Serie A is back at the negotiating table, and this time the numbers are bigger. Carlyle, Bain Capital, Oaktree, and Italian firm Nextalia are all preparing binding bids — due September 4 — for a minority stake in a new company that would hold Serie A's international media rights, plus its betting and sponsorship business abroad.
The unit generates around €200 million in core earnings annually and is valued somewhere between €3 billion and €4 billion. Investors are expected to offer between 10% and 20%, meaning the winning bid could hand Serie A a cash injection worth €300 million to €800 million depending on the stake size and final valuation. JP Morgan is running the process.
A deal three years in the making — and still not guaranteed
Serie A tried something similar in 2021, targeting its far more lucrative domestic rights business. That fell apart when the league's 20 clubs couldn't muster the 14-vote supermajority needed to approve the CVC-led €1.7 billion deal. The same 14-club threshold applies here. That's not a procedural footnote — it's the single biggest risk to this whole exercise.
The shift to international rights this time is telling. Domestic rights are where the real money is, but also where club politics get bloodiest. By targeting international revenues — a more modest €250 million a year — the league is pitching something easier to sell internally, even if it's a harder pitch to outside investors on pure upside.
And the upside is the problem. €250 million in annual international sales is a fraction of what the Premier League and LaLiga pull in abroad. Serie A has been losing ground in the global broadcasting market for years, squeezed by the expanded Champions League fixture calendar and the Premier League's dominance as the default export product of European football.
What this means for the league's competitive picture
Oaktree's presence in the bidding pool is the most eyebrow-raising detail here. The firm already owns Inter Milan — Serie A's reigning champions — which creates an obvious conflict of interest that will need addressing if their bid progresses. Whether that disqualifies them or simply complicates due diligence is a question for lawyers, but it adds an unusual dynamic to the process.
For the league itself, landing a credible private equity partner could accelerate commercial development and give Serie A a well-funded partner to push international distribution deals. The comparable moves in Spain and France — where private equity took minority stakes in domestic rights vehicles — gave those leagues both capital and commercial infrastructure. Spain's deal with CVC is the template everyone is copying.
Whether Serie A's clubs can actually agree on anything is the real question. They couldn't in 2021. The binding bids land on September 4. Then the hard part starts.
