he advises clients on mergers and acquisitions, financing transactions, strategy and sports regulation and has recently advised on transactions involving Inter Milan, Inter Miami CF, A.C. Pisa and Norwich City Football Club, among others. Mr. Aylmer also oversees the wider team at the firm and the firm’s regulated investment platform activities.
Prior to joining Tifosy, Mr. Aylmer was a corporate lawyer at leading European law firm Arthur Cox, specialising in M&A and corporate finance. While at Arthur Cox, he gained significant experience in complex mergers and acquisitions and financing arrangements, representing and advising a wide variety of investment banking and corporate clients. Mr. Aylmer’s select former experience includes advising: Greencore Group plc on the $747.5 million acquisition of Peacock Foods; Goldman Sachs as part of Activision Blizzard’s $5.9 billion takeover of King Digital; CRH plc on the €6.5 billion multi-jurisdictional acquisition of businesses and assets from Lafarge S.A. and Holcim Ltd; the Eir Group on the acquisition of international sports broadcaster Setanta Sports Ireland; and Emirates National Oil Company on the £4.0 billion takeover and delisting of Dragon Oil plc.
Mr. Aylmer holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Business and Law from University College Dublin and is a dual- qualified lawyer with professional solicitor qualifications from the Law Societies of Ireland and England & Wales.
Tim Williams +
Executive Vice President
Mr. Williams is the Chief Executive Officer of Oxford United and a former Managing Director at Tifosy with more than 25 years of experience, including 15 years in sport, media, advertising and entertainment.
Mr. Williams is also a former Chief Financial Officer and member of the San Siro stadium management company board at Inter Milan, where he held responsibility for financial, strategic and management reporting and the club’s financing and capital structure between 2015 and 2020. While at Inter Milan, Mr. Williams led the issue of structured bond and revolving credit facilities totalling €425 million, as well as securing short-term financing arrangements on numerous occasions. Mr. Williams also has extensive experience in the UEFA Financial Fair Play (“FFP”) regulations after leading Inter Milan to the successful release from a four-year FFP Settlement Agreement.
Before joining Inter Milan, he trained with KPMG and held senior finance roles for advertising agency McCann Erickson and Manchester United. Mr. Williams holds a Bachelor’s Degree in finance from Manchester Metropolitan University and is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England & Wales.
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Resources
Corporate Governance +
Filings +
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