🔊 Immersive Reality Company Reaches $12B Valuation

📰 TOP STORY
Infinite Reality Raises $3B At $12B Valuation

• Infinite Reality has been on a tear. This week it was announced that the immersive technology company raised $3B giving them a $12B valuation. One of the most interesting aspects of this raise is not only the price, but that it all came from one single private investor whose name wasn’t disclosed. CEO John Acunto stated, “This fundraise validates our mission to build an immersive platform that powers the next era of the web. Our customers can now seamlessly transition from 2D websites to immersive spaces, optimizing their operations and unlocking new revenue opportunities.” Though the company plays across several spaces and industries, let’s talk about why this matters for sports.

Why is this important?

We know that fan engagement is evolving. Extended Reality (XR), which refers to the combination of AR, VR, and MR is playing an instrumental role in this transformation. As technology becomes more integrated within sports, the variety of options for engagement will be endless. The next generation of fans, won’t just look to stream games or attend games. They’ll have immersive experiences at Cosm venues. They’ll live through the eyes of their favorite players with StatusPro and communicate with them through Portl and Proto holograms. They’ll be able to sit courtside virtually on the Xtadium app. And they’ll be able to tie it all together and expand on these experiences with Infinite Reality. The metaverse market is expected to reach $936B+ By 2030. The growth rate is staggering and we’re still in the early days. With this infusion of capital, Infinite Reality is well-positioned to be a dominant force in the next frontier of sports experiences and how fans interact with teams and players digitally.

Currently, Infinite Reality’s portfolio includes:

• Drone Racing League (the world's premier pro drone racing property)

• Ethereal Engine (spatial web design firm)

• iR Studios (entertainment production company)

• Team Rogue (esports team)

• London Royal Ravens (esports team)

• TalentX (talent management and media company)

• Thunder Studios (production studio)

• Fearless (digital media agency)

• Landvault (immersive technology and digital twin company)

• Zappar (AR tech company)

• ReKTGlobal (entertainment and esports business)

• Action Face (avatar company)

• Stakes (sports wagering company)

They also have partnerships with organizations such as:

• Warner Bros. Discovery Sports

• FIM Speedway GP

• Global Esports Federation

• Google Cloud

💰 MONEY MOVES 
Global Sports VC Firm Closes $68M Tech Fund

• Scrum Ventures Raises $68M Fund. Scrum Ventures, a San Francisco and Tokyo-based early-stage venture capital firm announced the close of its first vertically focused tech fund, Scrum Sports & Entertainment Fund I (SSE). The new fund will invest in technology companies that support the growth of the sports and entertainment sector but also transcend the vertical and address market inefficiencies in other industries (more here).

• Northleaf Capital Partners & Altor Equity Partners Invest In CCM Hockey. Canadian investment firm Northleaf Capital Partners has partnered with Swedish private equity firm Altor Equity Partners to invest in CCM Hockey, a leading designer, manufacturer, and distributor of hockey equipment. Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed (more here).

• Sportsbank Agrees To Invest $282M Into Eagle Football Holdings. Sports investment firm Sportsbank has entered a period of exclusivity to invest in billionaire John Textor’s multi-club group Eagle Football Holdings, which owns 45% of Premier League team Crystal Palace. They also own stakes in Ligue 1 side Lyon, Brazilian champions Botafogo, and Belgian outfit RWD Molenbeek. Sportsbank is led by Zechariah Janjua and has the backing of ‘major international financial and strategic management investors (more here).

• Betmate Raises $2M. Betmate, a UK-based social gaming startup recently raised a $2M Series A led by Accelerate Ventures. Founded in 2020 by Ryan Lawrence and Declan Dowling, Betmate offers a unique ‘people-vs-people’ sports betting experience, alongside daily fantasy football and sports accumulators. This latest funding round also includes capital for Engage Games, Betmate’s B2B arm specializing in white-label, free-to-play game solutions (more here).

• Kibi Sports Raises $100K. Kibi Sports, an Indian-based sports tech startup that aims to be a one-stop solution for all sporting-related services announced a $100K pre-seed round from prominent angel investors including Saurabh Aggarwal, Arpit Bhardwaj, Vartika Joshi, Suryansh Jain, Pranjal Bansal, Amit Kumar Sahu, Pratibha Rani, and Sushila. The company will utilize these funds to enhance its technology platform, expanding its capabilities and improving the user experience (more here).

• Sportable Acquires Instantaneous. Sportable, a global leader in sports data AI, announced the acquisition of Intaneous, a computer vision company specializing in transforming sports data into insights and visualizations that enhance the way audiences experience and understand sports. The financial terms of the deal were not disclosed (more here).

• Five Iron Golf Co-Founders Invest In New York Golf Club. Five Iron Golf Co-Founders Jared Solomon and Katherine Solomon have invested in New York Golf Club, the New York-based team of TGL presented by SoFi. They are also announcing Five Iron as NYGC’s Official Watch Party location for its inaugural season (more here).

 🤝 PARTNERSHIPS
Cosm Adds Another Major Partner

• WWE & Cosm Announce Partnership. Cosm, a leading immersive technology, media, and entertainment company announced a multi-year partnership with WWE to deliver WWE Premium Live Events to fans via Shared Reality. Fans attending WWE events at Cosm’s venues will be transported ringside to arenas and stadiums around the world, providing them with front-row seats and putting them inside the action alongside fellow passionate WWE fans (more here).

• Unrivaled Basketball & Samsung Announce Partnership. Samsung announced a new partnership with Unrivaled Basketball, to serve as its official technology and presenting partner. Samsung’s pioneering consumer electronics innovations – including smartphones (Galaxy S Series, Z Series), wearables (Galaxy Watch, Galaxy Ring), headphones (Galaxy Buds), and tablets featuring Galaxy AI, and monitors will power the league and be available to players (more here).

• UFL & Google Cloud Announce Partnership. The United Football League announced that it is collaborating with Google Cloud to enhance the league’s business and football analytics capabilities heading into the UFL’s second season. Google Cloud will provide the UFL with data analytics tools including BigQuery and Looker, which will enable the league and its partners to better connect with sports fans (more here).

• The Orlando Magic Partner With LEAD, & The DeVos Family Partner For Magic Venture Challenge. To continue advancing innovation, the three groups are joining together to host the Magic Venture Challenge, an exclusive pitch event designed to discover and support cutting-edge innovations in sports, health, and wellness. Through the DeVos family and LEAD, the challenge will provide up to $750K in total investment capital to early-stage sports, health, and wellness startup companies (more here).

• The Portland Trail Blazers Partner With Ticketmaster & OneCourt For Haptic Display. The Portland Trail Blazers have become the first pro sports team to feature OneCourt’s haptic display. OneCourt’s haptic display will be available at every home game for Blind or Low Vision fans. This cutting-edge technology enables fans who are Blind or Low Vision to experience live basketball action in real-time. Using generative audio and haptics, OneCourt translates live gameplay into trackable vibrations, so fans can follow the live gameplay with their fingertips (more here).

🔊 ATHLETES & OTHER NEWS
Another Notable Athlete Invests In Unrivaled Basketball

• Coco Gauff Invests In Unrivaled Basketball. Women's tennis star Coco Gauff has invested in the professional 3v3 women's basketball league, Unrivaled Basketball. Other notable investors in the league include former US soccer Olympian Alex Morgan, NBA stars Carmelo Anthony and Giannis Antetokounmpo, former Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps, Ashton Kutcher, and Mila Kunis, among others (more here).

• Disney, Fox & Warner Bros. Discovery Call Off Venu Sports Launch. Venu Sports, a streaming service that was supposed to be launched by Disney's ESPN, Warner Bros. Discovery, and Fox, has been called off. Venu Sports was originally set to debut before the 2024 NFL season but was held up in court due to Fubo's antitrust complaint (more here).

• TGL Debut Draws Nearly 1M Viewers. This week, Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy's indoor golf league debut on ESPN drew nearly a million viewers, according to Nielsen numbers reported by FOS. Tuesday night's broadcast attracted an average of 919K viewers during the 9-11 pm ET time slot. According to Sports Media Watch, that is a larger audience than any LIV Golf broadcast on The CW in 2023 and 2024 and also larger than last week's PGA Tour season opener (The Sentry) on the Golf Channel and NBC (more here).

• Sony Shares First Look Of New NFL Coach’s Headset. At CES this past week, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell joined President and COO of Sony Electronics North America, Neal Manowitz, and President, COO, and CFO of Sony Group Corporations, Hiroki Totoki to share the latest developments in the evolution of sports entertainment. The new coach headsets will feature Sony’s industry-leading noise canceling and sound quality and be powered by Verizon’s 5G network (more here).

• MLS NEXT Announces New Competition Tier. With the announcement of a new competition tier within MLS Next, emerging talent in the US and Canada will have another avenue to develop their careers. Starting in September 2025, the number of enrolled clubs and players will increase to raise the overall performance and competition level across youth soccer in the U.S. and Canada (more here).

• How The Sports Media World Is Undergoing A Seismic Shift. Younger fans are turning to social and video platforms to watch highlights, listen to live influencer commentaries, and engage in communities built around sport. These shifts allow traditional broadcasters to develop lucrative new content formats (more here).

• We’re In The Golden Age Of Celebrity Sports Investors. Celebrities are increasingly becoming players in the sports world, trading on their fame and fortune to secure supporting roles as team owners for professional franchises in the US and abroad. It’s a sign that sports teams are being recognized as appreciating assets, no longer as just trophy assets of old-money families and newly minted billionaires (more here).

• Private Equity Turns To Volleyball As Financiers Seek New Sport Frontiers. LOVB, the new women’s volleyball league backed by investors including Ares Management and Blackstone executive David Blitzer, made its debut in a 3,500-capacity arena in Atlanta on Wednesday. One of the main goals of the league: stop top players from moving abroad (more here).

• Technology & The Future of Fandom: How Professional Sports Leagues Are Innovating Around Video. Sports leagues and federations continue to take advantage of technology to connect with fans in new ways, enhance their broadcast productions, and improve everything from player safety to instant replay operations. In this panel discussion from the SVG Summit, top executives discuss what the NFL, NBA, NHL, and PGA TOUR are looking for out of next-generation technology (more here).