HWL Ebsworth has advised Unscriptd on its sale to The Players Tribune, Inc (TPT). The transaction completed on 30 November 2018 with Unscriptd receiving an undisclosed percentage of the share capital in TPT.
Unscriptd is a leading global athlete media & technology business that was founded in 2014. Unscriptd enables athletes to be better publishers through a suite of proprietary technology, content, distribution and data services. Unscriptd headquarters were in Melbourne, with offices in Barcelona, New York City and London.
TPT is a first-of-its-kind content platform that was developed by athletes to help them connect with their fans by giving them the tools to create personal content and communicate the player’s point of view. More than 2,000 athletes have contributed to the platform through long and short-form stories, video series and audio. Founded by Derek Jeter in 2014, TPT provides unique insight into the daily sports conversation and brings fans closer than ever to the games they love.
The acquisition further accelerates the global expansion of TPT, and will lead to the launch of a new mobile app for its growing athlete community. With the addition of the more than 2,500 athletes in Europe, Australia and Asia who work with Unscriptd, TPT’s community of athletes will grow to more than 5,000 from all around the world. Central to the acquisition will be the integration of Unscriptd’s industry-leading, proprietary mobile technology, which will enable TPT to launch a new mobile app, Players’ POST, exclusively for its community of athletes. Players’ POST will allow them to more efficiently manage content, both in its creation and its distribution to fans.
Brent Scrimshaw, Co-Founder and CEO of Unscriptd commented: “We created Unscriptd with the idea of building a technology platform that creates a more robust and meaningful way for athletes to engage with their fans. Unscriptd was purpose-built to enable athletes to be better publishers through a suite of proprietary technology, content, distribution and data services, and this acquisition by The Players’ Tribune will fast-track the acceleration of our shared vision.“
The HWL Ebsworth team was led by Sam Dwyer (Corporate Partner, Melbourne) with assistance from Paul Lewis (Special Counsel, Melbourne), Nathalie Ng (Associate, Melbourne). Matthew Craven (Partner, Melbourne) and Chris Egan (Partner, Melbourne) assisted with specific elements of the transaction.
Sam Dwyer commented: “It was a rewarding experience to be able to work with the founders of Unscriptd from their initial start up phase, through various capital raises and into their exit event. It is great to see such a perfect fit of two businesses working in the same environment but with different and complementary offerings combining to create a truly global athlete media business.”