Couchmans acts on investment in revolutionary sports technology
Couchmans LLP, the market leading sports law firm, has advised specialist sports sector investment business, Sports Investment Partners LLP, on its investment in Digital Billboard Replacement (DBR) specialists Supponor.
Supponor's DBR technology for live sports broadcasts allows TV viewers watching the same event live in different countries to see billboard advertising tailored specifically to them. Multiple live feeds can be generated, identical in every way but with different billboard graphics in any electronic media form for the specific audience. By using DBR Live for the Norway v England football match on Saturday May 26, the fans in the stadium or watching on TV in Norway saw completely different adverts to those seen by viewers in the UK and the rest of the world. The technology is now being trialled by a range of sports governing bodies worldwide.
Chaired by Sir Martin Broughton, Sports Investment Partners (SIP) is Europe's and the UK's first investment firm focused specifically on driving investment and growth in the global Sport Industry, and will be providing investment capital and sports industry expertise to Supponor to enable the international roll out of DBR. Supponor is the second investment by SIP following its investment in sports event design firm, the Arena Group, earlier this year, on which Couchmans also advised. As part of the investment two SIP representatives, Matthew Wheeler and Michael Broughton, will join the Supponor board.
Nic Couchman, Chairman of Couchmans LLP, said "We helped to co-found Sports Investment Partners in 2010, working with Sir Martin Broughton, Matthew Wheeler and the other SIP partners and we are delighted to be involved in its second major investment project, this time into a revolutionary new sports advertising technology that will have global application."
Matthew Wheeler, Managing Partner of SIP and Non Executive Director of Supponor added: "Couchmans have again worked very closely with us on this second SIP investment. Their unique breadth and depth of experience across sports sector M&A, broadcasting rights and intellectual property has been, and will continue to be, invaluable to SIP. We rely not only on their legal expertise, but also on their commercial acumen and unrivalled knowledge of the sports industry, in assisting us to identify, structure and complete investments in this sector. In my experience, the value that they can add to an M&A transaction in the sports sector is second to none."
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