Athlete Rights Startup Backed by Bill Ackman Raises $40 Million

The Winners Alliance، the for-profit arm of the Professional Tennis Players Association co-founded by Novak Djokovic، has raised a further $40 million from existing investors including billionaire Bill Ackman’s Pershing Square Foundation and Prysm Capital.

Winners Alliance was founded in 2022 to help professional tennis players pursue business opportunities off the court. It’s since expanded to cricket and athletics. In February، it partnered with Olympian Michael Johnson to create a new track league that is vying to grow the sport’s popularity. 

“The focus is now on these other sports، cricket and in track and field،” said Ahmad Nassar، the CEO of Winners Alliance in a phone interview. 

Pershing Square Foundation and Prysm Capital led a $26 million investment into Winners Alliance in 2022، with Ackman being appointed chairman of the board.

In sports like the NFL، the NBA، the MLB and in football، lucrative sponsorship opportunities abound، from video games to trading cards and collectibles. In tennis، cricket and in track and field، the industries are smaller outside the top athletes.

“We have to understand the consumers of the sport،” Eric Winston، president of Winners Alliance said in a phone interview. “With trading cards in tennis and in track there have been some small sample cases but nothing significant. A lot of it has to come back to helping people maximize those rights and getting those rights. That’s something we’ve been able to do and will continue to do.”

Winners Alliance says it has facilitated over $10 million in incremental off-court earnings in tennis through partnerships with Fanatics، Hilton and Tumi. Including the new funding round، the organization has raised a total of $75 million.