Facilitating the Establishment of a Sports Entertainment Venture

Posted by: Olexandr Kyrychenko
Posted in: Dispute resolution
Date published: 05/01/2024

The establishment of a public entertainment venture whether on a large or a small scale presents a unique set of challenges, this is especially so when this involves international stakeholders. IMD Corporate regularly advises the sports and entertainment industry and played a crucial role in assisting establishment of this sports entertainment venture, assisting the founders to navigate the complexities and providing extensive legal expertise.

Negotiations and Venture Launch

This joint venture involved overseas investment and the founders teaming up with an established and popular overseas entertainment business. Initially representing the founding , IMD was responsible for the comprehensive setup of the company, including preparing and agreeing the joint venture documents, such as shareholders’ agreements and articles of association through may rounds of intense negotiations with overseas stakeholders.

One of the main challenges was that each stakeholder brought their own investment into the venture, whether financial, technical, know-how or promotional and had unique expectations which had to be carefully balanced with the founder’s rights and expectations. IMD worked with the stakeholders to a tight timetable as the venture had to be concluded as quickly as possible due to an already pre-arranged date for the inaugural event.

Contractual Advice

After the launch of the joint venture, IMD were subsequently retained to advise the venture on a variety of commercial matters. This included advising the venture and negotiating significant numbers of commercial agreements with various participants, performers, promoters, advertisers and streaming providers. IMD were able to finalise the required commercial documentation in time for the inaugural event, this being a testament to our commercial team’s efficiency and can-do attitude.

International and Cross-Border Considerations:

An important aspect of the venture was its international element. The involvement of overseas investors, trademark owners and stakeholders introduced additional legal considerations, especially in terms of cross-border legal compliance and intellectual property rights.
When dealing with any venture, it is critical to ensure that thorough legal advice is provided throughout, this is even more important where overseas stakeholders are involved. Our team are well placed to advise businesses on all aspects of joint ventures through extensive expertise and our client-centric approach.

This article is for general information only and does not constitute legal or professional advice. Please note that the law may have changed since this article was published.