🔊 NBA Player Joins SportsTech Firm

📰 TOP STORY
Washington Wizards Forward Kyle Kuzma Joins Scrum Ventures

• NBA Champion & Entrepreneur Kyle Kuzma Teams Up with VC Firm Scrum Ventures to Support Sports & Entertainment Investments. Scrum Ventures, a San Francisco and Tokyo-based early-stage venture capital firm, announced that NBA Champion and entrepreneur Kyle Kuzma will join the fund as an advisor. Founded in 2013, Scrum Ventures has been a go-to sports tech firm for over a decade. Its unique venture model serves as an innovation gateway between the United States and Japan, helping to connect founders to the world's most iconic brands, customers, and technologies to expedite growth and create category-leading businesses. Most recently Scrum Ventures has made several investments in companies such as Misapplied Sciences, Project Admission, Tappp, Boom Entertainment, and Arcturus (more here).

💰 MONEY MOVES 
Sports Billionaires Launch Unrivaled Sports With Investment From The Chernin Group

• Josh Harris & David Blitzer Launch Unrivaled Sports and Take Significant, Strategic Investment From The Chernin Group. Josh Harris and David Blitzer announced the formation of Unrivaled Sports, the new parent company for their growing portfolio of youth sports properties. As part of the announcement, The Chernin Group, a multi-stage investment firm dedicated to building consumer businesses, completed a significant strategic investment in the company (more here).

• WNBA Stars Chiney Ogwumike & Alysha Clark Become the Latest Athletes To Invest In PlayerTV. PlayersTV, the first-ever athlete-owned media network, and content provider dedicated to lifestyle and culture, appointed Michele Ghee, CEO of Expectant Media, as its first Chairwoman of the Board. The company also welcomed WNBA stars Alysha Clark and Chiney Ogwumike as investor owners (more here).

• Premier League Signs Multi-Year Deal with VR developer Rezzil. The Premier League and Rezzil will work together on developing a VR game, which is expected to be launched later this year. The game will place users on the pitch and in the boots of their favorite Premier League players, offering fans a unique opportunity to recreate iconic Premier League goals and moments from within the perspective of virtual reality (more here).

 🤝 PARTNERSHIPS
Cosm & ESPN Agree To A Multi-Year Partnership

• Cosm Announces Partnership with ESPN. Cosm, the leading immersive technology, and entertainment company, announced a multi-year agreement that will see ESPN bring live events across college and professional sports to Cosm's forthcoming immersive venues in "Shared Reality" – an experience that bridges the virtual and physical worlds through Cosm's pioneered technology and 87-foot diameter, 8K+ LED domes (more here).

• Yahoo Sports & OneFootball Collaborate To Announce New Soccer Content Platform. The new soccer content hub aims to offer comprehensive soccer content for fans, including news and analysis from leagues and competitions worldwide. Yahoo Sports’ existing offering will be complemented by OneFootball’s 24/7 newsroom which operates in six languages, and the digital soccer platform’s network of more than 200 content partners and publishers (more here).

• Monumental Sports Announces Strategic Partnership with the District of Columbia. Monumental Sports & Entertainment’s Founder, and CEO, Ted Leonsis, DC Mayor Muriel Bowser, and DC Council Chairman Phil Mendelson announced an agreement for a transformative renovation and modernization of Capital One Arena and an expansion of Monumental’s business and hospitality operations next door into Gallery Place for a revitalized entertainment destination in Downtown DC (more here).

• Revelyst Announces Acquisition of PinSeeker. Revelyst, a collective of world-class maker brands that design and manufacture performance gear and precision technologies and a segment of Vista Outdoor Inc., announced it has acquired PinSeeker, a Wasserman portfolio company and the leading simulator off-course golf and connectivity app that hosts real-time, virtual, closest-to-the-pin tournaments (more here).

🔊 OTHER SPORTS NEWS
TGL Announces New Launch Date

• TGL Announces Official Launch Date & Unveils Renderings for New Arena. The team virtual-golf league backed by Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy’s TMRW Sports will debut Tuesday, Jan. 7th, 2025, in prime time on ESPN and ESPN+ in the US (more here).

• Slam Dunk Technology: How AI is Revolutionizing The Game of Basketball. In professional basketball, teams are looking for that competitive edge, that unique advantage that can elevate their game to the next level. The answer, surprisingly, isn't always found on the court. It's found in the burgeoning world of artificial intelligence (more here).

• This Entrepreneur’s Journey Took Him From Baltimore to Major League Soccer. Johns Hopkins alum Saul Garlick cofounded Fabric, a gamified mixed-reality platform that connects fans at sports events (more here).

• America Made a Huge Bet on Sports Gambling. The Backlash Is Here. Less than six years after a Supreme Court ruling paved the way for widespread legal sports gambling in the US, sports leagues face an onslaught of betting scandals (more here).

• Cleveland Cavaliers Unveil Renderings for State-of-the-Art Riverfront Training Center. The NBA franchise unveiled renderings for a new world-class practice and high-tech training facility for the Cavs and public use downtown that will further develop unused land on the Cuyahoga River and perhaps help lure free agents to Cleveland (more here).

• Timberwolves Sale Collapses as Marc Lore & Alex Rodriguez Fail to Make Deadline. Rodriguez and Lore’s ownership group had until Wednesday to close on the deal and failed to come up with the needed financing. They own 40% of the Timberwolves and were in the process of acquiring an additional 40% to have a majority stake. Glen Taylor will remain the team’s majority owner (more here).

• NBA Investigates Raptors' Jontay Porter for Betting Issues. On Monday, ESPN reported that the NBA is investigating Toronto Raptors forward Jontay Porter due to irregularities surrounding prop bets based on his statistics (more here).

• MLS NEXT Pro to Make History With AI-Driven, Multi-Language Broadcasts Next Week. Fans globally will be able to watch the match for free on MLSNEXTPro.com with the ability to choose from four different languages. In addition to the usual English broadcast, fans will be able to hear an MLS NEXT Pro match in French, Spanish, and Portuguese for the first time through the power of artificial intelligence (more here).