Michael Jordan Teams With Carlyle Founder On E-sports Deal

Source: PitchBook

Basketball legend Michael Jordan and Declaration Capital, the family office of The Carlyle Group co-founder David Rubenstein, have led a funding round for e-sports startup aXiomatic, with Bloomberg reporting the financing totals $26 million. The deal brings together Jordan—now the owner of the NBA’s Charlotte Hornets—with three fellow NBA owners: Washington Wizards owner Ted Leonsis and Golden State Warriors co-owners Peter Guber and Bruce Karsh are all co-executive chairmen at aXiomatic, which is itself the owner of the Team Liquid e-sports franchise.

It’s not Jordan’s first venture into sports tech. He’s also an investor in Sportradar, a Swiss company that tracks and analyzes data from sporting events that was reported earlier this year to be a target of Blackstone and KKR.

Nor is he the first superstar to go from the hardwood to the boardroom. LeBron James and Kevin Durant are among the other former NBA MVPs with VC portfolios of their own.

https://pitchbook.com/newsletter/michael-jordan-teams-with-carlyle-founder-on-e-sports-deal