George Barrios and Michelle Wilson, former co-presidents of WWE, have launched a new sports investment company called Isos7 Capital Management.
The venture seeks to access more than $750 million in capital to invest in media, entertainment, and sports ventures across the United States, Europe, and pan-Asia.
Barrios and Wilson bring their wealth of experience from WWE to the new venture. Barrios joined WWE in 2008 as Chief Strategy and Financial Officer after stints at the New York Times, HBO, and Time Warner. Wilson was named Co-President of WWE in February 2018.
The team is joined by Brian Flinn who will oversee the investment and operations team. Isos7 Capital Management will focus on helping media, entertainment, and sports companies win in the long term by leveraging Barrios’ and Wilson’s past experience with blue-chip brands.
Michelle and George were both reinstated to the WWE Board Of Directors following Vince McMahon’s return last month.
You can read the official announcement below:
“Isos Capital Co-Founders George Barrios and Michelle Wilson Partner with Carmelo Anthony to Launch Isos7 Sports Investments
Isos Capital Management Founders and Co-CEOs George Barrios and Michelle Wilson today announced a partnership with 10-Time NBA All-Star and entrepreneur Carmelo Anthony to launch Isos7 Sports Investments. The platform will provide growth capital, targeting $50 million to $100 million per investment, to a diversified portfolio of sports leagues, teams, emerging properties, and ancillary businesses in North America, Europe, and pan-Asia. Based on the founders’ track record of driving shareholder value in the public market, Isos7 anticipates having access to approximately $750 million in capital to deploy. Ownership groups and management teams will also benefit from the partners’ history of value creation and operational expertise across sports and media properties to help transform business models and accelerate growth. Isos7, which is 100% founded and led by a diverse management team, will commit 1% of its profits to support underrepresented populations and underserved communities.
“We believe sports assets will continue to benefit from global macro tailwinds and secular industry trends driving significant, predictable, and stable growth,” said Barrios and Wilson. “We are thrilled to partner with Carmelo, a trailblazer for athletes in investing, business development, and philanthropy. We have a shared vision for how a new wave of diverse investors will identify global growth opportunities and impact the marketplace.”
One of the greatest basketball players of all time, Anthony captured an NCAA National Championship as a freshman at Syracuse University, won three Olympic Gold Medals with Team USA, and earned a place on the NBA’s 75th Anniversary Team, commemorating the 75 best players in league history. In doing so, Anthony cemented his basketball legacy and paved the way for his successful business projects and philanthropic endeavors. As a trailblazing athlete-entrepreneur, Anthony, in 2014, along with his partner and media executive Stuart Goldfarb, co-founded Melo7 Tech Partners, an investment vehicle focused on digital media and consumer internet ventures, including investments in companies such as DraftKings, SeatGeek, and Overtime. As a philanthropist, Anthony has demonstrated a dogged commitment to supporting underprivileged communities, and due to his courageous, lifelong fight for racial equality and his work with the Carmelo Anthony Foundation and the Social Change Fund, he became the inaugural recipient of the NBA’s prestigious Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Social Justice Champion Award in 2021.
“I’m excited to build on my experiences as an athlete, entrepreneur, and investor, and move to the next level of league and team ownership opportunities globally,” said Anthony. “Stuart and I will shift our focus from Melo7 Tech Partners, where we had great success together, and partner with the team at Isos7 to leverage our deep relationships across the sports ecosystem and create value for all those involved. Our collective success will in turn further enable us to have a positive impact on underrepresented populations.”
Barrios and Wilson, two proven operators with a long history of working together to create shareholder value, recently led the completion of a $2.6 billion business combination with Bowlero, the world’s largest bowling operator, which recently eclipsed $1 billion in TTM revenue. Previously, they served as Co-Presidents of WWE, leading the global entertainment company through a transformative period of growth that resulted in an increase of nearly $5 billion in shareholder value over a six-year period.
Brian Flinn, a 25-year sports industry veteran who ran the day-to-day operations of key business units at WWE as Chief Marketing Officer and joined Isos Capital Management last year, has been named Partner of Isos7 and will oversee the investment and operations teams. Previously, he served as the NBA’s SVP & Global Head of Marketing after starting his career in communications with the New York Knicks.
“Isos Capital has a clear mandate: invest at the cross section of content, community, and commerce,” said Flinn. “We believe there is no more valuable content than sports, no better community engagement platform than sports, and no stronger business model than sports.”
The Isos7 team also includes industry veterans Rob Pietroforte, who serves as Managing Director, and Stuart Goldfarb, who serves as Senior Strategic Advisor. Pietroforte will manage the investment team and brings 15 years of experience from roles at Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, The Raine Group, and most recently Genius Sports, where he served as EVP, M&A and Strategic Initiatives. Goldfarb co-founded Melo7 Tech Partners with Anthony and served as CEO of Bertelsmann Direct NA and bol.com, Executive Vice President, Worldwide Business Development at NBC, and as a member of WWE’s Board of Directors for more than a decade.”
