🔊 Apple Wants To Transform The Fan Experience

📰 TOP STORY
Apple & Real Madrid Look To Bring Live Immersive Game Experiences To Fans

• This week it was announced that tech giant Apple and world-renowned Spanish soccer club Real Madrid are in talks about creating a new immersive viewership for fans. As far as we know, Apple will create specially designed Vision Pro glasses that will give the fans the feeling and experience of being at the match from the comfort of home. Santiago Bernabéu, the club’s home stadium, is one of the most popular stadiums in the world. Yet many fans aren’t able to attend due to pricing, competitive purchasing, or distance. Real Madrid’s President Florentino Pérez states “The stadium regularly exceeds capacity,” so this partnership would ideally solve a pertinent problem by giving fans the ability to experience the stadium without actually being there. Apple has already worked with Real Madrid on the 'Real Madrid: Until the End' documentary that premiered last year so the two have a pre-established relationship. This collaboration with Apple is also part of a broader trend in sports to offer fans more immersive and interactive experiences through VR. Last year, the NBA launched the Xtadium app on Meta Quest, allowing fans to watch live games from courtside in VR. Clubs such as Manchester City have provided fans with unique virtual experiences, offering trials on their official YouTube channel. The MLB also has a partnership with Apple where you can immerse yourself in a ballpark with a view from home plate and stats for each pitch.

• Why is this important? The fan experience is evolving before our eyes. Whether it’s multi-viewership, personalization, mixed-reality experiences, or real-time data feeds, teams, and leagues want to gain an edge and maintain attention through innovation. While I think this partnership is forward-thinking, VR has been slow to take off in sports. Part of the barrier is the pricing. Apple’s base model, retails for $3,499, making it one of the most expensive consumer electronics on the market. The other barrier, in my opinion, is that sports are social experiences. They’re tribal and about togetherness. Watching a game through a headset doesn’t have the same effect as watching it with your friends or family in person. While I think there’s a use case here and a problem to be solved, technology will never replace real-life connection and community which is the true essence of sports.

💰 MONEY MOVES 
Marc Lasry Invests In Unrivaled Basketball

• Avenue Sports Invests In Unrivaled Basketball. Marc Lasry’s Avenue Sports Fund announced an investment in Unrivaled, the new professional women's 3-on-3 basketball league co-founded by WNBA superstars Napheesa Collier and Breanna Stewart. The firm joins the league’s investor group, which already includes several former US athletes such as Alex Morgan, Megan Rapinoe, Carmelo Anthony, and Steve Nash, as well as businessman Gary Vaynerchuck and media executives Ann Sarnoff, John Skipper, and David Levy (more here).

• Teamworks Acquires Basepath. Teamworks, the leading enterprise SaaS company serving 99% of Division 1 NCAA institutions, has announced the acquisition of basepath, the leading NIL Operations Software that automates tasks, contracts, communication, and finances for NIL stakeholders and student-athletes. Both companies have heavily invested in solutions to support the new revenue-sharing and NIL-driven collegiate sports model in the last year (more here).

• Philadelphia Eagles Sell Minority Stake At $8.1B. According to SBJ, Philadelphia Eagles owner Jeffrey Laurie has sold two minority stakes in the team to the family trust of Ed Peskowitz, founder of United Communications Group and a former co-owner of the NBA's Hawks, and Susan Kim, chairman of the board of semiconductor company Amkor Technology. Peskowitz will take a 4.75% stake through a trust led by his children, Zachary Peskowitz and Olivia Suter and Kim will buy 3.25% through a trust she created for her children. The $8.1B valuation represents a multiple of roughly 11-12 times revenue and would represent a record price tag for an NFL team (more here).

• 360Player Raises $25M. 360Player, a Raleigh, NC-based digital platform provider for modern sports clubs, received a $25M investment from Five Elms Capital. The company intends to use the funds to support its plans to expand its integrated platform for clubs, coaches, players, and parents across new international markets, and add new product features and capabilities (more here).

• Qatar Investment Authority Acquires Stake In Audi F1 Team. Qatar Investment Authority (QIA), the sovereign wealth fund of the State of Qatar, has signed an agreement to acquire a significant minority stake in Sauber Holding AG, the future factory team of Audi. QIA’s investment will provide a substantial capital injection and pave the way for increasing infrastructure and team buildout. Terms of the investment were not disclosed (more here).

• VANAD Group Acquires SciSports. Netherlands-based family-owned enterprise VANAD Group has acquired Utrecht’s sports tech company SciSports. Founded in 2013, SciSports is a sports analytics company specializing in football data intelligence. It provides actionable insights to help football organizations optimize performance and make informed decisions. By leveraging artificial intelligence and machine learning, SciSports offers deep analyses for players, clubs, and federations, supporting strategic planning and team development. SciSports plans to use VANAD Group’s financial resources and strategic expertise to improve its technology, grow its operations, and expand further in Europe and North America (more here).

 🤝 PARTNERSHIPS
SPL & OneFootball Announce Long-Term Content Partnership

• Saudi Pro League Partners With OneFootball. The Saudi Pro League (SPL) has agreed to a long-term content partnership with the digital soccer platform OneFootball. OneFootball will feature video content across its platforms, including on SPL’s official social channels. The content will include match clips, highlights, behind-the-scenes footage, and viral moments in both vertical and horizontal formats. OneFootball has more than 200 million monthly users and aims to use its reach to amplify the league’s profile among global audiences (more here).

• FIFA Partners With Mythical Games. FIFA is partnering with Mythical Games to launch a new mobile soccer video game. The free-to-play game will be called ‘Fifa Rivals’ and be available on iOS and Android. Gamers can create and manage their own soccer club, enhance lineups, and compete against other players. It will also include in-game and web marketplaces that utilize the Mythos blockchain to allow players to own, buy, sell, and trade soccer players (more here).

• Avenue Sports Partners With Playmaker. Avenue Sports Fund and Playmaker Fund announced a strategic partnership to transform sports private equity investments across Europe and North America. The collaboration brings together two leading investment platforms to capitalize on high-potential sports assets in a rapidly evolving landscape. The funds will combine their networks and expertise to source and execute differentiated investment opportunities through the alliance. The core areas of investment focus include minority stakes in established leagues and sports-centric assets and control ownership opportunities in emerging sports and media properties (more here).

• Infront Partners With Genius Sports. Infront, the media, betting, and technology partner of French soccer’s Ligue de Football Professionnel (LFP), has partnered with Genius Sports to utilize its tracking services. The partnership will implement Genius Sports’ tracking technology across France’s Ligue 1 and Ligue 2, with technology and data services to the LFP as part of a broader partnership encompassing betting rights, selected media rights, and digital and technology services (more here).

🔊 ATHLETES & OTHER SPORTS NEWS
Russell Westbrook Is Investing $10M+ In OKC Community

• Russell Westbrook Helps Invests In OKC Stadium. NBA star Russell Westbrook is investing in Oklahoma City, where he spent the first part of his career. His company, Russell Westbrook Enterprises, is joining forces with Echo, a firm founded by Christian Kanady, to fund sports and entertainment in the city, including a soccer stadium. While the groups excluded specific details, the partnership said the investment was around eight figures and is primarily focused on bringing professional soccer back to Oklahoma City (more here).

• Billionaire Larry Ellison Helps Give High School QB $10M To Play Football For Michigan. This week, Bryce Underwood, the consensus No. 1 football player in the class of 2025, changed his mind about playing football for LSU next year and committed to play at Michigan instead. Shortly afterward, reports circulated that Underwood would get at least $10M over four years from Michigan’s NIL collective, Champions Circle, according to reports from the Detroit News, CBS Sports, and the New York Post. Here are the key players involved (more here).

• Meet The Billionaires Taking Over Professional Bull Riding. Egon Durban minted a fortune making big, risky bets on companies such as Dell and Skype. But nothing has tested his nerves like a team of bull-riding Texas cowboys. Recently, Durban and his wife, Abby, bought the Austin Gamblers bull-riding team about three years ago and are part of an elite group of billionaires transforming the iconic sport of the American Wild West (more here).

• Private Equity Is Filling A Need Sports Team Owners Have. Nicole Pullen Ross, Goldman Sachs region head of the New York Private Wealth Management business and head of Sports and Entertainment Solutions, joined ‘Squawk on the Street’ to discuss where to find growth in sports (more here).

• Here’s How This Soccer Star Is Building A Portfolio For When He Leaves The Field. Jeremy Ebobisse of the San Jose Earthquakes is an investor, startup advisor, nonprofit, and advocate for racial justice at Black Players for Change. BizJournals dives into how he’s preparing for life after the game (more here).