Weekly Roundup: Business of Athletes, Sports, & NIL (September 4-10)

Audio Timeline:

0:30 - Feel good stories

* $16M raised by pro quarterbacks, $3M for mental health services, and Planet Fitness’ initiative for teenagers.

2:45 - Business of Athletes

* Shaquille O’Neal is contemplating an investment in the NBL (Australia). He would join current NBA players Thaddeus Young and Khris Middleton.

* Nicklas Bendtner, a former soccer star for Arsenal F.C., recently launched his own esports company known as Prosapia Esport ApS.

* Luka Doncic is having some trademark trouble with the USPTO as his“LUKA DONCIC” failed to register due to similar trademarks not being owned by him.

* LeBron James, Kevin Love, and Tobias Harris are investing in Neutral Foods, a carbon-free nutrition company, alongside Mark Cuban and Bill Gates.

* Las Vegas Raiders QB Derek Carr has joined Oofos, an active recovery footwear brand, as an investor and ambassador.

* Tennis great Billie Jean King is helping to launch Trailblazer Venture Studio, a new accelerator supporting women-run businesses in sports and media.

9:30 - Name, Image, and Likeness

* Heach Coach Dabo Swinney has re-signed with Clemson for over $100M

* Purdue and Grambling State University offer school-wide NIL opportunities to enable all athletes in getting paid.

* An NFT-run basketball tournament helping high school basketball players get paid and also educated on web3.

14:20 - Future of Sports

* Venturerock launched a $75M sports tech venture investment company (VIC). Athlete investors include former Dutch soccer player Mark van Bommel and former New York Jets cornerback Bryson Keeton.

* Science in Sport, a premium performance nutrition brand, has secured $3.5M in additional funding.

* Sorare is teaming up with the NBA to serve as the official NFT fantasy partner and will debut a new fantasy offering for the 2022-23 season.

* The sports NFT market size is at $2.6B in 2022 and is forecasted to reach $41.6B by 2032.

* The Saudi National Development Fund (NDF) is adopting a program to finance the gaming and e-sports sector with $80M.

* New York Knicks named the most valuable NBA team by Forbes Magazine at $5.8B.

Interesting Stat

Here’s a map showing where most college football players come from:

To no surprise…

Southern California, Texas, and Florida are the hotbeds.

Perhaps a breakdown for a later date as this stuff fascinates me.

Short Passage of The Week:

Two things you get every day:

A chance, and a choice.

It is our responsibility to make the most of them today! 

* Less phone, more reading.

* Less facts, more intuition.

* Less consuming, more creating.

* Less commotion, more solitude.

* Less talking, more listening.

* Less controlling, more sharing.

* Less judgment, more empathy.

How will we spend our 86,400 seconds today?

Passage by Clint Hurdle

Recommended Media

I enjoyed this piece by CJ Gustafson who is the founder and editor of Mostly Metrics.

It’s a free weekly newsletter about startup metrics and business models.

While I did a good bit of finance at Boston University, much of it slips out the backdoor. Always nice to stay sharp on the financial side of things.

I’m a firm believer in knowing a little bit about a lot of things. A “generalist” is a term that you might have heard thrown around before.

Tweet(s)

With school starting back up I thought this was an interesting thread for parents:<