Qianhai Mother Fund invests 100 million yuan in NBL operator No. 1 Sports and Entertainment layout sports industry

On July 30, it was reported that First Sports Entertainment (Shenzhen) Co., Ltd. announced that it had received RMB 100 million in Series A financing. The investor was "China's largest commercial fundraising fund" Qianhai Mother Fund, led by Jin Haitao, a leading domestic PE figure and former chairman of Shenzhen Venture Capital.

Original title: Qianhai Mother Fund sports industry chess! NBL operator First Sports Entertainment received RMB 100 million in Series A financing.

On July 30, First Sports Entertainment (Shenzhen) Co., Ltd. announced that it had received RMB 100 million in Series A financing. The investor was the "China's largest commercial fundraising fund" led by Chairman Jin Haitao.

The number one big business in the trillion-dollar market

Sports Entertainment is a marketing planning and operation company in the sports field. Currently, it is the commercial promotion operator of the National Men's Basketball League (NBL), and has the rights to business development, marketing, brand promotion, media public relations and licensing promotion of the league.

CNBA, the predecessor of NBL, was established in 1996 and was officially established in 2004. The NBL League starts in May every year. It is the only summer league in men's professional basketball in China and one of the only two major men's professional basketball leagues in China. But in fact, the NBL, which has always been known as the highest-level basketball league in the country after the CBA, is currently far lower than the CBA. The obvious disadvantages such as short schedule, poor competition level, and insufficient attractions have prevented the NBL league from attracting much attention. The effect of investment promotion is sluggish and it has been in a state of loss for a long time.

But a Hong Kong-listed company, Smart Sports (HK1661), has taken a fancy to the potential huge commercial value behind NBL. At the beginning of this year, Zhimei Sports officially signed a contract with the Alliance Company and obtained the operating rights of the NBL League for the four years from 2016 to 2019. It also obtained a 20% stake in the NBL Alliance Company, becoming the single largest shareholder of the company. Since then, Zhimei Sports has reached a strategic cooperation with First Sports Entertainment, which is also optimistic about the future prospects of NBL. The two companies jointly operate the NBL League.

Regarding why the NBL League was selected, Yang Bin, founder of First Sports Entertainment, said that this was based on an analysis of the characteristics of China's basketball market and NBL. "There are two types of sports infrastructure that all schools in China must have. One is a table tennis table and the other is a basketball court." He gave an example. The population base of basketball fans in China is quite large, and basketball is one of the largest sports markets in China."

In the basketball industry, the NBL League is undoubtedly an extremely rare high-quality IP. After systematic transformation and upgrading, NBL will surely become a jade.

First, the professional label. NBL is the only professional basketball league in China in summer, that is, the top professional league filed in China Basketball Association, which is on the same level as CBA. Although the national team is unable to play NBL due to the fact that they have to participate in the World Championships, Olympic Games and other competitions in the summer, the huge amount of free agent gaps makes NBL still enough to meet the requirements of the basketball crowd for summer events;

secondly, it is market-oriented. NBL is the first national-level league to be implemented by the State Sports General Administration to "separate management and management". The management form of the league company is closer to the NBA League in the United States, and more leagues are created from the market side and become a new basketball force;

third, entertainment content. NBL can present more entertainment during events, whether on or off the field, making the event more exciting, more interactive, and more fun, becoming a symbol event of sports entertainment;

fourth, international cooperation. NBL will strengthen international exchanges and cooperation between leagues, clubs and clubs, and players to allow better competitions, more powerful clubs, and better players to perform in China basketball.

"NBL will be the best basketball league in China." Yang Bin said.

In

just half a year after Zhimei Sports and First Sports Entertainment jointly promoted NBL with NBL leveraging sports marketing, NBL's brand improvement has been very obvious. In terms of sponsors, from zero to 20 sponsors, the advertising effectiveness and value presentation are also on par with or even beyond the CBA level; in terms of box office, 8000 tickets for the All-Star Game to be held on August 1 are already hard to get a ticket. "Zhimei Sports has invested in the NBL League Company. The return it brings due to its shareholding is not important. What is important is to ensure more say in the overall reform and improvement of NBL." Ren Wen, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Zhimei Sports Group, mentioned in an interview.

During the 2016 season, NBL conducted a series of live broadcasts on CCTV and is planning to hold friendly events with national leagues in other countries to promote their internationalization. In addition, many attempts have been made in the commercial operation of IP and the commercial operation of alliance clubs. While respecting the rules of the Basketball Association and not changing the event, improve operational elements, create new gameplay, create new topics, and enhance the sense of participation. For example, if you set up a dunk bonus, the sponsors will cooperate to participate, and if there is a dunk on the court, the lights will immediately explode and interact on the spot. "This is the best combination of business and IP." Ren Wen explained,"This combination with IP is also one of the ways to solve the biggest pain point in the basketball industry-the sense of participation."

She added that in terms of operating the NBL league, Zhimei Sports and First Sports Entertainment have a clear division of labor. As an industrial platform, Zhimei Sports is responsible for the operation of NBL event copyright, brand operation, international cooperation and other derivatives, while First Sports Entertainment is responsible for the marketing of the entire event.

Of course, the marketing of First Sports Entertainment is not limited to the marketing of NBL's single IP, but will also expand to other sports fields in the future. "First Sports Entertainment is committed to becoming the best sports marketing company in China. Yang Bin was once the sales director with the highest sales volume of CCTV's advertising brokerage center and is extremely familiar with the marketing market. According to his judgment, a few years ago, customers 'money mainly flowed from TV to the Internet. In the future, customers' money will flow from the Internet to the sports industry." Ren Wen said that 80% of the world's top 500 companies have fixed sports marketing expenses, while China companies have almost no such budget expenses. Nowadays, China companies are beginning to show this awareness, but there is a lack of professional sports marketing companies in the market that can help customers complete the entire system from project selection, data analysis, monitoring management, and effect evaluation. "This is why Zhimei Sports chose First Sports Entertainment as a strategic partner in the NBL League." This time, Qianhai Mother Fund's capital injection into First Sports Entertainment also began with the introduction and recommendation of Zhimei Sports.

In 2009, Shenzhen Venture Capital invested in Zhimei Sports (formerly Zhimei Holdings) Group. Before listing, the investors received a cumulative dividend of 70% of the investment amount. In 2013, Zhimei Holdings Group was listed in Hong Kong and was the first in China. The company is the only institutional investor. To date, Shenzhen Venture Capital has basically sold shares of Zhimei Sports Group. In 2014, Zhimei Sports also jointly established a RMB 1 billion industrial fund with Shenzhen Venture Capital. It maintains good cooperative relations with Shenzhen Venture Capital and Qianhai Mother Fund.

This time, Qianhai Mother Fund's investment in No. 1 Sports and Entertainment will also form a win-win situation for all parties. Yang Bin introduced that this round of financing is mainly used in three aspects: first, to hire outstanding players and improve the overall technical level of the team; second, to enhance marketing efforts and increase brand recognition; third, to improve the overall salary of the team. Level, market-oriented operation of industry resources.

Qianhai Mother Fund's first investment in the sports field

revealed that Qianhai Mother Fund invested in First Sports Entertainment as its first investment in the sports field. On January 8, 2016, Qianhai Mother Fund was officially established. With a total scale of 21.5 billion yuan, it has become the largest commercial fundraising mother fund in China and the largest single fund in the equity industry.

The leading initiator of Qianhai Mother Fund is Jin Haitao, a domestic PE leading figure, and the former chairman of Shenzhen Venture Capital. The co-partners include: Ma Weihua, former executive director, president and CEO of China Merchants Bank Co., Ltd.; Founding and Managing Partner of Sequoia China Fund Shen Nanpeng; Founding Partner of IDG Capital Xiong Xiaoge; Founding Partner of Shenzhen Songhe Capital Management Co., Ltd. and Chairman of Shenzhen-Hong Kong-Industry-Research Venture Capital Co., Ltd. Li Wei; Ni Zhengdong, founder, chairman and CEO of Zero 2 IPO Group, a leading domestic venture capital and private equity investment service organization. The only institutional partner is Shenzhen Venture Capital.

The establishment of Qianhai Mother Fund innovated the business model of the mother fund. At the founding meeting, Jin Haitao once said that one of its characteristics is that Qianhai Mother Fund adopts a model that combines sub-fund investment and direct project investment. Qianhai Mother Fund selects the best equity fund managers to invest, and selects the best on this basis for selective follow-up investment. It is understood that Qianhai Mother Fund's investment in No. 1 Sports Entertainment is through direct investment from the mother fund. In addition to financial investment, Qianhai Mother Fund will also use the fund's resource advantages to assist it in integrating Shenzhen's industry resources and promoting its business development.

This investment is also in line with the Shenzhen Municipal Government's recent policy requirements for strong support for the sports industry. On July 1, the "Several Measures to Promote the Development of the Sports Industry" issued by the General Office of the Shenzhen Municipal People's Government clarified the key tasks for the development of Shenzhen's sports industry in the next five years, namely, improving the market-oriented operation mechanism of sports events with enterprises as the main body, creating and introducing a number of high-end sports event brands with international influence. In addition to striving to comprehensively promote the development of the sports industry in terms of policies, regulations, environment, guidance, etc., the municipal finance department will allocate 200 million yuan every year to establish a special fund for the development of the sports industry.

Ren Wen said,"NBL is to professional leagues what Shenzhen is to reform and opening up. Finding pain points, gathering people, and building a brand are NBL's three-step strategy this year. NBL will form a good model for professional leagues. In the future, when people mention China Basketball Professional League, they will not just think of CBA."

Editor: Nancy