Ascent Sports Group has closed its purchase of LiveBarn, a hockey-focused youth sports analytics and streaming platform.
Financial terms were not disclosed, but the deal was previously pegged at $400M by The Globe and Mail. LiveBarn is reportedly profitable with about $80M in annual revenue.
Ray Giroux will be LiveBarn’s new CEO; he previously served as COO. Founder Farrel Miller will join Ascent’s board of directors.
It is a splashy first acquisition for Ascent, which launched in January as a partnership between GTCR and former Match Group COO Gary Swidler with a focus on “improving connection, engagement and access across youth and amateur sports."
LiveBarn has cameras in over 2K venues in the U.S. and Canada covering 49 states and 10 provinces. The subscription-based platform offers live games, on-demand replays and various AI-powered tools — analysis, highlights, live tagging — through Sportslogiq.
While the primary focus is hockey, LiveBarn does stream other sports based on what each client venue hosts. Ascent said it “plans to deepen LiveBarn's capabilities in hockey while selectively expanding in additional sports.”
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