Granahan McCourt Sells Stake in Sports Media Business Dugout

Media investor and Emmy award-winner David McCourt has helped grow "the only business to rethink sports content"

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Nov 08, 2021, 09:10 ET

NEW YORK, Nov. 8, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Granahan McCourt Capital, the worldwide investors in technology, media and telecommunications, has today announced a successful exit from sports media business Dugout. Granahan McCourt had supported Dugout with early-stage equity and through its data analytics subsidiary, EDG, designed, built and operated Dugout's technology platform which proved pivotal to the company's rapid growth, culminating in a sale to the world's leading football media platform, OneFootball.

Tech media and telecoms entrepreneur David McCourt is the founder and CEO of Granahan McCourt Capital an Emmy award-winning producer and author of bestselling book Total Rethink (PRNewsfoto/Granahan McCourt Capital)

As the largest individual shareholder in Dugout prior to OneFootball's acquisition, Granahan McCourt joined Dugout's founding partners including European football clubs AC Milan, FC Barcelona, FC Bayern Munich, Juventus, Liverpool FC, Manchester City FC, Paris Saint-Germain, Real Madrid CF and more. For the first time, the world's biggest clubs collaborated with the support of Dugout's founders and investors including Granahan McCourt to create a business that would pioneer a new, digital-first approach to personalized soccer content.

David McCourt, chairman and CEO of Granahan McCourt Capital, Emmy award-winning producer and author of bestselling book 'Total Rethink', commented: "Since its launch in 2016, Dugout has been one of the only businesses to rethink sports content in a pioneering way, capitalizing on the global trends in the way content is being consumed online.

"At Granahan McCourt we have been proud to play a leading role in Dugout's early-stage growth plans, leading to its acquisition by OneFootball to create the world's largest owned and operated football media business, with a reach of over 85 million monthly active users globally. Our hands on approach to bring world-leading technologies, deep-rooted knowledge of the tech and media space, and cash injections, has helped Dugout and others in our portfolio to achieve their ambitious growth aspirations with speed and scale."

Granahan McCourt founder David McCourt, described by The Economist as possessing "incredible credentials as a telecoms revolutionary", is an accomplished Emmy award-winning producer, television station owner and digital TV founder. Among his production projects, 'Reading Rainbow', 'What's Going On' and 'Miracles Boys' were all critically acclaimed. Through his production company, McCourt Entertainment, McCourt is creating a new hard-hitting docuseries based on his best-selling book 'Total Rethink', as well as a family TV show.

"I've spent my 30-year career creating entrepreneurial solutions to meet some of the biggest global trends in technology, media and telecommunications. In the early days, this started with being the first to invent the triple play that is voice, video and data – which now is considered the norm. Fast-forward to today and we're still working to be the first to spot global megatrends and build businesses with innovative, market-first solutions – just like Dugout.

About Granahan McCourt Capital

David McCourt, chairman and CEO of Granahan McCourt has been a force of nature in business for over 30 years. Described by the Economist as possessing 'impeccable credentials as a telecom revolutionary' he created the first competitive phone company in the US.

An award-winning TV executive, he won an Emmy for his role producing the PBS Kids series 'Reading Rainbow', Americas longest running children's reading show. He also adapted the Newbury Award book "Miracles Boys' by Jacqueline Woodson into the award-winning series for Viacom's Nickelodeon network. He produced the prime-time series 'What's Going On' for the Showtime Network on children in crisis around the world, and in his productions of hard-hitting documentaries he has collaborated with stars including Angelina Jolie, Michael Douglas, Meg Ryan and Sônia Braga.

McCourt is the founder of the media production company McCourt Entertainment and the Chairman of National Broadband Ireland, which in 2019 won the Irish Government's $5 Billion project to deliver high-speed broadband to every man, woman, and child without access. This project is the biggest of its kind globally.

His book 'Total Rethink', published by Wiley, became a global bestseller and is currently in production as the premise for a docuseries. His work in children's television has won numerous awards and been screened at the United Nations.

SOURCE Granahan McCourt Capital