🔊 This Metaverse Company Reaches $3B Valuation

📰 TOP STORY
Infinite Reality Acquires Drone Racing League & Reaches $3B Valuation

• Infinite Reality Buys Drone Racing League for $250 Million. AI technology firm Infinite Reality has signed a definitive agreement to acquire the Drone Racing League for $250 million. The acquisition bolsters Infinite Reality's capabilities and IP and boosts its valuation to $3.5 billion. The DRL deal marks Infinite Reality's latest acquisition to a portfolio that includes spatial web design firm Ethereal Engine; fully integrated entertainment production company iR Studios; esports franchises Team Rogue (League of Legends) and London Royal Ravens (Call of Duty); as well as digital media, content, and creator services. DRL has previously received investments from sports, media, and technology entities including RSE Ventures, Liberty Media, Exor, ISOS Capital, WWE, T-Mobile Ventures, CAA Ventures, Lux Capital, Lerer Hippeau, Courtside Ventures, Sky and Hearst Ventures (more here)

💰 MONEY MOVES 
APEX Capital Announces Second Close Of Flagship Fund

• APEX Capital Announces Second Close Of Its €50 Million Flagship Fund. APEX Capital, an investment company that invests with elite athletes in the sports, media & entertainment industries, has announced the second close of its €50 million elite performance venture capital fund. The fund has attracted a new group of star athletes which include footballers such as Marcelo, five-time Champions League winner, Cody Gakpo of Liverpool, and AFCON Player of the Tournament William Troost-Ekong. Joining them are England rugby captain Maro Itoje, Tour de France winner Demi Vollering and world cycling champion with 34 stages won in the Tour de France Mark Cavendish, Olympic rower Tom George, former MotoGP rider Cal Crutchlow, and French Olympic Skateboarder Vincent Milou (more here).

• JD Sports Fashion Proposes To Buy Hibbett Inc. The UK’s biggest sportswear retailer JD Sports is set to buy Alabama-based athletic fashion retailer Hibbett Inc. for about $1.08 billion. As JD Sports looks to grow its presence across the southeastern US, it confirmed that it will pay $87.50 per Hibbett share in cash, representing a premium of about 20% to the U.S. firm's last closing price (more here).

• Polish Startup ForActive Secures $1.6 Million In Pre-Seed Funding. ForActive, a company developing a payments and communication app for independent sports instructors, has raised $1.6 million in a pre-seed round. The round was led by the New York-based ff Venture Capital and Polish-founded Movens Capital, along with business angels, including Booksy co-founder Konrad Howard and Flyer One Ventures general partner Vital Laptenok (more here).

• Bears Request More Than $2 Billion In Public Money To Fund $4.6 Billion Stadium. The team revealed plans on Wednesday for a $4.6 billion project to build a new enclosed stadium on the Lake Michigan lakefront. They plan to inject over $2 billion to make it happen, leaving Illinois taxpayers on the hook for the remaining $2.6 billion. That’s about $183 per Illinois resident (more here).

• TOCA Football Receives Investment From World Chess Champion Magnus Carlsen. TOCA is the world’s leading tech-enabled soccer training and entertainment company, transforming the soccer experience and growing participation in the sport. Magnus Carlsen is a five-time World Chess Champion and the highest-rated player in history. He is also an avid soccer fan and has previously held the world’s number-one spot in the Fantasy Premier League. In addition to his investment, TOCA and Carlsen will explore ways to connect the worlds of chess and soccer (more here).

• Michael Johnson Raises Over $30 Million For New Track League. Track and field icon Michael Johnson has raised more than $30 million in financing from investors and strategic partners for a new fan-focused track league (more here).

• The Sports Bra Announces Plans To Franchise With New Investment. The Sports Bra, the first-of-its-kind sports bar focusing on women's sports recently received investment from Reddit co-founder and husband of tennis legend Serena Williams, Alexis Ohanian. All returns from the investment will be invested back into girl’s and women’s sports via the foundation, the Sports Bra wrote in a post on Instagram (more here).

 🤝 PARTNERSHIPS
Shohei Ohtani Partners With Sports Tech Company

• Shohei Ohtani Teams Up With Sports Technology Company Rapsodo. Rapsodo is a sports technology company that develops tracking devices that use camera and radar technology to help players measure hitting and pitching data. Many players and coaches in MLB, and NPB in Japan, use Rapsodo technology for player development and evaluation. The company also has a large user base in the amateur ranks and softball (more here).

• Manchester City & OKX Partners To Release Limited-Edition Jerseys Tied To NFTs. The “Unseen City Shirts” campaign is the latest move in a long-term partnership with cryptocurrency exchange OKX. Users can mint the digital collectibles on the OKX app, which offers a chance to win redesigned, commemorative football shirts depending on the rarity of the NFT (more here).

• Manchester City Has Signed A Multi-Year Partnership Quidd. Quidd is a digital collectible marketplace. The partnership will aim to draw on the traditional popularity of physical football cards and sticker collecting with a modern digital twist. Fans can unlock a range of real-world rewards, including official Manchester City merchandise, hospitality tickets, and ‘money-can’t-buy’ experiences, such as an exclusive opportunity to watch a first-team training session at the City Football Academy (more here).

• Pickleheads & TeachMe.To Partner To Make Pickleball Instruction Available To All. With the new partnership, Pickleheads users can now find and book in-person pickleball lessons with a local TeachMe.To instructor, and TeachMe.To visitors can use Pickleheads to find local pickleball courts, games, or groups. Pickleball coaches who join the Teachme.To network will be featured across the Pickleheads website and app (more here).

• Oakland Venue Management & The Town FC Announce Strategic Game Day Partnership. This partnership aims to redefine the spectator experience. This collaboration will leverage OVM’s expertise in event management to amplify the match day atmosphere at The Town FC’s MLS NEXT Pro home games (more here).

• Serie A Agrees To Content Deal Partnership With Minute Media. The agreement aims to increase Serie A viewership and digital engagement across the media company’s portfolio of sports content brands in the US. Minute Media’s global soccer network 90min will add a Serie A-specific vertical to its site to capture pre-match content and provide information on where to watch the games for US audiences (more here).

• NWSL Extends Partnership With Spiideo. Spiideo announced the expansion of its partnership with the NWSL to provide multi-angle AI automated capture of high-quality video, together with data breakdowns on all games across the league (more here).

🔊 OTHER SPORTS NEWS
Nike Lets Go 2% Of Workforce

• Nike Will Lay Off 2% Of Its Workforce. According to a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification filing, about 740 employees will have lost their jobs at Nike’s Oregon headquarters over the two phases of job cuts. Nike said job titles and the number of employees in each category would be provided later, once the company has determined them (more here).

• DivInc Announces Spring 2024 Sports Tech Accelerator Cohort. DivInc’s Sports Tech Accelerator supports startups using technology to drive innovation across human performance, fan experience, the future of media, and NIL. Check out the 10 companies selected for the spring (more here).

• 20 Private-Equity Firms Making Big Moves In Sports. Since the MLB opened its doors to institutional investment in 2019, all the major leagues except the NFL have followed suit. Since then, private equity firms have poured $54.6 billion into sports, according to PitchBook data. Two-thirds of the MLB and NBA teams now have private equity backing, according to PitchBook (more here).

• The Top 11 Sports Bankers. When billionaires want to buy a sports team, they call the bankers at these firms (more here).

• Caitlin Clark's Nike Deal Reportedly Worth $28 Million Over 8 Years Plus Her Own Signature Shoe. Clark, who went No. 1 overall in last week's WNBA Draft to the Indiana Fever, will reportedly sign an eight-year, $28 million deal to join the likes of LeBron James, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Kevin Durant, Sabrina Ionescu, and Elena Delle Donne with her own Nike shoe (more here).

• The AI Faceoff: Revolutionizing Hockey With Cutting-Edge Technology. From the NHL to local arenas, AI is reshaping how hockey is played, coached, and experienced (more here).

• NBA Africa Launches Accelerator Focused On Early-Stage African Startups. Operated by ALX Ventures, a leading technology incubator that provides the continent’s tech leaders with access to the tools to launch and scale their startups, Triple-Double: NBA Africa Startup Accelerator is open to early-stage startups in Africa that develop solutions in event management and ticketing, youth development, AI, and digital marketing in the sports and creative industries (more here).