World Sports Group (WSG), an international sports investment group, and Shanghai Ai Extreme Sports (Invictus Gaming) announced last night the creation of the esports club WSIG, the result of a strategic co-investment between the two entities.
A marriage between sports capital and esports legacy
The announcement, published on Weibo overnight, presents WSIG as a new kind of club: a merger between the industrial resources of a global sports conglomerate and the expertise of one of the most decorated clubs in the history of Chinese esports.
At the end of 2024, the club had already been restructured through a joint investment from Huya Live (a Tencent subsidiary) and Young Sports, a major talent agency, which together hold approximately 80% of the capital.
Who is WSG? No one knows, but we followed the money
Our investigations have however uncovered a very serious lead. By analysing the corporate structure of the various companies mentioned in the press release, we discover an entity called World Sports Holding.
This World Sports Holding has itself invested in a company named World Sports Industry Holding Limited, a name almost identical to the Chinese name used in the WSIG announcement: World Sports Industry Group.
This entity holds shares in Wode Sports Industry, which is the exclusive holder of WTT commercial rights in mainland China and Macao and won the bid for WTT 2023. Two cities — Hangzhou and Beijing — which happen to be among the offices listed in the WSIG press release.
And the name behind all of this? Lei Zhenjian, identified as World Sports' representative on the WTT board of directors. Lei Zhenjian is no stranger: he is the former founder and CEO of LeTV Sports, the sports arm of Jia Yueting's LeEco empire, once valued at $3.2 billion before collapsing in 2017-2018.
And this is where the circle closes. In 2015, Wang Jianlin (billionaire, owner of Wanda Group, dad of Sicong) and Wang Sicong (Pusi Capital, founder of iG) were among the investors of LeTV Sports, Lei Zhenjian's startup. LeTV Sports collapsed in 2017, but Lei Zhenjian bounced back through World Sports. And today, World Sports is partnering with iG, the club of the son of his former backer.
WSIG what the????