Ted and Chris Ackerley are on the hunt for companies at the forefront of sports and media innovation.
The Seattle business leaders recently announced the Ackerley Sports Group (ASG), a new arm of their longtime investment firm Ackerley Partners.
ASG plans to invest in teams, leagues, and growth stage companies.
The Ackerley brothers are part-owners of Seattle’s NHL franchise, the Seattle Kraken, which debuted two years ago. And this year they became owners and partners of Leeds United Football Club, a top English soccer franchise that recently shifted majority ownership to 49ers Enterprises, which owns the NFL’s San Francisco 49ers.
The Leeds investment is the first out of ASG, the firm told GeekWire.
We’ve documented the crossover between technology and sports over the years here at GeekWire, and the intersection continues to evolve with the proliferation of AI, more tech giants getting into live streaming, advancement of analytics, and much more.
Sports runs deep in the Ackerley family. Ted and Chris are the sons of the late Barry Ackerley, a Seattle businessman and founder of The Ackerley Group media company, which owned the NBA’s Seattle Supersonics for 18 years. Barry and Ginger Ackerley, his wife, founded the WNBA’s Seattle Storm in 2000.
The Ackerley brothers are also involved in a special purpose acquisition company, or SPAC, called ESH Acquisition Corp. that is targeting an enterprise in the entertainment, sports, and hospitality sectors. It closed an IPO in June, raising $115 million.
Ackerley Partners formed after The Ackerley Group sold to Clear Channel Communications in 2002 for more than $800 million. The firm, now led by Ted and Chris, has backed various Seattle tech startups in addition to other investments.
