Ten Bidders Vie To Help Serie A Close Premier League Commercial Gap

Ten bidders have entered the race for a minority stake in Serie A's new international commercial vehicle, with JP Morgan now working through offers and briefing league management on where the process stands.^[1]

What's happening

JP Morgan met Serie A management on Monday to review bids received earlier this month for a minority stake in a newly created company that will hold the league's international media rights, overseas sponsorship deals and betting-related commercial activity.

According to Italian outlet Milano Finanza, the list of interested parties includes Bain Capital, Oaktree, Carlyle, Nextalia, Blackstone, General Atlantic, Avenue Capital, Partners Group, Bright Path, Clessidra and FSI, with some bids structured as consortiums rather than single-fund offers.

Serie A is weighing a sale of between 10% and 20% of the new company while keeping control in league hands. 

Reuters has previously valued the business at €3 billion to €4 billion, against annual revenue of around €250 million and roughly €200 million in core earnings, putting a realistic minority cheque somewhere in the hundreds of millions depending on how talks land.

Milano Finanza reports some offers have come in more aggressively than that baseline, with the league hoping a partner can help push international revenues "much" higher.

Crucially, Serie A's more valuable domestic broadcast rights sit outside this deal entirely, this is a play specifically for the international side of the business, where the gap to the Premier League and LaLiga has proven hardest to close as broadcaster appetite cools and an expanded Champions League crowds the calendar with premium football.

Oaktree's presence on the bidder list adds an extra layer of scrutiny. The fund has owned Inter Milan since 2024, so any move into Serie A's central commercial operation would need careful governance structuring to avoid conflicts between its role as a club owner and as a stakeholder in the league's shared commercial arm.

The project goes to Serie A's clubs for discussion today, though nothing will be decided immediately. Milano Finanza notes bid values vary considerably and the league could still opt for a specialist commercial agency instead of selling equity outright. Any private equity transaction would need support from at least 14 of the 20 clubs, with a vote expected by November.

How the numbers compare to the Premier League

The scale gap between Serie A and the Premier League is the context that makes this deal necessary in the first place, and it's stark on both the financial and broadcast sides.

Serie A's international rights currently generate around €250 million a year, the figure underpinning the €3 billion to €4 billion valuation being discussed for the new commercial vehicle. 

The Premier League's international rights alone are worth roughly £2.17 billion (around €2.55 billion) a season under its 2025-28 cycle, having grown 23% from the £1.77 billion-a-season average of the previous cycle. On an annual basis, that's roughly ten times what Serie A earns from the same category of rights.

The gap is even more pointed when broken down by market. The Premier League's US deal with NBC and Peacock alone is worth an estimated €450 million a year, more than Serie A's entire international rights income combined, across every territory. The Premier League has also reached the point where international rights (£2.17 billion a season) now generate more than its domestic rights (£1.67 billion a season) for the first time in the league's history, a reversal Serie A is nowhere near replicating, given its international rights sit at a fraction of its domestic value.