🔊 Former NBA Player Raises $200 Million VC Fund

📰 TOP STORY
Former NBA Player Will Lead $200 Million Tech Fund

• Andre Iguodala Suits Up To Lead His VC Fund Mosaic Following Retirement From The NBA. After playing 19 seasons, Andre Iguodala is calling it quits. His plan after retiring from the NBA? Full-time investor. Earlier this week, The New York Times’ DealBook reported that Iguodala will lead Mosaic, a $200 million VC fund, alongside his longtime business partner, Rudy Cline-Thomas (more here).

Here’s a quick rundown of some of his on-the-court accomplishments:

• 4× NBA champion (2015, 2017, 2018, 2022)

• NBA Finals MVP

• NBA All-Star

• NBA All-Defensive First Team

• NBA All-Defensive Second Team

• NBA All-Rookie First Team

Here are some of his venture investments:

• Zoom

• Lime

• Cloudflare

• NerdWallet

• Coinbase

• The Players’​ Tribune

• Cloudflare

• Leeds United

• Bay FC

💰 MONEY MOVES 
Could Colin Sell His Media Empire?

• Private Equity Firms Circle Colin Cowherd’s Podcast Empire. At least three private equity firms are circling Colin Cowherd’s sports media company The Volume which is supposedly worth over $100 million (more here).

• New Sports Fund Preps For Fund Launch. Alec Scheiner, Brent Stehlik, Niraj Shah, and Isaac Halyard founded Otro Capital in June, according to their LinkedIn profiles. The new fund will invest in sports, media, gaming, and entertainment, targeting under-monetized and under-valued assets (more here).

 IN COLLABORATION WITH
HEIR App Launches PersonaPro

PSA!!

My good friends over at HEIR, the player-focused mobile app, just dropped a brand new product called PersonaPro.

What is PersonaPro?

PersonaPro is the officially licensed digital persona that looks and sounds exactly like your favorite NBA athletes.

This means personalized videos from your favorite athletes are now on demand.

Lonzo Ball is the first athlete to have his PersonaPro available which dropped on 10/24. Additional NBA athletes will follow him.

By using PersonaPro, you know you’re getting authentic content from an athlete, allowing athletes to focus on what they do best, knowing that their digital identities are safe and secure.

Scaling and Personalizing Athlete Content:

With AI, the world’s top athletes now have the ability to use their words to inspire, motivate, and celebrate people around the world at scale.

Every athlete’s PersonaPro is officially licensed directly from the athletes, allowing them to personalize their content and fan engagement.

Athletes can use PersonaPro to connect with fans and brands, enhancing their engagement and reach.

PersonaPro allows athletes to maintain a consistent and authentic digital presence with fans while saving time and effort.

Athletes can now efficiently respond to fan requests, making each fan interaction more meaningful.

To get your own PersonalPro video, check out the app here: https://bit.ly/thehypereport

 🤝 PARTNERSHIPS & COLLABS
TGL & Fanatics Tagteam On Merchandise

• TGL Golf League Partners With Fanatics On Team Merchandise. The deal will give Fanatics the rights to design and manufacture league-wide and team-specific merchandise for TGL as the official licensee. Terms of the deal were not disclosed (more here).

• Washington Wizards Announce Robinhood As Official Brokerage And Jersey Patch Partner. The Washington Wizards today announced that Robinhood, the financial services platform that pioneered commission-free stock trading, has become the franchise’s official brokerage and jersey patch partner (more here).

• New York Knicks Name James Dolan Backed Sphere Entertainment As Jersey Sponsor. The Knicks’ corporate sister Sphere will feature its logo on the basketball team’s jersey this season after owner James Dolan failed to find a sponsor willing to meet his reported $30 million asking price (more here).

• Francis Ngannou Partners With Soul Machines. Soul Machines, the company pioneering the creation of autonomously animated digital celebrities through groundbreaking biological AI technology, announced that it has partnered with world-famous, heavy-weight champion fighter Francis Ngannou to unveil a Digital Twin of the popular athlete (more here).

• Kitman Labs Announces Partnership With Premier League. The partnership will provide all Premier League and EFL club Academies with a fully integrated "Football Intelligence Platform" designed to aggregate and mobilize player and staff data across coaching, medical, sports science, operations, player care, and education (more here).

• BetMGM Signs New Deal With Sportradar For NBA Data. Sports betting operator BetMGM has signed a new deal with sports data and betting services company Sportradar to access official NBA optical tracking data (more here).

• BetMGM And Philadelphia 76ers Renew Official Sports Betting Partnership. Under the agreement, BetMGM will continue as an Official Sports Betting Partner of the team. The multi-year extension includes the addition of BetMGM VIP fan experiences and watch parties, in-market odds boosts, and increased courtside signage at Wells Fargo Center (more here).

🔊 OTHER HYPE
Sports AI Funding Is UP $2.6 Billion Over Past Five Years

• The 16 Top-Valued Sports AI Companies According To New Data On VC Investment In The Sector. While generative AI startups are attracting more investment overall, 2023 could be a notably slow year for venture capital investment in sports AI following several years of activity, according to new data from PitchBook (more here).

• GameChanger Puts Spotlight on Basketball With AutoStream: AI-Driven Innovation For Hands-Free Streaming. GameChanger – the #1-rated youth sports app for live streaming, scorekeeping, and team management, announced a groundbreaking addition to its basketball mobile streaming experience: AutoStream (more here).

• Changing The Game: How Data And Technology Are Transforming Sports. AWS and MLSE are working together to reimagine experiences for fans and players of sports teams in Toronto and beyond–and aid scouting and coaching decisions–using data and insights (more here).

• Packers Legend Donald Driver Reveals AI Technology Helps Him In Fantasy Football More Than His Inside Scoop. Driver partnered with IBM, which assists ESPN app users with their teams (more here).

• New NBA Player Tracking Can Measure Joel Embiid’s Usage Like Never Before. Sportradar demonstrated Synergy Sports, which collects data for scouting, coaching, and player development (more here).