🔊 Biggest Sports Marketing Company You've Never Heard Of

📰 TOP STORY
Two Circles Grows To $650M Valuation With Recent Acquisition

• Two Circles Acquires Kore. Two Circles, a data-driven sports and entertainment business announced the acquisition of KORE, a market-leading intelligence platform for fans and partnerships to enhance the company’s proprietary technologies. With this purchase, Two Circles will now serve more than 700 organizations in the sports and entertainment space. They’re taking on new clients such as NASCAR, The Madison Square Garden Company, and 118 of the 154 professional US teams from the “Big 5” men’s leagues.

Why Is This Important? Two Circles is already a massive business, but this pushes them to the next level. According to sources, this now values them at over $650M and drastically increases the company’s presence in the US. The company, currently owned by Charterhouse Capital Partners, has made many acquisitions in the past several years including Let It Fly Media, Codeware, LiveWire Sport, and Sports Ink, but this is the biggest one yet. By acquiring Kore, the company will be able to create more opportunities and more revenue for clients through smarter measurement, deeper business insights, and more actionable fan data. More organizations and sports companies depend on data to drive critical decisions these days, and Two Circles is well-positioned to become the industry leader in this lane. Their growth is something to watch out for (more here).

💰 MONEY MOVES 
Two Ares Management Co-Founders Buy A Formula E Team

• Forest Road & Ares Billionaire Co-Founders Buy Formula E Team. Forest Road, an LA-based investment firm along with Ares Management co-founders David Kaplan and Bennett Rosenthal recently acquired all the equity of the ERT Formula E team. The team has been renamed Kiro Race Co. ahead of the next electric race car world championship circuit season. A Forest Road spokesperson declined to disclose financial terms though The Financial Times reported in March that Formula E was looking to sell a new slot on the circuit for around $27M (more here).

• Sony Acquires Kinatrax. Sony has acquired KinaTrax, a provider of markerless motion-capture technology for sports that collects in-game biomechanical performance data on athletes. KinaTrax camera systems are currently deployed in more than 75 stadiums and labs across the MLB, Minor League Baseball, and NCAA member organizations, with expansion into other sports leagues. The deal gives Sony’s sports-data business a presence in player performance metrics. Financial terms were not disclosed (more here).

• Dryvebox Raises New Funding From TMRW Sports & Golf Digest. Dryvebox, a mobile golf simulator that transforms any golf event, announced a new funding round from investors TMRW Sports and Golf Digest. Terms weren’t disclosed but they joined previous investors EP Golf Ventures and Old Tom Capital. Dryvebox has grown to over 30 technology-fueled Boxes operating across the United States and Canada, with more set to launch in the coming months (more here).

• Eyeball.Club Raises €5M Seed Round. Eyeball.Club, a sports tech company helping professional football clubs scout and recruit young talent announced the close of a €5M Seed round. Vendep Capital led the round with participation from Sportlogiq, Heartland, and Founderment. The capital will fuel Eyeball.Club’s expansion into key US and Latin American markets, as well as further enhance its technology capabilities across the platform (more here).

• Quiet Golf Secures Seed Funding Round Led By Old Tom Capital. Quiet Golf, a contemporary golf-focused apparel and lifestyle company, recently raised a Seed round led by Old Tom Capital. Quiet Golf will utilize the capital to expand its green-grass offerings as well as introduce a new line of performance-focused apparel next year. Details of the raise were not disclosed (more here).

 🤝 PARTNERSHIPS
Unrivaled Basketball Agrees To A Deal With TNT Sports

• Unrivaled Basketball Agrees To Multi-Year Deal With TNT Sports. Unrivaled, the new pro women’s basketball league, signed an exclusive multi-year media rights deal with Warner Bros. Discovery’s TNT Sports. The league, founded in part by WNBA stars Breanna Stewart and Napheesa Collier, will begin its inaugural season in January. Games will air on cable networks TNT and truTV, as well as streaming platform Max. TNT Sports will also invest an undisclosed amount in the league as part of the media rights deal (more here).

• The Athletic Partners With Fubo. Through the partnership, Fubo will be integrated into live game blogs and additional content on The Athletic’s sports platform as a go-to sports streaming destination. As part of this, The Athletic will also work with Fubo to provide the most engaging and informative content experience possible through custom in-content modules featuring relevant game information. They jointly plan to develop new product features on The Athletic platform designed to ultimately build a unique and market-leading user experience (more here).

• Los Angeles Rams Partner With Genius Sports To Launch Next-Gen Stats In-Stadium. This collaboration provides fans with augmented, data-driven in-game highlights within SoFi Stadium. During every Rams home game, immersive highlights leveraging the NFL's proprietary Next Gen Stats data will be displayed on SoFi Stadium's iconic Infinity Screen. These highlights, powered by GeniusIQ, Genius Sports' next-generation data and AI platform will include crucial insights such as player locators and speeds, time for the quarterback to throw, and a complete minimap (more here). 

• Fifa Partners With Lenovo. Fifa has named Lenovo as an official technology partner, with the Chinese vendor becoming a top-tier sponsor of soccer’s governing body. The deal includes the 2026 Fifa World Cup and the 2027 Fifa Women’s World Cup. Lenovo’s products and services will be integrated into both tournaments including ThinkPad laptops, tablets, Motorola mobile phones, and servers. The products will be supplied to competing teams, Fifa staff members, and the various host nation organizing committees. The company’s AI technology and data center infrastructure will be used to enhance fan experiences and global broadcasts (more here).

🔊 ATHLETES & OTHER SPORTS NEWS
James Dolan Is Bringing The Second Sphere To Abu Dhabi

• The Sphere Expands To The UAE. The world’s second Sphere is planned to be built in the capital of the United Arab Emirates after the opening of the first giant dome entertainment complex in Las Vegas. Under the deal, Abu Dhabi will pay a franchise fee to Sphere Entertainment to build the second location using its designs. The current and only Sphere in Las Vegas has played a major part in next-level, innovative fan experiences hosting events for the NHL, UFC, and F1 (more here).

• Tom Brady Approved To Become A Limited Partner Of Las Vegas Raiders. Brady's effort to purchase part of the Raiders was delayed, in part, by questions surrounding the evaluation of the percentage to be sold to him and Brady's role as a FOX Sports broadcaster. Brady and his partner now hold 10% in the Raiders with Brady personally holding a 5% stake. He becomes the third former player in NFL history to achieve ownership after George Halas Sr. and Jerry Richardson (more here).

• NBA App Releases New Features. In preparation for the 2024-25 NBA season, the league has rolled out several new features on its app. Fans now have a multiview option that gives them the ability to watch up to four games simultaneously on NBA League Pass. The app also has smart rewind capabilities, the ability to download games for offline viewing, a variety of game recap options, and AI-powered insights and analytics (more here).

• Candace Parker Wants To Buy A WNBA Team & An NBA Team Too. It’s only been five months since future hall-of-famer Candace Parker unexpectedly retired from the WNBA, where she won three championships with three different teams, and earned the league’s MVP award twice. Since then, her future career path has been rapidly coming into focus (more here).

• Orlando Magic Guard Cole Anthony Wants To Help Basketball Players Manage Their Money. Cole Anthony recently created The Playbook event, which teaches young New York City athletes about the benefits, and resources of financial planning (more here).

• How This Founder Helps College Sports Administrators Save Time and Money in the NIL Era. Lyle Adams, the founder and CEO of Spry, is on a mission to help college athletic departments manage the business of running their programs (more here).

• Sports Technology Market To Attain Worth Of $79.43B By 2031. SkyQuest, an IP-focused research and investment bank, released a report that projects the global sports technology market will reach a value of $79.43B by 2031, with a CAGR of 20.10% during the forecast period from 2024-2031 (more here).