Matchroom Secures Investment from Bruin Capital, Targeting the Growing China Snooker Market
On May 11, U.S. sports investment company Bruin Capital announced it had agreed to acquire a minority stake in sports promotion company Matchroom. According to a source familiar with the matter, Bruin Capital purchased a 15% stake for over $1.35 billion.
In fiscal year 2025, Matchroom's annual revenue grew 3.3% year-on-year to £225.5 million, with after-tax profit rising to £44 million.
Matchroom was founded in 1982 in Brentwood, Essex, UK. Founder Barry Hearn gradually established a foothold in the industry through talent management and event promotion in snooker, later expanding into darts, boxing, and other sports. Over the past four decades, it has grown into one of the world's largest independent sports promotion and IP companies, with three business segments:
- Sports Event Promotion: Mainly covering boxing, darts, snooker, and other disciplines.
- Event Content Production: Producing over 2,400 hours of programming annually, including live events, documentaries, and related shows.
- Athlete Management: Representing boxers such as Anthony Joshua and Katie Taylor.
Matchroom holds a 74% stake in World Snooker Limited (WSL), the operating entity of the World Snooker Tour. In 2025, WSL contributed £1.3 million in profit to Matchroom, up 62% year-on-year.
Previously, due to declining interest in sports investment from Saudi Arabia, Matchroom had to cancel the lucrative Saudi Snooker Masters. However, given snooker's immense popularity in China, and with Chinese player Wu Yize winning the World Championship this month, China will become Matchroom's next key target market.
Above: Yize Wu won the World Snooker Championship
Since 2022, Matchroom has been seeking investment with a view to going public. The company had held talks with CVC Capital Partners, KKR, and Searchlight Capital regarding a potential equity sale, but no deal was reached. Subsequently, UK-based sports marketing agency Pitch International acquired a stake in Matchroom.
Currently, Barry Hearn remains President of Matchroom, guiding overall business development, while his son Eddie Hearn serves as Chairman, responsible for the group's overall strategic direction and leading the company's boxing operations.
Bruin Capital was founded in 2015 by George Pyne, former President and board member of sports marketing agency IMG Group, and earlier, Chief Operating Officer of NASCAR.
Unlike traditional sports investment approaches, Pyne believes that investing in teams involves liquidity uncertainty and a lack of cash flow generation. Therefore, Bruin Capital has shifted its investment focus to the sports industry's "secondary enablers": companies that provide technology, data, content enablement, commercial services, or virtual technology to the sports ecosystem. Its current portfolio includes Box to Box Films (creator of the Netflix documentary series Drive to Survive), TGI Sport, AS1, Full Swing, and others. Since its inception, Bruin Capital has raised over $2 billion.
| Sources: Official press release, SportsPro, Sportico, Bloomberg
| Image credits: Official press release, Matchroom website, CGTN