Inter Milan fans celebrate the victory after the Serie A match against Lazio on May 20, 2018. (Photo by Paolo Bruno/Getty Images)
Suning Sports is a dominant player in Chinese sports media, but it also operates a retail division and a training sector. After completing a Series A financing round, the company will be able to pursue all of those endeavors holistically.
The company announced on Tuesday that it had received Series A funding from Goldman Sachs, e-commerce giant Alibaba, two government sports-focused funds, and a number of other investors. With the money in hand, Suning Sports will further develop its fan-oriented media and OTT services, and explore retail opportunities.
Among those pursuits are an expansion of its rights to broadcast European club soccer. Earlier in July, Suning Sports announced that its subsidiary PP Sports would have the exclusive broadcast and online rights to the Bundesliga until 2023. Suning Sports is also itself a subsidiary of Suning Holdings, which owns a majority stake of Italian soccer giant Inter Milan.
On the retail side, Suning Sports plans to open 152 stores by 2020 after unveiling its Nanjing flagship location that sells soccer-focused merchandise.
“Based on the cross-industries ecosystem of Suning, Suning Sports will not only provide the most comprehensive experience for our users, but also boost more business opportunities for our partners,” said Mi Xin, Suning Sports’ vice president, in a statement. “The Series A round completion demonstrated strong market confidence in the future development of China’s sports industry. Based on this, now it has also been put on the agenda for us to embarking on the Series B funding round.”
SportTechie Takeaway
China is emerging as a major market for the sports industry. Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson recently visited Shanghai and e-commerce giant Alibaba as the NFL works on expanding into China. Alibaba’s subsidiary Youku also secured domestic streaming rights to the World Cup in May. And in April, MLB partnered with tech giant Tencent to stream games in the Asian country.
