Today we talk to George Pyne, the former Nascar and IMG CEO, who founded Bruin Sports Capital in 2015, which has emerged as one of the most interesting companies operating in the sports business today with nearly a billion dollars invested across the sector.Bruin was created with $250 million from Sir Martin Sorrell’s WPP; Dan Gilbert, the owner of the Cleveland Cavaliers and Nassef Sawiris, executive chairman of Aston Villa among others. The fund was increased in size last November following a capital raise of $600million from CVC Capital Partners and the Jordan Group, which allows them to add to their portfolio of sports companies that includes Two Circles, Deltatre, Soulsight and Engine Shop.Before this, Pyne was CEO of IMG in Ted Forstmann era, part of the management team who sold the company to William Morris Endeavour in 2014. Before that was in charge of Nascar and The Portman Group. So a varied career that brought him in to day to day contact with some of the most influential characters in the American and European sports market over the last twenty five years, people like Forstmann and Sorrell to Brian France, Roger Penske and Ari Emanuel to name a few. We talk about his career and where he thinks Bruin will invest it’s considerable cash reserves now and in the future.
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