🔊 Sports Tech Funding Reaches The Billions 📈

Welcome to another edition of The Hype Report where we curate & deliver the latest news, stories & insights around sports technology.

This week I’m switching up the newsletter format a little bit to cover even more stories and topics around sports tech (since there’s so much happening).

I’d love to hear any thoughts or feedback on how you feel about it and if this is something I should continue doing.

I also want to send a big shoutout and thank you to the 100+ new subscribers who joined since last week’s edition.

Let’s dive into it.

🗞️ Top News

• A report was released by investment bank Drake Star Capital which stated a “healthy fundraising climate” helped sports tech firms raise $1.6 billion in private funding during the second quarter of 2023 with mergers and acquisitions reaching $14.5 billion. Here are some of the Q2 2023 highlights:

1. Some of the top acquisitions:

   • Endeavor x WWE

   • Aristocrat x NeoGames

   • Entain x STS Holdings, Angstrom Sports, 365Scores

   • Fanatics x PointsBet, PWCC, FexPro, EPI

   • Light & Wonder x SciPlay

   • BPEA EQT & Bruin Capital x IMG Academy & Proof of the Pudding

2. Some of the top funds:

   • RedBird Capital: $2.3 billion

   • Dynasty Equity: $1 billion

   • Raine Group: $760 million

   • Isos7: $750 million

   • Fasanara: $500 million

   • Bluestone Equity: $300 million

3. Some of the most active funds:

   • “Early-Late” Stage: ACIES Investments, Verance Capital & Samsung NEXT

   • Seed Stage: Elysian Park, Courtside VC & Thirtyfive Ventures

4. Some of the biggest individual raises:

   • Alpine: $218 million

   • Viu: $200 million

   • VGW: $150 million

   • Tonal: $130 million

   • FZ Sports: $74 million

5. Sports in the public market: The sports tech public market continued its strong performance with most of the segments outperforming the S&P index. Media and Broadcasting led the segments surging over 25% followed by Wearables & Performance Enhancement which rose 19% (Read the full report here).

• Fanatics Betting and Gaming, the online and retail sports betting subsidiary of Fanatics Holdings, officially launched the Fanatics Sportsbook online this week in Maryland, Massachusetts, Ohio, and Tennessee. After six months of beta testing, the Fanatics Sportsbook app is now available to download on iOS and Android for sports fans living and visiting these states (more here).

• This week Jim Cavale, INFLCR’s founder and chief executive, announced that he is stepping down from his six-year role of building the name, image, and likeness software platform (more here).

💰 Who Got Funded?

• Golf tracking company Arccos Golf has raised $20 million in a Series C funding round that will see the company become the “Official Game Tracker” of the PGA Tour (more here).

• FC Barcelona has secured a €120 million ($132 million) investment from Libero Football Finance AG and Nipa Capital B.V for its Web3 initiative, Barça Vision (more here).

• Fantasy Life, the fantasy sports and sports betting media company founded by NBC Sports analyst Matthew Berry, has closed a $2 million friends and family round with big-name investors, including Lebron James, Maverick Carter, John Legend, Cincinnati Bengals QB Joe Burrow, Buffalo Bills QB Josh Allen, and others (more here).

• Sports tech startup Coachbetter completed their $2.9 million seed-plus round. The round is led by Brighteye Ventures and ZEN11Holding, while a pool of experienced investors around DAZN Group Executive Vice Chairman John Gleasure also invested (more here).

• AI-driven basketball analysis company SportsVisio has raised $3 million to change how basketball action is captured (more here).

🤝 Partnerships & Acquisitions

• AS Monaco announced a sponsorship deal with the sports betting platform, 6686 Sport. The deal implies that AS Monaco can broaden their fan base across the continent by employing fan-engaging technologies provided by 6686’s user-friendly technology and premium services (more here).

• Arctos Sports Partners is the frontrunner to buy a minority stake in Paris Saint-Germain and a deal could be concluded within months. Arctos holds a stake in Fenway Sports Group, which owns Liverpool, and acquired a €29.2 million portion of the Serie A club Atalanta last year (more here).

• UFC Strike has partnered with Galxe to announce UFC Strike Infinity: an interstellar leaderboard event that brings you exciting opportunities to earn points, unlock mystery boxes, and compete for exclusive rewards (more here).

• Burnley Football Club has announced Rapidz as the Club’s new blockchain partner. In a three-year deal, the payments solution company offers payment, blockchain, and digital finance experiences, and propels the crypto ecosystem to a broader audience (more here).

• DAZN has acquired women’s football-focused media platform Ata Football, which it will use to establish a “women’s sports vertical” within the group (more here).

• TGL, the tech-focused golf series founded by Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy’s TMRW Sports Venture, will roll out AI-powered operational and fan-facing technologies through a new partnership with Infinite Athlete (more here).

• LA Golf has partnered with Sportsbox AI to launch the “LA Golf Fit Yourself Experience” inside the Sportsbox 3D app, allowing golfers to record their swing and match it to the best equipment for their game based on motion science (more here).

• Crossmint, the leading provider of enterprise-focused NFT infrastructure, announced a partnership with TheRugbyDAO. This partnership creates an effortless on-ramp into Web3 for global rugby fans and promises to revolutionize NFT accessibility and fan engagement (more here).

• LumosTech and the Connecticut Sun announced a new partnership to revolutionize athletic sleep and recovery in the WNBA (more here).

• Globant, LaLiga, and Microsoft are partnering to create AI services for the sports industry. LaLiga and Microsoft have collaborated, who have teamed up in the past, with Globant to work on LaLiga Tech, which is LaLiga’s tech division that uses AI and data analytics to improve the sports industry (more here).

• The Houston Texans have introduced TicketManager, a global leader in the tickets and guest experience spaces, as their ticket management partner (more here).

⚡ Other Hype

• Australia has long been known as a proud sporting nation — now, it's making a name for itself as a sports technology hub. Startups VueMotion and NeuroFlex are using technology to improve athletic performance and safety on the playing field (more here).

• Sports Tech Startups Are Gathering In Indianapolis For Techstars Accelerator: The program runs from June through August, concluding next week with a demo day at the One-Zero Sports & Tech Summit in Indianapolis, where the startups will demonstrate their products and services in front of an audience of investors and executives (more here).

• Sports Analytics Market will be worth $8.4 billion by 2026, growing at a CAGR of 27.3% as per the report by MarketsandMarkets (more here).

• Women’s sports investment deserves the same consideration tech receives. Techcrunch has (more here).

• The Pickleball Effect: How Tech Amplifies Sports from Niche to Notorious: As technology continues to evolve and reshape how sports audiences communicate and consume media, the rise of connectivity has ushered in the soaring popularity of niche sports in the US over the last few years (more here).

• Former NFL Pro Bowler Vernon Davis is backing AI sports prediction platform Smart Picks. Smart Picks is a sports prediction platform that will utilize artificial intelligence and machine learning to predict outcomes (more here).

• Australian Open picks seven more sports tech startups for its latest incubator (more here).

• NBA’s high-tech partnership with Sportradar could change the face of in-game betting, and soon: Sportradar’s partnership extensions with Caesars and FanDuel include special access to NBA optical tracking data. That technology can track players in real-time, creating betting opportunities, etc… (more here).

• The Seattle Sounders have expanded their cap table with three new families investing in the MLS club: Adam Selipsky, CEO of Amazon Web Services; Rick Cantu, CEO and co-founder of Redapt; and Jay Stein, president of Sand Capital (more here).

• One of the most influential private equity investors in sports and entertainment is reviving a long-discussed move to go public, further escalating its already lofty ambitions (more here).

• Fantasy football meets artificial intelligence as Gridiron AI’s technology helps fans quarterback their team (more here).

Thanks for reading today.

Would love to hear your thoughts on this new format.

Malcolm

This newsletter is for informational purposes only and is not financial or business advice in any capacity.

The information shared is my thoughts & opinions and does not represent the opinions of any other person, business, entity, or sponsor.

The contents of this newsletter also should not be used in any public or private domain without the author's express permission.

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