The sports marketing industry in 2019 was owned by established holding companies with decades of client relationships, existing talent pools, and the infrastructure to service global rights-holders. Starting from scratch meant competing against firms that had everything already in place.
There was no inherited client list, no brand, no proprietary technology, and no institutional capital. The only asset was a clear idea of what the industry was missing: an agency that combined editorial thinking with commercial rigour, built by people who understood sports from the inside.
The challenge was not just to build an agency. It was to build one that could win the clients that larger firms could not, move faster than a network could, and structure itself for the kind of institutional capital that would recognise full value at exit.
The build started with talent. We recruited senior operators from inside the sport and media industry: people with the client relationships and the credibility to win mandates from day one. Every hire was intentional, the right people in the right markets, with the authority to act.
We opened offices in sequence as the revenue justified it, starting with London, then New York, Dubai, and Los Angeles. Each market was entered with a clear commercial thesis, not ambition. We did not open offices to look global; we opened them to service clients we already had or were close to closing.
Operationally, we rebuilt the cost structure at every stage of growth: renegotiating contracts, automating what could be automated, and ensuring margin kept pace with the top line. We built proprietary distribution capabilities that made the business defensible. Assets a buyer would value, not just revenue that could leave.
From the earliest stages, the business was structured with an exit in mind. Governance, reporting, and legal structure were built for the level above, so when it came time to run a process, the business was ready.
Creed Media grew from an idea into a global sports marketing agency with $100m in sales, 150 people, and four offices across London, New York, Dubai, and Los Angeles.
The business worked with the world's leading sports brands, broadcasters, and rights-holders. It was one of the few independent agencies in its category that operated at that scale without external investment.
When it came time to sell, we ran the process ourselves. We positioned the business correctly, reached the right buyers at the right moment, and closed a strategic stake sale to Aser Ventures at a valuation that reflected everything that had been built into the business, not just the trailing revenue.
The playbook (build the right team, enter new markets with discipline, protect the margin, structure for exit, then run the process) is the same playbook Leprince Group applies for the businesses it works with today.
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