A London-listed marketer backed by Lord Ashcroft, the former Conservative Party treasurer, will this week announce the purchase of a key digital partner for sports properties including the men’s T20 Cricket World Cup.
Sky News has learned that Brave Bison, which trades on junior exchange AIM and has a market capitalization of just under £30 million, is close to agreeing to buy Engage Digital Partners for just over £10 million in a cash and stock deal.
Municipal sources indicated that a transaction could be announced as early as Monday morning.
It will create a group of 350 employees across its UK offices in London and Manchester, as well as in Australia, India and Singapore.
This will be Brave Bison’s sixth acquisition since brothers Oli and Theo Green took over the company in 2020.
Brave Bison, which has seen its shares rise by almost a fifth in the past year, counts LinkedIn and New Balance among its clients.
Last year, it acquired SocialChain, the social media and influencer agency of podcaster and entrepreneur Steven Bartlett.
In addition to Lord Ashcroft, its investors include hotel entrepreneur Luke Johnson.
This deal comes at a time when sports rights holders are turning to data and new forms of marketing to more effectively monetize their properties, with traditional business models increasingly disrupted.
Engage runs fan engagement campaigns across a number of sports and entertainment properties including Formula 1, Real Madrid and New Zealand Rugby.
It is also a partner of the International Cricket Council, with whom it worked on this year’s T20 World Cup, when England lost to India in the semi-final.
Engage has been working on a potential sale of the company since the summer, after hiring corporate financiers from KPMG to advise them in negotiations with bidders.
Adding it to Brave Bison will combine it with a group that already works with rights holders including the Ryder, Cup, Australian Open tennis and Le Mans.
Engage was founded by Gregg Oldfield, who led the management buyout of Endemol Sport in 2012.
It describes itself as the largest independent agency in sports and is in some ways similar to – albeit smaller than – Two Circles, which was sold to a private equity firm earlier this year.
Mr. Oldfield will lead the combined groups’ sports and entertainment division.
Brave Bison could not be reached for comment Sunday.