Private Sport Shop & Sportpursuit Join Forces To Form Sportscape Group, Pan-European Online Retail Platform
Private Sport Shop (backed by Bridgepoint Development Capital) and SportPursuit (backed by bd-capital), today announce that they have teamed up to form Sportscape Group. The combination creates a business with more than €200m sales across France, UK, Germany and 10 other countries in 2021 and accelerates the Group’s shared vision to create Europe’s leading sports and outdoor hub: delivering daily inspiration, unbeatable deals, amazing brands and engaging content to real sports and outdoor enthusiasts across Europe and beyond.
Despite the new holding company name, Private Sport Shop and SportPursuit will continue to operate as consumer-facing brands in their home markets, sources added.
The newly-combined group creates a powerful distribution channel for more than 2,500 existing brand partners, giving brands access to a unique audience of over 24 million real sports and outdoor enthusiasts – 90-95% of the Group’s daily traffic originates organically from its own audience. The combination creates a major player in the sports and outdoor market – combining Private Sport Shop, one of Europe’s top 10 sports retailers by traffic, and SportPursuit, the UK’s leading sport clearance specialist. In combination Sportscape Group has a highly engaged digital community – c.4 million social followers and over 3 million app users. The combination delivers a larger audience and broader geographic coverage to the Group’s brand partners, with a strong and growing audience in France, UK and 10 other countries.
Millions of active customers will enjoy larger product ranges with an even greater selection of leading sport and outdoor brands available across more sports, more of the time. Private Sport Shop and SportPursuit will continue to operate as consumer-facing brands in their home markets, building on their strong consumer recognition and high repeat rates which have been built over many years.
Technology continues to play an ever-increasing role in consumer-facing industries, and Sportscape’s shared expertise in data analytics, custom algorithms and machine learning will further improve user experience, helping to create unique communications at a customer level, leading to higher engagement and lifetime value. Sportscape Group will be led by Sebastien Rohart, current CEO of Private Sport Shop. He will be supported by the current exec from both companies, with Adam Pikett, current CEO and co-founder of SportPursuit, taking up the role of Chief Vision Officer for Sportscape Group. Both Luke Pikett, MD and co-founder of SportPursuit and Yannick Leouffre, MD of Private Sport Shop, will continue to lead the SportPursuit and Private Sport Shop businesses day to day.
Sebastien Rohart, CEO of Private Sport Shop and new Sportscape Group CEO, said: “I am excited to become the CEO of Sportscape Group. The combination creates a European leader with a unique proposition for our customers and brand partners alike. In particular, the combination of Private Sport Shop’s huge sport coverage and social media presence with SportPursuit’s technology and data expertise.”
Adam Pikett, co-founder and CEO of SportPursuit and new Sportscape Group Chief Vision Officer, added: “At SportPursuit, we have known and admired the Private Sport Shop team for many years, building strong complementary businesses alongside one another. As the co-founder of SportPursuit it is super exciting to have this opportunity to bring the two businesses together to create an even better, even stronger platform to support our brand partners and inspire our shared customers.”” In addition to driving significant growth through organic expansion, the combination will create a strong foundation to support further M&A activity across Europe and beyond.
