🔊 Utah Jazz Owner Launches $1B Tech Fund

📰 TOP STORY
Utah Jazz Owner Ryan Smith Launches $1B Tech Fund Focused On Sports & Entertainment

This past week, Qualtrics cofounder and Utah Jazz owner Ryan Smith launched a new investment firm called Halo Experience Co. (HXCO), alongside Accel VC pal Ryan Sweeney. HXCO has already closed most of a $1B capped fund. The fund will invest in about 20 to 25 high-growth startups and tech-adjacent companies, connecting them with the sports and entertainment worlds. Smith originally co-founded the experience management platform company Qualtrics in 2002. Qualtrics was valued at $12.5B when it was acquired by Silver Lake in 2023. Smith bought the Jazz for $1.66B in 2020 and brought the NHL to Salt Lake City in a $1.2B deal last year. Sweeney is a minority owner in both franchises and has invested in and worked with tech companies including Atlassian, Squarespace, and Venmo. Smith also owns Real Salt Lake, Utah Hockey Club, Utah Royals, Real Monarchs, and Salt Lake Bees.

Why is this important?

Although it’s technically not a sports tech fund, this is a positive signal for the overall ecosystem. It’s also important to note that Ryan Smith and Ryan Sweeney aren’t sports executives trying to figure out how to implement technology. They’re tech executives looking to bring innovation and modernization to sports. They bring an entirely new perspective to the industry and ownership table. They can spot and scale innovations that traditional sports organizations might miss, while also moving faster than legacy operators. They’ve also hinted that Halo Experience Co. is focused on “modernizing the live event experience,” which presents a ton of upside for the future of engagement. The sports industry has historically been stagnant and resistant to change. If successful, Halo could serve as a blueprint for how ownership groups should think, not just about winning games, but piloting tech, incubating startups, and creating unique and state-of-the-art platforms to drive deeper fandom.

💰 MERGERS & MONEY MOVES 
India-Based Social Entertainment & Gaming Startup Raises Series B

• Eloelo Raises $13.5M. Eloelo, a leading multilingual live social entertainment platform, has raised $13.5M in its Series B funding round. The round was led by Singapore-based Play Ventures and included existing investors such as Kalaari Capital, MIXI Investments, Gameskraft Technologies, Griffin Gaming Partners, Waterbridge Ventures, Courtside Ventures, and Rocket Capital. The capital will be used to accelerate Eloelo's international expansion in Indian diaspora markets and enhance its generative AI capabilities. With this round, Eloelo has now raised over $50M in funding to date (more here).

• Global Gaming League Raises $10M. Global Gaming League, a Las Vegas-based gaming entertainment and media company, raised $10M in funding. Solyco Capital led the round. The company intends to use the funds to expand operations and its development efforts. Led by CEO and Founder Clinton Sparks, Global Gaming League is a multi-title gaming league with celebrity owned teams made up of four players each, high profile influencers, actors, athletes, artists, casual and professional gamers, who compete in live events playing everything from first person shooter, sports titles and fighting games to the latest releases and retro favorites (more here).

• SponsorCX Raises $4.6M. SponsorCX, a CRM for sponsorship management, has raised a $4.6M round led by Kickstart, a Utah-based venture capital firm. The company serves about 200 clients, primarily pro teams and college athletic departments. A few angel investors joined the round as well, including Jeron Paul, Matt Stapleton, and Aaron Skonnard. The funding is supposedly going to be used on the brand side of the business (more here).

• Reichmann Segal Acquires OES. Reichmann Segal Capital Partners, a Toronto-based private equity firm, has acquired OES Inc. from Ardenton Capital Corp. OES offers LED video scoreboards, electronic manufacturing services, and custom technology services. The company’s scoring and timing software is used by professional sports leagues, including the NHL, NBA, and NFL, among others (more here).

• Interactive Strength Acquires Wattbike. Interactive Strength, the specialty fitness equipment manufacturer and owner of the Clmbr and Forme brands, has signed a transaction agreement to acquire Wattbike, an indoor performance training bike business. The binding agreement is a significant milestone for both growth businesses, forming an omnichannel, fitness equipment portfolio with key operations in the US, Germany, and the UK (more here).

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 🤝 PARTNERSHIPS
NASCAR Agrees To Partnership With Media Wallet Company

• Recast & NASCAR Form Partnership. NASCAR, America's premier motorsports organization, has partnered with Recast, a fintech-for-media company, to enhance access for motorsports fans worldwide. By integrating RecastPay into their site, NASCAR can now offer international consumers seamless, flexible, pay-as-you-go access to NASCAR racing in key global markets, ensuring that fans worldwide can experience the action on their terms (more here).

• Seat Unique & M&S Bank Arena Liverpool Form Partnership. Seat Unique has signed a multi-year deal to power premium and hospitality sales for M&S Bank Arena in Liverpool. Throughout the three-year partnership, Seat Unique will power all online premium and hospitality sales for events at the 11,000-capacity venue. Seat Unique works with iconic venues like London’s Wembley Stadium and the Co-op Live in Manchester, and top clubs and promoters such as Yorkshire County Cricket Club and Jacksonville Jaguars UK (more here).

• Stalker Sport & AWRE Sports Form Partnership. Stalker Sport, a leader in sports radar technology, has partnered with AWRE Sports, a cutting-edge sports technology company specializing in multi-angle video, data analytics, and live streaming solutions for baseball and softball, to integrate Stalker's speed and spin rate data into AWRE's app and live broadcasts (more here).

🔊 ATHLETES & OTHER NEWS
Woj Joins The Board Of Major Sports Tech Company

• Former ESPN NBA Insider Adrian Wojnarowski Joins Players Health’s NIL Advisory Board. Players Health, the leading provider of athlete safety and insurance solutions, announced that St. Bonaventure men's basketball general manager and former ESPN NBA Insider Adrian "Woj" Wojnarowski will join its NIL Advisory Board as a brand ambassador. He will join fellow industry leaders on the Board of Advisors to drive strategic initiatives, engage in educational panels, and advance the Players’ Health mission at industry events (more here).

• Women’s Sports Are Not Just A DEI Play. In today’s shifting political and economic climate, companies are reassessing their commitments to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). Many are pulling back, and in the process, investments in women’s sports, often lumped into DEI initiatives, are being questioned. But treating women’s sports as merely a diversity play misses the mark. This isn’t just about fairness; it’s about smart business and impactful marketing (more here).

• The Most Valuable Team In College Basketball Is… A new analysis from Ryan Brewer, an associate professor of finance at Indiana University Columbus, has ranked college basketball's most valuable programs coming out of the 2024-25 season for The Wall Street Journal. Brewer's data predicts what these college basketball teams would be worth if they were sold like a pro franchise. He takes into account revenues and cash flows while making financial projections about the team's sustainability (more here).

• This Team Is Making Sports History By Giving Fans Ownership. Professional sports ownership is broken. For years, teams have been leaving cities with little regard for the fans who built their legacies. Oakland, CA, has faced this heartbreak multiple times, with major teams abandoning the city, leaving fans feeling disconnected. Now, backed by various celebrities, the Oakland Ballers (the B's) are reinventing sports ownership. Baseball, specifically. The B's fan-first model is empowering people to not only cheer on the team but shape its future, and readers can now be a part of this massive shift in sports culture (more here).

• Australian Cricketer Invests In Indian Startup Drive FITT. Glenn Maxwell, a well-known Australian cricket player, has invested in India-based company Drive FITT, a membership-based sports club focused on cricket, fitness, and recovery. The partnership marks Maxwell's first business venture in India, underscoring his growing engagement with athlete development and wellness beyond the boundary (more here).

• World Champion Soccer Star Invests In Prematch. Toni Kroos, world champion German soccer player and six-time Champions League winner, is joining the company as an investor. Prematch is a data-driven community platform that enables over 50M active soccer players, coaches, and fans in Germany and England (more than 2.8B worldwide) to experience "their" soccer up close and interact with each other (more here).

🎙️ PODCAST INTERVIEWS
The Art Of Investing Alongside High-Level Pro Athletes With Danny Cortenraede

This week’s guest on the Vetted Sports podcast is Danny Cortenraede. Danny Cortenraede is a serial entrepreneur and investor based in Los Angeles, CA.

He is the Founder and Managing Partner of InStudio Ventures, a venture firm with a strong focus on emerging sports, technology, and media companies.

In this episode, we discuss:

‣ His journey from serial entrepreneur to investing alongside top athletes
‣ Investing in Boardroom and his relationship with Rich Kleiman & Kevin Durant
‣ The growth of women's sports and advice for interested investors

Check out the full episode here: Apple | Spotify | YouTube