Weekly Roundup: Business of Athletes, Sports, & NIL (November 20-26)

Audio Timeline:

0:40 - Feel good stories

* History has been made with the first Division 1 female athlete in baseball and a $10,000 half-court shot.

2:00 - Business of Athletes

* Jayson Tatum, Connor McDavid, and Mitch Marner are investing in the youth sports engagement app, TheProgram AI.

* Former UCLA Decathlete, David Bunevacz, has been sentenced to 17.5 years in prison for defrauding $35 million from investors.

* Kevin Love has invested in Aescape, which is developing fully automated massage therapy.

4:20 - College Sports/NIL

* Gallery Furniture, owned by sports superfan Jim "Mattress Mack" McInggvale, has contributed "a seven-figure" NIL deal with the University of Houston men's basketball program.

* The NIL fund at Ole Miss, Grove Collective, has reportedly topped over $10M in funding pledges. Auburn announced more than $12 million in NIL pledges.

* Robert Griffin III tweeted that Texas RB Bijan Robinson should stay one more year in college and ask for $6-7M.

7:50 - Future of Sports

* Unagi announced a $4M funding round with Binance Labs to further Ultimate Champions’ development, their web3 soccer game.

* SponsorUnited, a SaaS tool for sports sponsorships, has raised $35M from Spectrum Equity. 

* TeamSnap, a sports management software, has acquired LeagueSide, a youth sports sponsorship platform.

* Sports sponsorship analytics startup Trajektory raised a $4 million funding round led by investments from TechOperators, Bridge Ventures, gANGELS, and Mudita Capital Partners.

* Golf Guru raised $290,000 in pre-seed funding to continue developing its mental coaching app for golfers.

* Group Sport has entered into an agreement to purchase Spanish soccer club Getafe CF and plans on using a DAO to provide fans with more involvement.

Interesting Stat

There is roughly $23 billion worth of teams for sale across the world's five biggest sports leagues, per Sportico's latest valuations.

* 🏀 Phoenix Suns: $1.9B

* ⚾️ Los Angeles Angels: $2.5B

* ⚾️ Washington Nationals: $2.2B

* 🏒 Ottawa Senators: $655M

* 🏈 Washington Commanders: $4.8B

* ⚽️ Liverpool FC: $4.1B

* ⚽️ Manchester United: $7B

This data is a little outdated, but leagues are revenue-generating machines.

Short Passage of The Week:

Be proud of how you have handled these last 11 months:  

* The silent battles you have fought.

* The moments you had to humble yourself.

* The times you have wiped your own tears.

* For quieting the noise and focusing on cultivating a life that feels nourishing.

Each day is a unique opportunity to celebrate our story, journey, strength, and resiliency.

As we embark on these final weeks of 2022, let’s take breaks, prioritize our peace, and allow ourselves to stop and start again.  

Passage by Clint Hurdle

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Business Jargon

Data is the new oil.

Every business should be tracking:

Internal Data: 

This type of data comes from business transactions such as point-of-sales and customer records. It provides insight into how your enterprise operates and the financial condition of the o