🔊 $2 Trillion Investment Firm Opens A Sports Franchise Division

📰 TOP STORIES
$2 Trillion Investment Firm Opens A Sports Franchise Division

• Top Investment Banking Firm Goldman Sachs Launches a New Global Sports Franchise Division (Not all the way sports tech-related, but major news nonetheless). Goldman Sachs executives Greg Carey and Dave Dase will be co-heads of the new division, Sports Franchise in Investment Banking, and will assume additional responsibilities. As the sports landscape continues to see an increase in capital from investors, the two will lead the bank’s business efforts to create solutions for clients worldwide across sports, media, tech, and entertainment (more here).

• Live Sports are Coming to Warner Bros. Discovery’s Streaming Service App Max Beginning Oct. 5th. The tier, which is called the “Bleacher Report Sports Add-On” will broadcast live sports events including MLB, NHL, NBA, and NCAA March Madness. Max subscribers will receive the tier for free through Feb. 29, and then it will cost an additional $9.99 a month (more here).

• Angels-Rays in MLB’s Virtual Ballpark? This past Wednesday the MLB rolled out a revolutionary digital game-viewing experience, a virtual ballpark for the Anaheim Angels’ game against the Tampa Bay Rays (more here).

💰 MONEY MOVES 
India’s Gaming Ecosystem Heats Up

• Courtside Ventures announced an investment in Eloelo along with co-leads Griffin Gaming Partners and existing investors Kalaari Capital, Lumikai Fund, and WaterBridge Ventures (more here). Check out this blog piece by Courtside Ventures which more insights into why they invested in the company.

• Global talent agency, Wasserman has finalized a deal to acquire Brillstein Entertainment Partners, a prominent Hollywood management and content production firm (more here).

• Alta Global acquires fitness App Steppen. The acquisition will grow the user base and platform capabilities of trainalta.com enabling martial arts and combat sports gyms and coaches, to better engage and attract fans of MMA and mass affluent fitness consumers (more here).

• Investor and Founder of ARK Invest Cathie Wood Just Sold Shopify and Bought This Data Analytics Stock. Should You? Late last week, sports data company Genius Sports plunged more than 10% in just one trading session. Cathie Wood took advantage of the depressed stock price by adding 1.27 million shares to her position in the company (more here).

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 🤝 PARTNERSHIPS & COLLABS
Miami Marlins Fans Can Name Their Own Price

• Miami Marlins and TicketRev team up in a first-of-its-kind innovative partnership, letting fans make their call on ticket prices for Marlins baseball games (more here). TicketRev closed a deal with the Houston Astros on Friday as well.

• Satisfi Labs Launches First Generative AI Chat Solution for Live Events with AXS. Satisfi Labs, a leading provider of conversational AI solutions, steered into a new era of live event customer service with AXS, a global leader in ticketing for live entertainment, giving fans access to more accurate and timely information Satisfi Labs has received major investments from Google, Major League Baseball, Techstars, and Florida Funders (more here).

• Infront lands ITF data partnership. Sports marketing agency Infront has been named as the International Tennis Federation’s (ITF) official data partner, as part of a five-year global partnership (more here).

• Tennessee Titans Collab with The Famous Group for In-venue Mixed Reality Experiences. Fans who attended the Titans-Chargers game at Nissan Stadium were able to scan a QR code to experience the MR offerings (more here).

• Full Swing, an industry leader in golf sports tech, announced a partnership with the omnichannel golf entertainment brand, Good Good Golf. The collaboration will feature Full Swing as the Official Technology Partner at their new headquarters near Frisco, TX, and featured on their social channels to show the world the most innovative technology in golf (more here).

• Crusty Demons and BlockTrust Join Forces to Co-Create No Limits, an Extreme Sports Culture Platform. Renowned extreme sports brand Crusty Demons partners with BlockTrust, a pioneer in Web Commerce solutions, to launch No Limits, a new web3 program that empowers extreme sports enthusiasts to determine the cultural significance of their movie moments (more here).

🔊 OTHER HYPE
Will Dapper Labs Make It Through Another Crypto Downturn?

• The NFL & NFLPA Give Dapper Labs Runway to Withstand Crypto Winter. Both the league and union hold equity stakes in NFT sports collectible company Dapper Labs. With blockchain and web3 going through a down period, here’s how Dapper plans to stay alive… (more here).

• How AI Can Make Fantasy Football Even More Fun. Artificial intelligence can enhance data analytics, predictions, and the game’s social aspect (more here).

• Crypto and Formula One’s Honeymoon is Over, Can Web3 Save a Rocky Marriage? While not all sponsorship money has dried up, these new innovations reflect an industry and a sport that has reached a greater level of maturity, focusing on products with tangible use cases rather than dangling the promise of instant riches in front of its fans (more here).

• Shaquille O’Neal Talks About Investing in Edtech and Startups That are Going to ‘Change People’s Lives’. The 15-time NBA All-Star, four-time NBA champion, and three-time NBA Finals MVP took the stage at TechCrunch Disrupt to talk about how he got into investing, the road to developing his strategy, and his belief in the importance of education (more here).

• AI Tracking Technology for Soccer Cleats Earns FIFA and IFAB Approval To Be Used in Official Matches. The technology tracks data such as technical balance, kicking velocity, and speed during training sessions and matches (more here).

• 15 Most Innovative Startups in Sports. Technological developments are influencing athlete training, game analysis, management of sports venues, players' data, and wearable technology for athletes. Here are the startups leading the charge…(more here).

• Kevin Durant and Rich Kleiman Launched a Sports and Entertainment Advisory Firm. The idea is to work with athletes, executives, and brands to create opportunities through venture and private equity investing, sports ownership opportunities, business strategy, and content creation (more here).

• Paris Saint-Germain Partners with Crypto.com to Drop AI-Generated NFT Matchday Posters. The French football club is set to launch matchday posters that fans can collect as NFTs. The posters were created using generative artificial intelligence tools as part of a collaboration between PSG and its sponsor, cryptocurrency exchange Crypto.com (more here).