🔊 NBA Tech Summit 2024

📰 TOP STORY
Brief Recap Of NBA Tech Summit 2024

• NBA Tech Summit 2024 In Indianapolis. Every year, the NBA Tech Summit is one of the hottest tickets in town at All-Star weekend. I had the honor of being in the room this year and the topic of conversation was ofcourse centered around AI and how it’s changing every aspect of the league. The league unveiled NB-AI, an AI technology they say will “personalize the live game viewing experience.” Commissioner Adam Silver started the event by showing several examples of how it would work and brought out San Antonio rookie and No. 1 overall draft pick Victor Wembanyama to assist. We’ll likely be doing a full recap for now, here’s a little more information on what went down…(more here).

💰 MONEY MOVES 
Fan Engagement Company WIT Sports Raises Series A

• WIT Sports Raises Series A Led By McCarthy Capital. WIT will use the new funding to scale its operations, fuel product innovation, invest in new verticals, and expand the team (more here).

• Indian Sports Tech Company Hyperlab Raises Money On Shark Tank India Season 3. A patented sports trainer designed to propel athletes toward peak performance, Hyperlab's 'Helios', has sealed a deal of Rs 25 lakh with Aman Gupta in the new episode of Shark Tank India season 3 (more here).

• DraftKings Plans To Acquire Lottery App Jackpocket. The deal is supposedly worth about $750 million in cash and stock, allowing the sports-betting giant to expand into lottery games. The company said it would pay about 55% of the consideration in cash from its balance sheet. The remainder will be payable in common stock (more here).

 🤝 PARTNERSHIPS
Portnoy Strikes Again

• Barstool Announces Partnership With DraftKings. Six months after PENN Entertainment sold the company back to founder Dave Portnoy, Barstool has agreed to an exclusive media marketing deal with DraftKings. Portnoy announced the deal on his X account following the Super Bowl. Barstool had a non-compete clause in the separation agreement with PENN that would not allow Barstool to work with a sportsbook until the end of the NFL season (more here).

• National Women’s Soccer League & Google Pixel Announce Multi-Year Partnership. As part of this collaboration, Google Pixel will become the presenting sponsor of the NWSL Playoffs and Championship, while also introducing the Pitchside with Pixel program (more here).

• McLaren Names Dropbox As New Partner. Through the partnership, McLaren will rely on Dropbox for syncing and sharing capabilities, in addition to its latest offerings in video collaboration and machine intelligence, to manage vast amounts of content and data, from across the globe (more here).

• CEBL Announces Strategic Technology Partnership With NowFantasy. NowFantasy is set to assume a more integral role with the CEBL, focussing primarily on statistics. This expanded responsibility signifies NowFantasy's commitment to delivering cutting-edge technology solutions, aimed at elevating the sports experience for CEBL fans and stakeholders (more here).

• NBA Announces Partnership With SoFi. SoFi becomes the official banking partner of the NBA, its associated minor league the NBA G League, its esports competition the NBA 2K League, and the US basketball men’s national team. It will also title sponsor the NBA’s annual play-in tournament, scheduled for April 16th-19th, which decides the final teams to enter the post-season playoffs (more here).

🔊 OTHER SPORTS NEWS
Most Watched Television Show In History

• Super Bowl 58 Was The Most-Watched Television Show Ever With 123 Million Viewers. CBS Sports said that figure included viewers across all platforms and was up 7% from last year’s 115.1 million average viewers, which was also the previous record (more here).

• Mastercard Launches Its Web3 UEFA Champions League Trivia Competition. Mastercard has introduced a Web3 platform, ‘Pass to Priceless,’ featuring an NFT-based trivia game designed for UEFA Champions League fans. This quiz game offers participants a chance to showcase their football knowledge, earn collectible digital passes, and potentially win tickets to the UEFA final at Wembley Stadium (more here).

• Tiger Woods Signs An Apparel & Footwear Deal With TaylorMade. About a month after ending his 27-year relationship with Nike, Tiger Woods launched his new apparel line with TaylorMade (more here).

• Alexis Ohanian’s Venture Firm, Seven Seven Six & Media Firm Wheelhouse Partner to Launch Mantel. Mantel is a content platform created specifically for collectors of sports cards and memorabilia and will be led by former GM of The Athletic Evan Parker (more here).

• Phoenix Suns Owner Mat Ishbia Forms New Investment Group Called Player 15. The company will house the NBA’s Phoenix Suns, the WNBA’s Phoenix Mercury, and the newly acquired G-League team for the Suns and operations of the Footprint Center arena (more here).

• NHL Renders All-Star Game In 3D. NHL Blast, the league’s Roblox experience, has been updated with a 3D visualization of its All-Star Game. The NHL claims to be the first professional sports league to render an entire 3D virtual game in Roblox (more here).