Why the capital giants like investing in LeTV?

May 13 Wanda Group's Wang Jianlin and an investment firm founded by Alibaba Group Holding Ltd's Jack Ma took part in a 800 million yuan ($129 million) funding round for a little-known sports entertainment company backed by local tech firm LeTV.

The funding, conducted in two parts, valued LeTV Sports at about 2.8 billion yuan ($451.37 million), Leshi Internet Information & Technology Corp Beijing (LeTV) said in a statement on Wednesday.

The investment is the latest into sports for both Ma and Wang, two of China's wealthiest businessmen. The sector has seen a boom in private investment after receiving vocal support from Chinese President Xi Jinping.

"With the favourable policies from the government and outstanding executive team of LeTV Sports, it is natural for us to invest in companies like LeTV Sports," said Kan Zhidong, president of venture capital firm Fortune Link, another investor who took part in the latest funding round.

Actually, It is not really surprising that Jack Ma and Wang Jianlin invested in LeTV. After the new policy released by Council, 5-trillion worth sports industry keeps stirring. The industry giants and consortiums are eyeing on that.

At that moment, LeTV completed their task. After founded in 2012, LeTV has been through a 2-year growth. “We have copyright for 121 sports events all over the world, we covered all the continents, except for Antarctica ” Said Liu Jianhong, the CCO of LeTV.

For that reason, Ma and Wang jumped into sports industry. However there are not many giants in that field, which makes the LeTV the best choice.

For Jack Ma, he bought 50% of Guangzhou Evergrande with 1.2 billion RMB last year. That was treated as the fulfillment of Ma`s culture industry link. After the purchase of Wasu Media and Youku Tudou, sports is the only one not included in Ma`s empire.

Compared to Ma, Wang Jianlin invested in sports from 20 years ago. Dalian Wanda, the former champion of China football League, was the first sports investment Wang did in sports. He expressed during report that he likes football, therefore when he tried to stretch to Spain, Atletico Madrid became his first one.

But if you think that is only for football, you might be terribly wrong. The purchase of Infront indicated that Wang intended to establish the complete industry chain in sports.

“It (Alibaba and Wanda`s investment) will not only aid LeTV financially, but also strategically. The two giant is going to share their resource with LeTV.” The finance consultant, director of YiKai Capital, Wang Ran said.

Last June, Alibaba paid $192 million for a 50 percent stake in Chinese football Guangzhou Evergrande after a speedy deal hatched over a few drinks between Ma and Evergrande's chairman Xu Jiayin.

Dalian Wanda has also been heavily investing in entertainment and sports. In February, Wanda agreed to buy Swiss sports marketing firm Infront Sports & Media AG for 1.05 billion euros.