The X Games catapulted action sports like skateboarding and snowboarding into the mainstream in the 1990s. Three decades later, it has reinvented itself as a team-based property with separate summer and winter leagues, and its franchises are selling for eight figures.
Although they never went away—outside of 2020 because of Covid-19—the X Games had fallen out of the limelight before private-equity firm MSP Capital purchased a majority stake in the business from ESPN in 2022 (ESPN remains a minority shareholder).
CEO Jeremy Bloom, who joined in late 2024, is a former Olympic skier who also had a brief stint in the NFL. He later founded marketing software company Integrate, which sold to PE firm Audax in 2022.
Bloom recently spoke with Front Office Sports to talk about the X Games, which is holding its first summer league championship this weekend in New Orleans, with the winning team taking home $500,000. Many of the events are available to watch linearly on ESPN or ESPNews, while the two biggest primetime competitions in skateboarding and BMX will be broadcast on ABC. The games are also available to stream on YouTube, Roku, and more.
Front Office Sports: You’ve led quite the life between Olympic skiing, the NFL, and leading a technology company in Integrate. What was the opportunity you saw with the X Games that made you decide to join?
