🔊 MMA Veteran Raises $60M For New Global Fight League

This week, news broke that veteran mixed-martial-arts (MMA) promoter Scott Coker will launch a new fight league in 2027, backed by $60 million in financing led by Creator Sports Capital and Griffin Gaming Partners.

Coker is best known for founding Strikeforce, one of the most prominent MMA promotions in the world before it was acquired by UFC in 2011, and for serving as the President of Bellator MMA from 2014 to 2024.

The investor coalition spans sport, media, technology, and finance, and includes others such as Upper Deck; Steve Kaplan, co-founder of Oaktree Capital and owner of DC United, Swimmy Minami, founder of Visional and a limited partner of the New York Yankees, skateboarding legend Tony Hawk, former Fortress Investment Group Vice-Chairman Dean Dakolias, and several investors with ownership stakes in both the NFL and NBA.

The advisory group features former TelevisaUnivision CEO Wade Davis, former Sony Pictures Television Chairman Steve Mosko, and former President of Paramount Network Kevin Kay.

Coker is joined as co-founder by Peter Levin of Griffin Gaming Partners, who will serve as Chairman of the Board. Levin previously served as both an advisor and investor in Strikeforce. The league's name, structure, and event schedule will be announced in the coming weeks, with a global debut planned for early 2027.

Why This Matters

Last week, we talked about how Bruin Capital is backing boxing's renaissance.

And this week, institutional capital turned its sights towards MMA.

The same tailwinds driving money into boxing, such as creator-driven audiences, content virality, and streaming platforms bidding for live sports, are creating opportunity across the entire fight space.

Combat sports as a whole are having a moment, and Scott Coker is trying to capitalize.

He built Strikeforce into a UFC alternative and sold it. He then took over a struggling Bellator and turned it into the second-largest MMA promotion in the world.

And now he is leveraging access to capital and relationships to back an even bigger vision.

This new league is also being constructed with global distribution and monetization in mind from day one, not as a regional product.

The UFC just signed a seven-year, $7.7 billion media rights deal with Paramount.

It’s clear that whoever can position themselves as the number-two option in MMA has significant leverage when those conversations come back around, given the drastic growth in combat sports.

The league just needs to become valuable enough so that the right partner, a streamer, a broadcaster, or UFC itself, eventually comes calling.

We're watching a major sub-sector of the sports asset class take off before our eyes.

Fight leagues, boxing promoters, and combat sports infrastructure have long-term upside, and more capital will find its way as the space continues to be repriced.

And yes, it’s true, many new leagues fail to sustain over a long period of time.

But this feels different with the names involved, the money backing it, and the attention on the sport all pointing in the same direction at the same time.

Coker has done this twice. I believe he’ll do it again.

• Arctos Acquires Minority Stake In Cleveland Browns. Haslam Sports Group, owner of the Cleveland Browns, has sold a minority stake in the team to private equity firm Arctos Capital Partners. Arctos will take a total 10% stake in the franchise, split across three investment tranches, with the first tranche approved, giving the firm a preliminary 3% stake. The overall agreement reportedly values the browns at $9 billion, meaning Arctos will pay $900 million, which is far in excess of the $6.4 billion that Forbes valued the team at in August 2025 (more here).

• The Team Acquires Stakes In GG11. The Team, the international sports agency formerly known as Wasserman, has acquired a stake in GG11, a talent representation agency focusing on Italian soccer. Founded in 2007, GG11 has locations in Rome and Milan and brokers deals for players and managers domestically and abroad. The talent roster attached to GG11 will join The Team's existing stable of soccer players, which includes Fede Valverde, Ilia Zabarnyi, Manuel Akanji, John Stones, and Malo Gusto. Financial details were not disclosed (more here).

• Dr. Scholl's Acquires VKTRY. Scholl's Wellness Company, the parent company of the Dr. Scholl's brand and a portfolio company of Yellow Wood Partners, announced the acquisition of VKTRY, the leading performance insole brand designed for athletes seeking measurable gains in jump, speed, and recovery. Founded and operated by the Arciuolo family in Milford, Connecticut, VKTRY has emerged as a category-defining brand in athletic performance insoles. Financial details were not disclosed (more here).

• SOOP Acquires AI Peppers Volleyball Team. SOOP, a Korean-based global media platform company, has acquired the AI Peppers women’s professional volleyball team of the Korea Volleyball Federation. SOOP aims to improve the operations of the team and league by integrating its vast capabilities in sports broadcasting and content production. Financial details were not disclosed (more here).

• SponsorCX Raises Series A. SponsorCX, an all-in-one sponsorship management platform, has announced an additional investment into its Series A funding round, led by Kickstart with participation from Blueprint Equity, Capital Eleven, Frazier Group, Helm Ventures, and several returning investors. The new funding will help expand SponsorCX’s AI capabilities across its ecosystem, strengthen connections among leagues, brands, and teams, and support continued global expansion. Financial details were not disclosed (more here).

• Two Dice Raises Series A. Two Dice, a live entertainment and media company founded by industry veterans George Kliavkoff and Jennifer Worthington, announced a Series A strategic investment by Oak View Group, the global leader in premium live entertainment infrastructure and services. With this investment, Two Dice will accelerate its development of scalable, IP-driven experience franchises across sports, music, and culture. Financial details were not disclosed (more here).

• Muybridge Raises $16M. Muybridge, a Norway-based AI imaging and weightless camera platform, raised $16 million in Series A funding. The round was led by Investinor, Fairpoint, Idekapital, and RunwayFBU, with participation from multiple Nordic tech founders and operators. The company intends to use the funds to accelerate its international expansion across Europe and the US, scale its commercial organization, and extend the technology roadmap of its software-defined imaging platform. The startup has already completed live-tracking deployments across major European football leagues, the NBA, the NHL, the PGA Tour, Premier Padel, the US Open, and the ATP Tour (more here).

• Trajektory Raises $8M. Trajektory, a Chicago-based sports sponsorship analytics platform, raised $8 million from several investors, including the Wilf family's WISE Ventures, which owns the Minnesota Vikings. Trajektory now works with teams in professional sports leagues and provides access to accurate, integrity-driven sponsorship data across digital and non-digital assets. The funding will support engineering and hiring around sales (more here).

Quick update before you keep reading…

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Now, back to your regularly scheduled newsletter.

• Fanatics & American Express Announce Partnership. Global sports merchandise and e-commerce company Fanatics plans to launch its first credit card later this year on the American Express network through its new partnership with the major credit card company. Fanatics’ cardholders will directly earn FanCash, Fanatics’ digital reward currency, which can be redeemed for apparel, tickets, trading cards, collectibles, and other experiences. It is forecasting over $1 billion in FanCash issuance this year (more here).

• NHL & Honeywell Announce Partnership. The NHL announced a new partnership with Honeywell to help increase energy efficiency of hockey facilities across North America and lower operating costs. The multiyear partnership makes Honeywell the “Official Building Automation and Energy Management Partner of the NHL.” The primary issue the partnership will address is a lack of energy efficiency in NHL arenas, practice facilities, and community rinks across the US and Canada. Honeywell will analyze energy use and provide AI-enabled automation technologies to lower power consumption and improve climate control (more here).

• Next League & Marvik Announce Partnership. Next League, an AI enablement service provider for sports organizations, announced a partnership with Marvik, a leading AI engineering firm. This collaboration aims to enhance Next League's AI advisory services by leveraging Marvik's extensive experience with Fortune 500 companies and its preferred partner status with major AI players such as Anthropic and NVIDIA. The partnership will provide Next League's clients with access to Marvik's deep expertise in AI development, early access to cutting-edge AI models, and insights into best practices learned from diverse industries (more here).

• World Team Tennis Relaunches With New Format & Ownership. World Team Tennis, a pioneering mixed-gender team tennis league founded by Billie Jean King and others in 1974, is set to relaunch in December of this year under new ownership and with a new format. The first event will take place at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn on December 2nd. The new ownership model will allow competing players an equity stake in the league. The new format will be shorter than before, with four singles sets, two men’s and two women’s, and a mixed doubles Supertiebreaker. (more here).

• LOVB Announces Miami Expansion. League One Volleyball (LOVB) is bringing an expansion franchise to Miami for its third season, boosting the women's professional volleyball league to 10 teams. Miami will join the league's Eastern Conference, along with Atlanta, Madison, Minnesota, and Nebraska. The Western Conference will include Austin, Houston, Los Angeles, Salt Lake, and San Francisco. Details around roster and ownership were not disclosed (more here).

• Carmelo Anthony’s Creative 7 Productions Partners With Utopia Studios. NBA Hall of Famer Carmelo Anthony has become a strategic partner and collaborator with Utopai Studios. Through the initiative, Anthony, alongside business partner and co-founder of Creative 7, Asani Swann, will work with Utopai Studios to help bring professional athletes and sports-related opportunities into original projects across film, television, streaming, and digital platforms (more here).

• Zlatan Ibrahimović Invests In K-Sport. Notable Swedish football player Zlatan Ibrahimović was announced as an investor and global ambassador for K-Sport, a leading Italian technology firm specializing in sports performance analysis. Founded in 2008, K-Sport has built a global presence and collaborates with over 1,800 clubs and teams while monitoring the performance of over 150,000 athletes. The partnership is rooted in a shared vision to "democratize" sporting talent through AI and data. Financial details were not disclosed (more here).

• Thibaut Courtois Joins CD Extremadura Ownership Group. Real Madrid goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois has taken another step into ownership after NXTPLAY, the sports investment platform he co-founded alongside Gonzalo Vila, officially acquired a stake in Spanish club CD Extremadura. While Courtois remains fully focused on his playing career at Real Madrid, he has increasingly expanded his interests away from the pitch in recent years, including ventures in esports, technology, and now multi-club football investment. Financial details were not disclosed (more here).