Wasserman Group is a sports marketing and talent management company based in
Los Angeles
Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...
Lew Wasserman
Lewis Robert Wasserman (March 22, 1913 – June 3, 2002) was an American businessman and talent agent, described as "the last of the legendary movie moguls" and "arguably the most powerful and influential Hollywood titan in the four decades afte ...
, founded the company in 1998 and acts as its chief executive.
History
In 2002, Wasserman acquired the sports marketing and naming-rights company Envision and the action sports marketing and representation firm The Familie, based in Carlsbad, California.
In 2004, Wasserman purchased 411 Productions and a few months later relaunched it as Studio 411, a
sports entertainment
Sports entertainment is a type of spectacle which presents an ostensibly competition, competitive event using a high level of theatre, theatrical flourish and extravagant presentation, with the purpose of entertainment, entertaining an audience. Un ...
film studio
A film studio (also known as movie studio or simply studio) is a major entertainment company that makes films. Today, studios are mostly financing and distribution entities. In addition, they may have their own studio facility or facilities; how ...
. The business was designed to provide financing, obtain sponsorships and arrange distribution in support of original productions. The company also made an unsuccessful bid to sign up enough athletes in
BMX
BMX, an abbreviation for bicycle motocross or bike motocross, is a cycle sport performed on BMX bikes, either in competitive BMX racing or freestyle BMX, or else in general street or off-road recreation.
History
BMX began during the ea ...
, skateboarding and freestyle motocross to form PGA-like sanctioning bodies in those sports.
In January 2006 Wasserman acquired the NBA and MLB sports agent business of Arn Tellem, a well-known sports agent who joined Wasserman as well. Several of Tellem's sports agent colleagues also joined the company as part of the deal. Until he retired in June 2015, Tellem was a principal at the company and ran one of its management groups.Arn Tellem, "Why I'm Making The Jump From Sports Agent To Front Office" ''
Sports Illustrated
''Sports Illustrated'' (''SI'') is an American sports magazine first published in August 1954. Founded by Stuart Scheftel, it was the first magazine with a circulation of over one million to win the National Magazine Award for General Excellen ...
''. June 5, 2015
In November 2006, the company acquired
soccer
Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 Football player, players who almost exclusively use their feet to propel a Ball (association football), ball around a rectangular f ...
agency SFX, in the UK. Through that acquisition, Wasserman came to represent players including
Steven Gerrard
Steven George Gerrard MBE (born 30 May 1980) is an English professional football manager and a former player. Widely regarded as one of the greatest midfielders of all time and one of Liverpool's greatest ever players,Robbie Keane, Jamie Carragher,
Michael Owen
Michael James Owen (born 14 December 1979) is an English former professional Association football, footballer who played as a Striker (association football), striker for Liverpool F.C., Liverpool, Real Madrid CF, Real Madrid, Newcastle United ...
Alex Morgan
Alexandra Morgan Carrasco (born Alexandra Patricia Morgan; July 2, 1989) is an American former professional association football, soccer player.She co-captained the United States women's national soccer team, United States national team with ...
Wes Brown
Wesley Michael Brown (born 13 October 1979) is an English former professional footballer who played as a centre back or right back. He spent the majority of his career at Manchester United, where he won 13 trophies including five Premier Leagu ...
Jack Wilshere
Jack Andrew Garry Wilshere (born 1 January 1992) is an English Association football, football coach and former professional Association football, player who played as a midfielder. He was most recently the interim head coach of EFL Championshi ...
,
Park Ji-Sung
Park Ji-sung (; born 30 March 1981) is a South Korean former professional association football, footballer who played as a midfielder. Born in the South Korean capital Seoul, Park is regarded as one of the greatest and most successful Asian pe ...
,
Shay Given
Séamus John James Given (born 20 April 1976) is an Irish former professional Association football, footballer who played as a Goalkeeper (association football), goalkeeper. Widely regarded as one of the greatest Irish goalkeepers of all time ...
,
Tim Howard
Timothy Matthew Howard (born March 6, 1979) is an American former professional soccer player who played as a goalkeeper. He is the part-owner of club Dagenham & Redbridge as well as an international ambassador in the United States for Premie ...
and Emile Heskey.
In June 2007, Wasserman expanded its consulting and media and property capabilities by purchasing Raleigh, North Carolina–based OnSport.
From 2007-11, Sarah Hirshland--who later became CEO of the
United States Olympic Committee
The United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee (USOPC) is the National Olympic Committee (NOC) and the National Paralympic Committee (NPC) for the United States. It was founded in 1895 and is headquartered in Colorado Springs, Colorado ...
—was a senior vice president for strategic business development, was the company's lead on its account for the insurance firm Nationwide, and negotiated deals with
NASCAR
The National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing, LLC (NASCAR) is an American auto racing sanctioning and operating company that is best known for stock car racing. It is considered to be one of the top ranked motorsports organizations in ...
, the
USTA
The United States Tennis Association (USTA) is the national Sport governing body, governing body for tennis in the United States. A not-for-profit organization with more than 700,000 members, it invests 100% of its proceeds to promote and devel ...
, and the
PGA Tour
The PGA Tour (stylized as PGA TOUR by its officials) is the organizer of professional golf tours in North America. It organizes most of the events on the flagship annual series of tournaments also known as the PGA Tour, the PGA Tour Champion ...
.
In early 2011, Wasserman bought London-based media rights manager and advisory firm Reel Enterprises. That year, Wasserman expanded its golf talent roster by acquiring SFX Golf in April 2011.
In 2015, Wasserman acquired Laundry Service, which included ''Cycle'', a network of
social media influencer
A social media influencer, or simply influencer (also known as an online influencer), is a person who builds a grassroots online presence through engaging content such as photos, videos, and updates. This is done by using direct audience intera ...
s. The advertising agency was named one of the ''
Ad Age
''Ad Age'' (known as ''Advertising Age'' until 2017) is a global media brand that publishes news, analysis, and data on marketing and media. Its namesake magazine was started as a broadsheet newspaper in Chicago in 1930. ''Ad Age'' appears in ...
'' agencies to watch in January 2015.
In March 2021, Wasserman acquired German based boxing promotional company Team Sauerland. With the announcement, they revealed the company would be relocating to the United Kingdom and subsequently renamed to "Wasserman Boxing". Wasserman also acquired the North American Music division of the Los Angeles–based Paradigm Talent Agency.
In April 2021, Wasserman acquired the Boston-based ‘Ideas and Access’ Gen Z geared Marketing Agency: Riddle & Bloom. Riddle & Bloom will be fully rebranded as Wasserman in Q3.