🔊 Here's How The MLS Will Become A Global League

📰 TOP STORY
MLS Invests & Partners With OneFootball To Expand Globally

• Major League Soccer is teaming up with German digital media platform OneFootball to provide highlights, stats, and other content. MLS will also take a stake in OneFootball, joining a list of investors and European soccer clubs that are shareholders, including Real Madrid, FC Barcelona, and Manchester City. Since 2008, OneFootball has been dishing out live scores, statistics, and news from 200 leagues in 12 different languages for fans globally. This partnership comes at a crucial time when the MLS is trying to capitalize on recent momentum such as booming valuations, announcing a new expansion team in San Diego, and Messi joining Inter Miami. OneFootball can provide several benefits to the MLS, including access to over 100M fans worldwide, more data, insights about consumer behavior and engagement, and participation in the long-term growth and upside of one of the world’s largest soccer media brands. The exact terms of the investment weren’t disclosed but you can read (more here).

💰 MONEY MOVES 
Miami Dolphins Looks To Sell Stake To PE Firm Ares Management & Joseph Tsai

• Miami Dolphins Owner Nears Selling Stakes To Ares & Joe Tsai. Miami Dolphins owner Stephen Ross is in advanced talks with private equity firm Ares Management and billionaire Joe Tsai to sell stakes in the NFL team and other assets at a $8.1B valuation, according to people familiar with the transaction. As part of the agreement, Ares will purchase a 10% stake in the properties, including Hard Rock Stadium and F1’s Miami Grand Prix. Tsai, the owner of the NBA’s Brooklyn Nets and WNBA’s New York Liberty, will buy 3% through his family office, Blue Pool Capital (more here).

• Private Equity Firm Altor Acquires Majority Stake In CCM Hockey. Private equity firm Altor has agreed to buy a majority stake in Canada's iconic 125-year-old brand CCM Hockey, which specializes in manufacturing sports equipment and apparel. CCM Hockey operates in over 40 countries and represents many NHL and Professional Women's Hockey League players. The stake was reportedly purchased for $600M (more here).

• NIL Startup Roy Raises $2M Seed Round. Roy, a sports tech company reshaping the Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) landscape, announced the completion of a $2M seed funding round led by the Idea Fund of La Crosse and Groove Capital, two premier investors in early-stage technology ventures. Roy's platform allows fans to make payments to support specific college athletes of their choice, empowering athletes to capitalize on their NIL potential while fostering deeper loyalty to their teams (more here).

• Sportstech Startup Str8bat Raises $3.5M. Str8bat has raised $3.5M (about Rs 29.3 crore) in a series A funding round led by Exfinity Venture Partners. The round also saw participation from TRTL Ventures, Eternal Capital, and the VCats group (including Venture Catalyst and VCgrid), alongside existing investors such as Techstars and SucSEED Innovation Fund. The Bengaluru-based startup plans to use the new funds to accelerate product development, introduce new product lines, and expand both its marketing efforts and geographic footprint (more here).

• Family Office Thirty-5 Capital Invests In MEUV. Thirty-5 Capital, a family office and private equity firm focused on sports technology and innovation companies, announced its first strategic investment in pickleball apparel through a partnership with MUEV, a new fashion performance brand created to elevate the quality and style of activewear designed for America's fastest-growing sport (more here).

• Fanatics Live Acquires Voggt. Fanatics Live, the live commerce division for Fanatics, announced that it acquired Voggt, a European live-streaming platform for collectibles. Voggt, founded in 2021, has been home to card dealers selling and flipping cards in mostly France and Germany (more here).

• Sporttrade Receives Strategic Investment From SIG Sports Investments. Sporttrade, a Philadelphia, PA-based sports betting operator, recently raised an undisclosed investment round from SIG Sports Investments. The company intends to use the funds for customer acquisition, expansion into additional states and continued investment into the platform and technology (more here).

 🤝 PARTNERSHIPS
MLB Players Inc. Joins LEAD As A Strategic Venture Partner

• MLB Players Inc & LEAD Form Strategic Alliance. This partnership is designed to accelerate innovation in sports and health technology by pairing LEAD’s industry expertise with MLB Players Inc.’s commitment to growing the game of baseball at both the youth and professional levels. Through LEAD, MLB Players, Inc., will have access to cutting-edge startups and technologies while providing access to a pipeline of athletes who are passionate about training, nutrition, and recovery. These athletes will help drive LEAD’s portfolio of businesses to the next level in return (more here).

• Animoca Brands Partners With Lamborgini. Automobili Lamborghini and Animoca Brands, an organization that helps advance digital property rights for gaming and the metaverse announced a new collaboration to shape the future of immersive brand engagement in the automotive industry. Both companies will combine their digital and physical ecosystems to deliver unique experiences for fans and customers. This partnership is Automobili Lamborghini's first interoperable blockchain-based implementation of their iconic vehicles in gaming (more here).

• Champion Venture Partners Announces Partnership With Sweater Inc. Champion Venture Partners (CVP) and Sweater, Inc. have announced plans to join forces to bring alternative sports assets to retail investors. Sweater is a fintech platform dedicated to democratizing access to private markets and was the first major investment platform to bring venture capital opportunities to retail and nonaccredited investors. They have now opened up their technology and compliance services to partner with fund managers like CVP to help them reach the retail investor market with their own investment portal (more here).

• Matchable Partners With MATCHi. Matchable, an innovative marketplace for sports training bookings, has partnered with MATCHi, a global online booking platform for racket sports venues. This integration marks a key step in their shared mission to make sports training more accessible, seamless, and community-focused. Matchable simplifies finding top-rated venues and trainers for clients. With MATCHi’s expertise and global presence, they will offer venues enhanced tools to manage courts and trainers more efficiently (more here).

• The Picklr & Wingfield Form Partnership. The Picklr, the fastest-growing indoor pickleball franchise in the US, announced it has signed a multi-year agreement with Wingfield, a leading innovator in interactive tracking technology for racquet sports. The Picklr will be the only pickleball franchise in North America equipped with Wingfield's AI-powered video technology, providing game improvement tools and analytics and giving members of The Picklr a clear playing and training advantage (more here).

• Rams & SprintAI Announce Multi-Year Partnership. The Rams will use Sprint’s AI-powered human performance platform to raise player performance and development to a new level. By leveraging AI-driven insights from vast data sets, SprintAI will enhance how the Rams prepare, protect, and optimize their players and team for sustained on-field success (more here).

🔊 ATHLETES & OTHER SPORTS NEWS
MLS Announces Second Cohort For Its Innovation Lab

• MLS Announces Second Cohort Of Its Innovation Lab. MLS announced that six companies had been selected for the second cohort of the MLS Innovation Lab. This pioneering initiative shapes the future of sports and the League's continued growth by identifying and nurturing cutting-edge startups and advanced technologies. The six companies selected are Edge Sound Research, OLIVER Sports, Soccerment, Sportlight Technology, Lubu Technologies, and Wicket (more here)

• Why The Commanders’ Owner Thinks $6 Billion For An NFL Team Is A Bargain. On Wall Street, risk-free investments are the Holy Grail, so no price is too high for an NFL team. Now a new wave of private equity owners are entering the game with mountains of cash–and nothing to lose (more here).

• 72% Of Women Are ‘Avid Fans’ Of At Least One Sport. The Collective, the women’s impact and advisory business of agency giant Wasserman, delved into the preferences of female fans across both men’s and women’s sports. Data from over 35,000 respondents across six continents was analyzed for this study, which is the latest installment of an annual fan study series that is part of Wasserman’s global fan research initiative (more here).

• Patrice Evra Launches LinkedIn-Style Platform To Connect Soccer Players. Former Manchester United and France great Patrice Evra has launched a new app to connect soccer players to help further the careers of those missed by academies. Evra has joined forces with football tech entrepreneur Tommy Fish to co-found PLAYER. The app is currently accessed on an invite-only basis before it opens to the public in the new year (more here).

• Dude Perfect Hires Former NBA Exec. Sports-based YouTube channel Dude Perfect has hired Andrew Yaffe as its first chief executive. Before joining Dude Perfect, Yaffe served several leadership positions at the NBA, most recently as EVP, head of social, digital, and original content where he led content strategy, development, production, and publishing across the basketball league’s social and direct-to-consumer channels. Earlier this year, the company raised a $100M investment round led by Highmount Capital to expand business and content (more here).

• Why Caitlin Clark & Other WNBA Stars Make Modest Salaries Even As The Sport Booms. The WNBA has enjoyed some of the fastest growth a sports league has ever seen, thanks in large part to superstar rookies Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese. With their play and fan following this year, they’ve helped the already surging league break records for attendance, viewership, merchandise sales, and more. But top WNBA players don’t yet have the lofty salaries to match (more here).