This Week’s Most Interesting Sports Business Stories

On this week’s SportsMoney Playbook: the world’s richest crew house owners, a file for brokers’ charges and athletes launch their very own NFTs. Plus: DAZN emerges from the pandemic with a refined streaming technique.

Professional Soccer

Within the wake of sexual misconduct accusations by 23 girls, Nike and Beats by Dre have halted their partnerships with Deshaun Watson. The fallout could be extensive for the Texans‘ star quarterback, who made $8 million from endorsements final season—the fourth-best determine within the NFL.

Sports activities Enterprise

Final spring, DAZN was left to marvel learn how to function a premium sports activities streaming service with none reside sports activities to point out its subscribers. Now, the corporate’s co-CEO believes that modifications prompted by the pandemic have it set up for the future.

A sports activities card fanatic and a FanDuel alum created StarStock to be a “inventory marketplace for sports activities playing cards.” Now, 11 months after the platform went reside and 4 months after its seed spherical, the startup has raised $8 million in Collection A funding, with Hawks star Trae Younger among the many traders.

NBA superagent Wealthy Paul and a trio of former Nike executives have formed a startup that goals to construct up manufacturers centered on sports activities, wellness, diet, tech and consumer-facing merchandise.

Soccer

The San Jose Earthquakes are renaming their stadium, however their partnership with PayPal doesn’t end there.

Andrés Iniesta‘s family-owned wine enterprise has been hit onerous by Covid-19, however the former Barcelona midfielder managed to make use of his celebrity standing to soften the blow. Iniesta is not the one athlete leveraging his celeb to realize floor within the wine business: Professional Soccer Corridor of Famer Terrell Owens has launched his own label.

Auto Racing

Motorsport Video games has produced Nascar‘s online game since 2018, and with the launch of a brand new title later this yr, it intends to expand racing’s esports presence. “We have been pondering broader and wider,” the corporate’s CEO tells us.

Ford Racing does not have entry to a deep pool of prospects the way in which Toyota does, so the group is creating from inside, using road racing and simulations to avoid Nascar testing limits and enhance its drivers’ versatility.

Faculty Sports activities

The NCAA could also be fighting a losing battle on the Supreme Courtroom, which is getting ready a ruling on the school amateurism system. Within the meantime, enacting substantive change is up to the 16 college presidents on the NCAA’s board of governors. A superb place to start out can be investing in girls’s basketball, which could generate real revenue if given the correct help.

Volleyball

Aury Cruz and Lindsay Stalzer spent years abroad to make their dream of taking part in skilled volleyball financially possible. The launch of Athletes Limitless, which committed $1 million to salaries for the 44-player league, has introduced them again house.

Featured Story

The World’s Richest Sports Team Owners 2021

The 20 richest controlling house owners of groups in main sports activities leagues world wide have a mixed internet value of $426 billion, up 60% throughout what has been a file yr for billionaire wealth. Mukesh Ambani (Mumbai Indians) and Steve Ballmer (Los Angeles Clippers) present a well-known one-two punch atop the listing, however there is a newcomer at No. 3 who noticed his wealth skyrocket 699% over 12 months. See who it is, along with the rest of the 2021 list.

Sizzling Reads:

Upon Additional Overview

Covid-19 could have rocked soccer’s switch market, however the Premier League hasn’t appeared to note: England’s top-tier golf equipment spent a record $376.5 million in brokers’ charges in 12 months, in keeping with new information. The unstoppable rise has helped the game take a distinguished place on our annual listing of essentially the most highly effective sports activities brokers; three of the highest 4 on our most up-to-date rating got here from the soccer world. See who they are here.

The Final Phrase

“To be sincere, once I first heard of it, I assumed it was dumb.” – Tyrese Haliburton

The marketplace for non-fungible tokens is surging, and Dapper Labs, with its NBA Prime Shot app, is driving the wave. Nonetheless struggling to wrap your thoughts round what an NFT is? The startup’s CEO, together with NBA gamers Tyrese Haliburton and Spencer Dinwiddie, explains here. Athletes exterior of basketball are grabbing a bit of the motion, too. Patriots star Julian Edelman, the Manning brothers and heavyweight boxing champion Tyson Fury are releasing collections of tokens, and Tom Brady is launching an NFT platform.

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