🔊 Sports Fantasy App Reaches Billion-Dollar Valuation

📰 TOP STORY
Underdog Reaches $1.2B Valuation After $70M Series C

• Underdog, a leading sports fantasy and betting company, reached unicorn status at a $1.2B valuation this week after raising a $70M Series C round. Spark Capital led the round. Underdog has raised over $140M since being founded in 2020. Existing investors include BlackRock, Harris Blitzer Sports Entertainment, SV Angel, Mark Cuban, and Kevin Durant. Underdog founder and CEO Jeremy Levine said in a press release that the business will use the new capital to invest in talent and product.

Why does this matter?

On May 14th, 2018, the world of sports betting changed forever. That was the day the Supreme Court struck down a federal law banning commercial sports betting in most states, opening the door to legalizing the estimated $150B in illegal wagers on professional and amateur sports Americans make every year. Since then, we’ve seen several sports betting or fantasy companies explode and many new entrants, including, but not limited to: Fanatics, DraftKings, FanDuel, BetMGM, ESPNBet, Betr, PrizePicks, and Sleeper. You might look at this and think the space is saturated. But I believe that couldn’t be further from the truth. If you combine the global growth of sports, the repeal of legislation around sports betting and fantasy, and the number of emerging companies in the space, it’s obvious that this sector has room to run. Currently, 38 states and Washington, DC feature live, legal sports betting markets in the US. Some of the largest states, including California, Texas, and Georgia, have yet to open the floodgates. Whether you agree with it or not, sports betting and fantasy create engagement and drive more revenue for leagues and organizations. And yes, the legacy players will continue to own most of the betting and fantasy market, but what’s interesting is the complementary platforms, tools, and companies that will be built around them, such as Rithmm, Outlier.bet, Winible, DubClub, and Novig (feel free to send me more). As a result of all of this, I guarantee we’ll see more activity, opportunities, and, without a doubt, more billion-dollar companies come out of this vertical.

💰 MERGERS & MONEY MOVES 
This ‘Twitch For Sports’ Company Raised $22M Series A

• Playback Raises $22M. Playback, which calls itself the "Twitch for sports," has raised $22M and expanded its content to offer MLB games through a partnership with MLB.tv. The round was led by Seven Seven Six, with participation from Khosla Ventures (who led their Seed round) and NBA Investments. The funding will support Playback’s growth and help expand partnerships with leagues, media companies, and creators. They’ve recently brought on creators and former pro athletes like Kevin Garnett, Gilbert Arenas, and Jeff Teague (more here).

• Pro Padel League Raises $10M. Pro Padel League, the premier professional padel league in the US, has announced its first institutional investment with a $10M seed round. The round was led by Left Lane Capital, a consumer-focused venture capital firm, that has led several investments into emerging sports leagues, with additional support from Tony Tamer’s family office, Kactus Capital, Gary Vaynerchuk, and Epic Padel, among others (more here).

• Omaha Production Sells 10% Stake. NFL Hall of Fame QB Peyton Manning has sold a 10% stake in his production company, Omaha Productions, to former Endeavor CEO Patrick Whitesell and Silver Lake at a $750M valuation. Omaha Productions has produced more than 30 TV series and live events, including the “ManningCast” on ESPN (more here).

• Boxbase Raises ‘Six-Figure’ Pre-Seed Round. Boxbase, a gym management software for CrossFit boxes, has secured a six-figure Pre-Seed funding round led by Johannes Moser, co-founder of Immerok. Austrian serial entrepreneur Dieter Rappold, co-founder and CEO at ContextSDK, and Bryan Clark, VP of Product at Neon, also joined the round. The Austrian company will use the funds to accelerate product development, expand the feature set, and broaden its reach to empower CrossFit gym owners worldwide (more here).

IN PARTNERSHIP WITH BUYING SANDLOT
☄️ Youth Sports Are About To Explode

The youth sports market is set to grow from its current level of around $40 billion to over $70 billion by 2030.

Investments in facilities, equipment, training, and yes, tech, are pouring in as PE money helps to consolidate a highly fragmented space.

Youth and amateur sports tourism alone may account for upwards of $50 billion in annual spending, according to some estimates.

The problem is that general interest sports business publications, like Front Office Sports and Sportico, only scratch the surface with their coverage.

Much like Vetted Sports covers the intersection of sports, tech, and business, Buying Sandlot covers everything you need to know about the business of youth sports.

Subscribe to their free newsletter and get:

✓ Insights on deals, investments, and market trends

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 🤝 PARTNERSHIPS
The NHL Announces Multi-Year Agreement With Palo Alto Networks

• NHL & Palo Alto Networks Form Partnership. Palo Alto Networks, a global cybersecurity company, and the NHL announced a multi-year partnership aimed at ensuring the utmost cybersecurity for the NHL. This new partnership provides Palo Alto Networks with exclusive marketing rights and designations that will connect the brand with the NHL and its fans through several digital and social media channels throughout the partnership. (more here).

• Manchester City Women & Hytro Form Partnership. Manchester City Women announced a new global partnership with leading Blood Flow Restriction wearables company Hytro. The performance partnership will allow the team to utilize Hytro wearables and technology as part of its world-leading approach to athletic performance and recovery (more here).

• Formula E & Google Cloud Expand Partnership. Formula E, the all-electric single-seater motor racing series, has expanded its AI and technology partnership with Google Cloud, the cloud computing arm of the global tech giant. Under their new collaboration, the pair has developed Driver Agent, an AI-powered analytics tool that will provide performance data, including lap times, speed, braking, acceleration, and downforce data, to drivers at all levels (more here).

🔊 ATHLETES & OTHER NEWS
New York Yankees Reach $8B+ Valuation

• Baseball’s Most Valuable Teams 2025. Three years after the NFL, and just one after the NBA, the MLB has its first $8B team: the New York Yankees. The Bronx Bombers, who have led the ranking of baseball’s most valuable clubs every year since Forbes began publishing the list in 1998, are now worth an estimated $8.2B. Meanwhile, the Los Angeles Dodgers, the second-most-valuable team for 14 straight years, are up to $6.8B after a 25% jump from 2024, placing the defending World Series champions among the 10 most valuable teams in the world, from any sport. Here’s the rundown on the 2025 MLB team valuations (more here).

• NBA Team Owners Consider Launching European League. NBA team owners are expected to discuss an initiative to launch a pro basketball league in Europe during meetings this week, as reported by Sportico. The proposed league would be comprised of 8-10 teams and aims to expand basketball's presence across Europe and capitalize on the sport's popularity by being more involved in the economics of its growth overseas. The NBA estimates that the market for basketball in Europe and the Middle East could generate up to $3B in annual revenue (more here).

• New York Liberty Announce State-Of-The-Art Practice Facility. The New York Liberty announced plans to build a $80M practice facility set to open in 2027. The training center will be fully funded by Liberty’s ownership group, led by Joe Tsai and Clara Wu Tsai. Populous, a world-renowned architecture firm specializing in pro sports facilities, collaborated with current Liberty players like Sabrina Ionescu and Breanna Stewart to create an environment that they believe prioritizes player performance and women-specific needs. The 75,000-square-foot facility, which includes an in-house hair and makeup studio, will come equipped with private family lounges, a rooftop patio, and other amenities (more here).

• ASU & GoDaddy Launch Student Athlete Venture Studio. In a groundbreaking initiative aimed at empowering college athletes beyond their playing careers, Arizona State University and GoDaddy teamed up to launch the first-of-its-kind Student Athlete Venture Studio. The program helps student-athletes navigate the rapidly changing landscape of name, image, and likeness licensing by providing them with the tools, mentorship, and resources to develop, launch, and grow business ventures (more here).

• Catapult Launches Vector 8. Catapult, a global leader in sports technology for pro teams, announced the launch of Vector 8, an innovative athlete performance monitoring product. Vector 8 empowers teams to make precise, real-time decisions through an unprecedented live experience, streamline operations with faster, more efficient workflows, and gain clearer insights into athlete performance through a completely reimagined user experience (more here).

• Westchester Soccer Club Formally Launches Community Ownership Opportunity. Westchester Soccer Club formally announced a community ownership opportunity, offering supporters globally the chance to own a piece of the club. The fan ownership program, which has seen great success in Europe and in other parts of the US, will be a first for the New York region in any professional sport (more here).

• PlayBetter Launches TrackBetter.com. PlayBetter, a leading online retailer of golf simulators, announced the launch of TrackBetter.com, a new e-commerce destination focused exclusively on endurance & outdoor technology for runners, cyclists, multi-sport athletes & adventurers (more here).

🎙️ PODCAST INTERVIEWS
The Evolution Of Sports Tech Investing With Wayne Kimmel

• For the first guest of the Vetted Sports podcast, we invited Wayne Kimmel onto the show to discuss the evolution and growth of sports tech investing. Kimmel is a sports tech venture capitalist, entrepreneur, and author of Six Degrees of Wayne Kimmel. He is the Managing Partner of SeventySix Capital, a VC firm founded in 1999 that invests in startup sports betting, esports, and sports tech companies. Check out the full episode here: Apple | Spotify | YouTube