Sports marketing agency Two Circles has acquired Sports Ink in a move designed to bolster its sports ticket and hospitality marketing capabilities.
Following the acquisition, Two Circles will take on all existing Sports Ink clients and projects, which include the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar, the 2022 UEFA Women’s Euro in England, the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham and the 2022 Men’s ICC T20 World Cup in Australia.
Sports Ink has used pricing and revenue planning to generate over 30 million ticket and hospitality sales worth in excess of $2bn for major events including the 2016 Olympic Games, 2017 IAAF World Championships, and Rugby World Cups in 2015 and 2019.
Gareth Balch, chief executive of Two Circles, said: “Post-Covid we project a period of record demand for live sports experiences. Sports Ink’s proprietary end-to-end commercial solutions will enable us to tap into this demand and strengthen our ability to reach new audiences and maximise event-day revenue for our clients’ events. Paul’s experience and leadership will also play a central role in our evolving ticketing and hospitality offering going forward.”
The move will result in Sports Ink founder Paul Williamson (pictured) joining Two Circles as a full-time director.
Williamson served as director of ticketing at the London 2012 Olympic Games, building a commercial team and sales strategy that generated $1bn (£738m/€829m) in revenue from 11 million ticket sales.
Williamson added: “I’ve witnessed first-hand the impact Two Circles’ marketing strategies and technology have had in attracting more people to live sport and driving sustainable eventday revenue growth.
“The addition of Sports Ink’s major event experience will strengthen Two Circles’ capabilities in ticketing and hospitality marketing, and I’m excited to contribute to the development of Two Circles’ service-led product offering.”
Two Circles helps leading sports rights-owners use data analytics around sports fan behaviour to drive commercial growth and is the leader in end-to-end ticketing and hospitality marketing for premium sports events.
The Sports Ink deal marks Two Circles’ second acquisition in as many months following the acquisition of TRM Partners, the leading independent sports rights-sales business, in November 2020. Between 2014 and 2020, TRM was responsible for $700m in deals for sports rights-owners including the NFL, UEFA, ICC, Chelsea FC and AC Milan and has been integrated into Two Circles through the creation of a new Rights Management function.
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