Tampa Bay-based Catalyst Sports Ventures has reached a deal to acquire a minority stake in Kilwinning Rangers FC, giving the firm a second European football investment, pending final approval.
The Scottish club recently earned promotion to the Lowland Football League for the 2026-27 season. Catalyst founder and Managing Partner Will Freeman said the transaction received preliminary approval at a league board meeting last week and remains subject to formal approval after a meeting Wednesday. Freeman would join Kilwinning Rangers’ board of directors as part of the investment.
Kilwinning, founded in 1899 and based roughly an hour from Glasgow, would give Catalyst another club where Freeman can pursue the strategy that led him into European football last year: investing in smaller teams where he sees room to build the commercial business around the sport.
Freeman made Catalyst’s first minority investment in late 2025, acquiring a position in Haverfordwest County AFC of the Cymru Premier, the highest level of domestic football in Wales. He told TBBW Magazine at the time that lower acquisition costs made smaller European clubs accessible while leaving investors room to contribute operational expertise.
The opportunity, as Freeman described it, was not limited to player recruitment or on-field results. He said many smaller clubs had not fully developed sponsorships, media and other revenue opportunities.
Catalyst’s work at Haverfordwest has since moved into those areas. For the 2026-27 season, the firm became the club’s official livestream partner and a pitchside board sponsor, funding live English-language commentary for every home match at Ogi Bridge Meadow Stadium.
That progression from minority ownership into sponsorship and media operations provides the clearest indication of what Catalyst could bring to a second club. Kilwinning would extend the firm’s holdings into another European football system less than a year after the Haverfordwest investment.
Catalyst has also added its first outside investor. Freeman said a U.S. business executive invested in the firm during the second quarter of 2026. He previously told TBBW Magazine that he wanted to build a small group of accredited investors who could contribute business expertise alongside capital rather than raise money through broad crowdfunding.
Freeman’s sports work has also produced two Tampa Bay initiatives outside Catalyst’s investment portfolio. Earlier this year, he founded the Global Sports Access Foundation, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit focused on expanding access to sports careers for underserved young adults. The organization has established a five-member inaugural board.
He also made a gift to the University of South Florida to establish the Freeman Global Football Award Fund, which will support Division I men’s soccer student-athletes pursuing international opportunities on and off the field.
For Catalyst, however, the immediate next step remains in Scotland. Formal approval of the Kilwinning transaction would give the Tampa Bay firm minority positions in clubs in Wales and Scotland and move the multi-club strategy Freeman outlined last year from a plan into a two-club portfolio.