HONG KONG—East Asia Super League has announced securing funding from the lead investor in its Series C round, Crest Sports and Entertainment.
This new investment is an important milestone in EASL’s fund raising history, showing confidence from a variety of strategic, value-added investors, including Raine Venture Partners, and current and former NBA players, including Baron Davis, Metta World Peace, Shane Battier and Jalen Green.
On December 7, EASL unveiled EASL Champions Week, its five-day, 10-game regional championship, featuring the best teams from the Japan B.LEAGUE, Korea KBL, Philippine PBA, Chinese Taipei P.LEAGUE+ and the EASL-seeded Bay Area Dragons, coached by Australian coaching legend and Olympic medalist Brian Goorjian, which is a diverse face of Chinese basketball, featuring top players from Mainland China, Hong Kong and the Chinese diaspora.
EASL Champions Week is EASL’s first major event following the COVID-19 pandemic and has garnered massive media attention and fan anticipation recently.
“East Asia Super League is honored to receive financial backing for its growth from an experienced strategic investor such as Crest Sports and Entertainment on our journey to become one of the top three basketball leagues in the world by 2025 in terms of fan base and commercial revenue,” East Asia Super League CEO Matt Beyer said.
Crest Sports and Entertainment’s investment in EASL additionally brings Asian sports industry excellence and expertise as the owners of one of Australia’s top National Basketball League, the Illawarra Hawks.
The fund’s Series C lead investment tips off a total $40 million funding round EASL is aiming to close by March 2023 to back expansion of its home-and-away competition format beginning October 2023.
“East Asia Super League has built an unrivaled brand from scratch in a short time. Our leadership in this round reflects our confidence in the incredible growth opportunities associated with top-quality basketball media entertainment in Greater China, Japan, Korea, the Philippines and beyond, including the opportunity to bring the best Asian basketball to the world,” said Jared Novelly of Crest Sports and Entertainment.
Key features of Crest Sports and Entertainment’s investment include exclusive rights to a create an EASL-branded, high-performance youth academy in Australia, attracting the top up-and-coming players from across the Asia-Pacific region.
The funds will be channeled toward the expansion of EASL’s competition into a home-and-away pan-regional championship format with eight teams beginning in October 2023, expanding to 16 teams in October 2024, adding in Mainland China and potentially other geographies, in addition to the production and distribution of new and engaging entertainment content for its rapidly expanding majority Millennial and Generation Z fanbase.
For more information about EASL, please go to www.easl.basketball.
