🔊 Fanatics Lands Monumental Partnership

📰 TOP STORY
Premier League & Fanatics Announce Trading Card Partnership

• Premier League Cuts Deal With Fanatics. The English Premier League and Fanatics have announced that starting in June 2025, Fanatics Collectibles will become the exclusive provider of EPL trading cards, trading card games, and stickers in a multi-year deal. Fanatics holds e-commerce and licensed apparel partnerships with various Premier League clubs including Chelsea, Aston Villa, and Everton, and the Football Association, the sport’s governing body in England. Fanatics replaces Panini, its long-time rival, as an EPL partner in these categories. Financial terms were not disclosed. (more here).

💰 MONEY MOVES 
Innovative AI Nutrition App Raises $2 Million Pre-Seed

• AI Sports Nutrition App Hexis Raises $2 Million. The round was co-led by Apex Capital and Rasmus Ankersen’s Sport Republic, an investment group with controlling interests in soccer clubs in England, France, and Turkey. Dopamine Sports Ventures and several athletes, including Olympic medalists and Tour de France stage winners such as Bob Jungels also participated (more here).

• Rowing Startup Hydrow Acquires Majority Stake In Speede Fitness As Their CEO Steps Down. Hydrow, the at-home rowing machine maker, announced that it has acquired a majority stake in Speede Fitness, the company behind the AI-enabled strength training machine. They also stated that CEO and founder Bruce Smith will step down, and President and CFO John Stellato will take over day-to-day operations. Hydrow declined to share how much of a majority stake it now has in Speed Fitness (more here).

• Noteefy Raises Seed Round. Noteefy, golf’s premier fully automated waitlist solution, has completed a seed capital round to accelerate the growth of its innovative technology platform. The investment will expand Noteefy’s existing product offerings through AI integration across additional hospitality categories with similar demand dynamics to golf (more here).

• Monstranamus’ Cheng Invests $20 Million Into Manchester 62 FC For Concussion Research. Gibraltar-based Manchester 62 FC has announced an angel investment of $20 million which will allow the club to continue to be at the forefront of research into concussion and chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) in high-contact sports (more here).

• Matchroom Sport Secures Investment From Pitch International. Pitch International, the UK-based sports marketing agency, has announced a deal to invest in event promotions company Matchroom Sport. As part of the deal, the agency will acquire a minority stake holding in Matchroom Sport with the founding Hearn family retaining majority control. Both will also collaborate on international media rights, global events, and major sports sponsorships across the Matchroom Group portfolio – including Matchroom Boxing, the Professional Darts Corporation, World Snooker, and Matchroom MultiSport (more here).

• NBA, NFL, & Nascar Stars Cough Up $2.4 Million In Voyager Promo Lawsuit. Rob Gronkowski, Victor Oladipo, and Landon Cassill have agreed to settle with plaintiffs in their ongoing case against Voyager Digital (more here).

• DraftKings Acquires Sports IQ. DraftKings has agreed to acquire Sports IQ Analytics, a business that uses artificial intelligence and machine learning to provide software solutions to the online sports betting market (more here).

• Sports Tech HQ Initiative Lands $4.5 Million In State Funding. Sports Tech HQ, an initiative launched by the Indiana Economic Development Corp. in June 2022, has secured $4.5 million from the IEDC to fund its operations for the next two years. The goal of Sports Tech HQ is to build Indiana’s sports technology sector in part by bringing startups to the state and helping them connect with the existing sports ecosystem (more here).

 🤝 PARTNERSHIPS
ESPN BET Is The Official Sports Betting Sponsor Of The PGA

• ESPN BET Named Official Sports Betting Sponsor Of The PGA Championship Through 2026. The PGA of America and PENN Entertainment announced a multiyear sports betting partnership. Under the agreement, ESPN BET becomes the “Official Sports Betting Sponsor” of the PGA Championship through 2026 (more here).

• Titletown Tech Partners With Microsoft On New AI Co-Innovation Lab. Through its joint venture TitletownTech, Microsoft and the Green Bay Packers have agreed to help fund a new AI Co-Innovation Lab at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee that is launching as part of a broad AI-focused investment package in southeast Wisconsin (more here).

• Chilliz & Azuro Partner To Tap Into Growing Onchain Sports Prediction Market. Chiliz, the owner of the blockchain sports rewards platform Socios.com, and Azuro, a liquidity layer for on-chain predictions, have partnered to grow the on-chain sports prediction market. This will allow Chiliz to expand into the sports-focused prediction applications market and any existing builders using the Azuro infrastructure will be able to connect their apps to the Chiliz Chain (more here).

• FC Tulsa Partners With Lumin Sports. Lumin Sports, an Australian sports technology company, is partnering with FC Tulsa to provide coaches, staff, and players with the best performance software on the market to ensure the roster is fit, healthy, and informed (more here).

• NWSL Partners With WSC Sports. The NSWL and its teams utilize WSC Sports’ cloud-based AI-powered solution to analyze every live match instantly and automatically create and distribute video content directly to the league’s digital platforms (more here).

🔊 OTHER SPORTS NEWS
Kyle Kuzma Brings Team Mentality To Venture Role

• NBA Champion Kyle Kuzma Looks To Bring His Team Mentality To Scrum Ventures. Kyle Kuzma is a lot of things. He’s a forward for the Washington Wizards NBA team and a 2020 NBA champion. He’s also a style icon — depending on who you ask — and an angel investor. Now he’s an adviser at a venture fund too (more here).

• Avenue Capital's Marc Lasry Talks Investing In Sports Again. Avenue Capital Group CEO Marc Lasry sits down with Yahoo Finance Executive Editor Brian Sozzi at the 2024 Milken Conference to discuss the possibilities of investing in certain sports areas, including women's sports and even Premier League soccer (more here).

• NFL Poised To Allow Teams To Sell 30% Of Franchise To Private Equity. Proposals under discussion would let buyout firms individually acquire as much as 10% of a team, according to people familiar with the matter, who asked not to be identified because the deliberations are confidential (more here).

• WNBA Announces Toronto Expansion Team Is Coming In 2026. The Toronto franchise, to be officially announced late this month, will be the WNBA’s 14th and first outside the United States (more here).

• Taxpayers Are About To Subsidize A Lot More Sports Stadiums. You would think that three decades’ worth of evidence would put an end to giving taxpayer money to wealthy sports owners. Unfortunately, you would be wrong (more here).

• Blue Wire Adds Podcasts Hosted By Cam Newton & J.R. Smith To Network. Blue Wire has added new athlete-driven podcasts to its content portfolio, continuing to provide sports fans with original offerings as it expands its capabilities and works with various partners surrounding professional sports leagues (more here).

• Game Theory CEO Sudeep Kulkarni On Sports Tech Role In Revolutionizing Athletics. Sudeep Kulkarni, CEO of Game Theory, delves into the transformative impact of sports technology on athlete engagement, grassroots development, and community inclusivity (more here).

• Former Redbird Races To Launch VR Sports App. A computer science major, Aneel Gillan earned a bachelor’s degree from Illinois State in December and is now employed by Dell in Austin, Texas. When he wraps up his workday, Gillan starts his second job: developing VRtual Playbook, a VR sports software startup created at Illinois State that aims to enhance the film-watching and training experience for elite athletes (more here).