🔊 Netflix's $5 Billion Push Into Live Sports

📰 TOP STORY
Netflix Will Become The New Home Of WWE Raw Beginning In 2025

 • Netflix will pay $5 billion for ‘WWE Raw’ rights in live events push. WWE, part of TKO Group Holdings, and Netflix announced a long-term partnership that will bring WWE’s flagship weekly program, Raw, to the world’s leading entertainment service. This marks a major programming shift as Raw leaves linear television for the first time since its inception 31 years ago… (more here).

💰 MONEY MOVES 
Kinvent Raises €16 Million To Reinvent Physiothеrapy

• Kinvent raises €16 million to reinvent physiothеrapy. The Greek-founded tech-driven physiotherapy provider raised €16 million in investment during its third fundraising round. Eurazeo, a French private equity firm focused on advancing health sectors led the round (more here).

• MinuteMedia acquires STN Video for $150 million. MinuteMedia announced that it has acquired STN Video, a major player in North American content distribution that has rights to highlights from every major league in the U.S. and owns an online video platform that reaches tens of millions of unique visitors (more here).

• Dupr raises $8 million in funding. Dupr, the world’s most trusted pickleball rating system, announced a new fundraising round. Backers included David Kass, Andre Agassi, Raine Ventures, Jay Farner, Brian Yeager, and R. Blane Walter. The company intends to use the funds to expand operations and business reach (more here).

• Boomerang raises $4.9 million in seed funding. The round was led by New York-based LightShed Ventures. GGV, GoldHouse, Harlo Capital, Dream Ventures, LeAd Sports, SeventySix Capital, and several celebrities participated in the round as well. The company’s cap table also includes superstar artist Drake, Green Day’s Mike Dirnt, Baltimore Ravens WR Odell Beckham, Jacksonville Jaguars WR Christian Kirk, and Green Bay Packers DE Kenny Clark (more here).

 🤝 PARTNERSHIPS
Shared Reality Is Coming To NBC Sports & College Football

• NBC Sports & Cosm partner to bring shared reality to college football. NBC Sports will bring an expansive offering of live Premier League soccer matches to Cosm’s forthcoming immersive venues. In addition, Cosm will produce and present select Notre Dame Football and Big Ten Football games, as well as NBC Sports’ premium horse racing events, in Shared Reality (more here).

• NBC Sports Next’s SportsEngine team up with Pixellot. Under the terms of the agreement, sports venues that are part of the newly launched SportsEngine Play subscription streaming service for youth/amateur sports events will be offered a free streaming solution with Pixellot’s AI-automated cameras (more here).

• PrizePicks announces partnership with Xpoint. PrizePicks, the largest daily fantasy sports operator in North America, announced a partnership with Xpoint, the leading geolocation and compliance technology company, to employ its market-leading geolocation technology (more here).

• Sevilla FC partners with IBM. Spanish football club Sevilla FC announced the launch of Scout Advisor, a generative AI-powered solution designed to enhance their player recruitment process. Built by IBM, Scout Advisor leverages natural language processing and IBM's Watsonx AI platform to help Sevilla FC's scouting team identify and evaluate potential player recruits (more here).

🔊 OTHER NEWS
Inter Miami FC Will Wear Royal Caribbean International Jersey Patch

• Inter Miami replaces the crypto firm logo on their jersey patch with a cruise operator icon. Argentinian superstar Lionel Messi and his teammates on Inter Miami have dumped XBTO and will wear the icon of Royal Caribbean International on their jerseys for the upcoming campaign (more here).

• NBA Launchpad announces five new startups for its third cohort. The five startups selected for the third cohort include Reboot Motion, Plantiga, Tonsser, TextQL, and Dimension Studio (more here).

• Tennis Australia brings in seven new companies to its AO Startups Accelerator. The seven startups selected for the third cohort include PAM, Raven, Circular, Straffr, Stringr, DVOX, and Trickshot (more here).

• AI in Sports Global Market Report 2024. Market research publication ResearchAndMarkets recently unveiled that the global AI in sports market is slated for a notable escalation, as it is projected to soar from $1.85 billion in 2023 to an impressive $6.69 billion by 2028 (more here).

• How This Founder Is Transforming Ticket Sales With TicketRev. Buying sporting event tickets typically is a poor experience. Luckily TicketRev and founder Jason Shatsky are aiming to solve this problem (more here).

• AI & Tech Trends Reshape The Experience For Athletes And Fans. Here are the latest sports tech trends that were featured at CES this year (more here).

• Russell Westbrook has joined a new ownership group. Renowned NBA All-Star Russell Westbrook, through Russell Westbrook Enterprises, has recently become part of the ownership group at Arizona Athletic Grounds (more here).

• Cristiano Ronaldo kicks it with NFT holders as court challenges loom. Football superstar Cristiano Ronaldo delivers on some promises to holders of his NFTs despite some ongoing efforts to take the sports legend to court in the United States (more here).

• Best Practices For Investors Exploring The Youth Sports Industry. Youth and amateur sports aren't just games; they can be drivers of economic development. Across the U.S., multipurpose sports facilities are transforming communities, large and small. Because of this, the youth sports industry is an area some Wall Street investors might be paying attention to. Here are a few things investors need to keep in mind if they're new to this space (more here).