June 16, 2022 (NEW YORK) – Excel Sports Management, an industry-leading sports agency that represents iconic talent, blue-chip brands and marquee properties, has acquired creative and experiential marketing agency Game Seven. Game Seven will bolster Excel’s Brand Marketing division and complement its existing strategic verticals to provide a full suite of brand solutions across the sports and entertainment marketing spectrum.

Game Seven is a full-service creative and experiential marketing agency that lives at the intersection of sport and culture. The agency creates, develops, and executes innovative engagement platforms that tell relevant brand stories. A market leader across the sports and entertainment landscape, Game Seven has delivered campaigns for the likes of Nike, Foot Locker, Timberland, Oakley, Bleacher Report, Instagram, TikTok, Meta, and Spotify. Game Seven’s creative, digital, and experiential expertise will integrate with Excel’s existing work in strategy, activation, analytics, and hospitality to deliver a fully comprehensive market offering.

“Excel and Game Seven share foundational elements, as both agencies started in basketball and have since expanded well beyond into various other sports and entertainment verticals,” said Jeff Schwartz, Founder and President, Excel Sports Management. “Game Seven’s evolution from experiential marketing into a leading creative shop in sports make them a great fit for Excel. This strategic investment ensures we can satisfy any brands’ marketing ambitions within sports.”

“The addition of Game Seven adds a specialized offering that meets the needs of today’s modern marketer,” said Tuck Burch, Head of Brand Marketing, Excel Sports Management. “The Game Seven team understands and embraces the intersection of sports and culture, and their work creating innovative campaigns that illicit emotion and drive meaningful consumer engagement is what really excites us about bringing them onboard.”

“We started Game Seven with the ambition to build an agency capable of harnessing and converting our love of sport culture into breakthrough marketing campaigns. Over the last 12 years, we have evolved from a niche experiential agency into a full-service creative shop, and our team has had the privilege of creating a wide range of impactful work, both physical and digital, alongside some of the most innovative brands in the world,” said Justin Leonard, Co-Founder, Game Seven Marketing. “As we look towards the future, the ability to grow, scale, and diversify our work is paramount. Jeff and the Excel team have built one of the best agencies in the world, and our combined expertise will bring a new and differentiated offering to the marketplace.”

Game Seven was founded by Leonard and his brother Matt in 2010 to create authentic and relevant experiences for brands activating in the sports and culture space. Both founders will continue to lead the agency as Co-Heads of Game Seven and will retain a minority stake in the business. Game Seven will keep its name, while operating as part of Excel’s Brand Marketing team, and will work out of its office in Brooklyn, with some employees joining Excel’s Los Angeles office.

Excel’s Brand Marketing division supports corporate clients on an end-to-end basis to optimize their sponsorship and sports marketing investments. The agency works with brands including Red Bull, Under Armour, MassMutual, Outback Steakhouse, PWC, Vista, 2K and HSS.

About Excel Sports Management

Excel Sports Management is an industry-leading agency representing top-tier talent, blue-chip brands and marquee properties. Excel has twice won Sports Business Journal’s Best In Talent Representation and Management award, named Front Office Sports’ Best Employers in Sports, and is consistently ranked as one of the most valuable sports agencies in the world by Forbes. The agency has offices in New York, Miami, Los Angeles, Dallas, Chicago and London. For more information, visit excelsm.com.

About Game Seven Marketing

Game Seven is a creative and experiential agency that prides itself on building authentic, purposeful connections between brands and consumers at the intersection point of sport and culture. The agency has offices in Brooklyn and Los Angeles. For more information, visit gameseven.agency.com.