Known for their advisory work with sports teams, the two bankers-turned-principal investors aligned with Beverly Hills, Calif., talent agency WME Entertainment to form Raine Group LLC in 2009.

As a merchant bank their firm aims to provide both advisory services and growth equity to midsize companies in media, entertainment and sports sectors. They have a dual mandate, as advisers on transactions involving client companies, and as investors putting private equity to work though not in the same companies, according to a source.

Ravitch, 49, was co-head of Goldman's global media group, last posted in Hong Kong as head of the group's Asian media and telecom practice. Among his transactions, Ravitch worked on the creation of the YES television network in 2003, the sale of the Seattle Supersonics basketball club for about $350 million to Oklahoma City's Professional Basketball Club LLC in 2006, and the formation of the NBA China joint partnership in 2007.

Sine, 56, was global head of technology, media and telecom at UBS, where he was a senior partner. He was global head of media investment banking at Morgan Stanley when he advised Time Warner Inc. on its merger with AOL LLC.

Ravitch and Sine were unavailable for comment.

Thus far, Raine has advised on several sports-related deals. Alongside Goldman Sachs, it advised the New Jersey Nets in September 2009 when it sold an 80% stake to Russia's Onexim Group for about $200 million. In August 2010, Raine advised the bankrupt Texas Rangers baseball team in its sale to a group led by baseball legend and Rangers' president Nolan Ryan and attorney Chuck Greenberg for about $608 million.

In June it advised hockey team the Atlanta Thrashers in its $170 million sale to Winnipeg, Manitoba-based True North Sport & Entertainment Ltd.

With offices in Los Angeles; Palo Alto, Calif.; and Beijing; Rained has made three investments out of its debut private equity fund, which focuses on growth equity investments.

In February, Raine invested in Cambridge, England, online game developer Jagex Ltd. along with New York's Insight Venture Partners and Boston's Spectrum Equity Investors. Raine invested about $25 million from the fund, the source said, and co-invested another $25 million with limited partners, in exchange for about 25% of the company.

In April, it made a similar-sized investment in New York multimedia publisher Vice Media Inc. alongside former Viacom CEO Tom Freston and advertising company WPP plc.

Also in April, Raine took a roughly 10% to 15% stake in online shopping site OpenSky Project Inc., the same source said.

Investors in Raine's debut fund include Freston, Napster founder Sean Parker, former Google Inc. CEO Eric Schmidt, Singaporean investment fund Temasek Holdings Pte. Ltd. and Mubadala Development Co., Abu Dhabi's state-owned investment firm.

Raine has recently appointed veteran media banker Glenn H. Schiffman as a partner. Schiffman was formerly chief of investment banking in the Americas for Nomura Holdings Inc.

The firm also named Sherri Williams managing director for private placements and capital markets. She was previously at Montgomery & Co., where she helped build the firm's private placement business.

For its advisory board, Raine named Miky Lee, chairwoman of CJ Group, South Korea's largest media and entertainment company; Steven Newhouse, chairman of Advance.net, the Internet strategy arm of Condé Nast's Advance Publication division; and Theo Kyriakou, CEO of Antenna Group, a Greek broadcasting company.