🔊 Why UNA Sports Bought 25% Of The Curling Group

UNA Sports Group, an investment firm focused on premier professional franchises and sports platforms, is taking a stake of around 25% in The Curling Group, owner of the Grand Slam of Curling series and the Rock League property, the first fully professional curling league.

UNA will provide the group with expertise on strategy, commercial partnerships, and overall growth initiatives. The investment round also includes Relay Ventures.

The Curling Group signed five-year media rights agreements in Canada with CBC and Sportsnet, and a three-year tie-up with ESPN in the US. These deals cover both the Grand Slam of Curling and Rock League. The group also owns Rock Channel, a curling-dedicated media platform and live-streaming service, which it launched in late 2024.

Why This Matters

When you think about emerging sports, curling might not be the first thing that comes to mind.

But curling has always had an audience. The thing is, it only shows up every four years.

The Winter Olympics roll around, the sport becomes one of the most watched, and then it disappears until the next cycle.

The Curling Group is trying to shift that.

And I think they will.

The company just launched in 2024 and bought the Grand Slam of Curling, including its global media rights.

Two years later, Rock League debuted this past April, just over a month after the Milano Cortina Olympics, to help capitalize on Olympic momentum.

What’s also interesting is how the league is thinking about it long-term.

They aren’t trying to compete with the Olympics, just like Unrivaled Basketball isn't competing with the WNBA.

That’s why I think they have an edge. Both are built to complement the main stage, not replace it.

We’re talking about six mixed-gender franchises across Canada, Europe, Asia-Pacific, and the US, playing a six-week season built first for entertainment.

And apparently the experience is second to none.

Think unfiltered access: players wear microphones during competition, bringing fans closer to the action and showcasing their personalities.

Unique fan experience and entertainment: live in-arena music, theme nights, post-game parties, and fan costumes.

Not exactly how you would picture a curling match, right?

But that’s exactly the point.

The Curling Group executive team says it should look and feel deliberately different from traditional curling events.

They’re also building a highly intentional funnel, pulling casual fans in during the spring with Rock League, then carrying them into the Grand Slam of Curling season in the fall.

And The Curling Group owns most of the pieces to make that happen, including the league, the event series, the media rights, and the distribution channel.

Right now, it also owns and operates all of the franchises, but it already plans to sell franchise rights down the road.

The sport’s popularity with younger, more casual fans and its tailwinds continue to trend upward, which is why The Curling Group’s timing is so special.

UNA Sports Group clearly recognizes the unique advantage and upside here.

Now, it’s only a matter of time before the rest of the world does.

• WISE Ventures, the investment arm of the Wilf family (owners of the Minnesota Vikings), has made a minority investment in Rec, a recreational sports operations platform. Rec's platform connects people with local rec centers to rent court time, book lessons, or enroll in sports programs. More than 100 park districts and private facilities across 30 states use it. The deal follows Rec’s 2025 Series A, led by Crosslink Capital. That round also included Thirty Five Ventures, Liquid 2 Ventures, Larry Fitzgerald Jr., and USTA Ventures (more here).

• Edge Sound Research, an intelligent audio infrastructure, spatial sound software, and tactile hardware company, raised $2 million in funding. Stormbreaker Ventures led the round, bringing total funding to $9 million. The company plans to use the funds to continue deployments with live sports broadcasters, leagues, and venues, expand its proprietary multimodal sensor data, and develop new applications for physical AI, robotics, autonomous systems, and intelligent environments (more here).

• AO Ventures, the venture capital arm of Tennis Australia and the Australian Open, has invested in Jump, an AI-powered ticketing and fan experience platform for sports organizations. Founded in 2021 by Marc Lore, Jordy Leiser and Alex Rodriguez, Jump combines ticketing, fan data, marketing tools and branded mobile apps in one platform. The company raised $23 million in a Series A round in August, then increased it to $25 million. The new money will support growth and expansion of its AI capabilities (more here).

• TheLinkU, a NIL tech and compliance company, has acquired Sam Green University (SGU) and AthleteCon, two athlete-development businesses founded by Sam Green. The deal expands TheLinkU's name, image and likeness (NIL) offering into athlete education, personal branding, and content development. AthleteCon will become TheLinkU's athlete development arm, with SGU's services folded underneath. The company plans to grow AthleteCon beyond its annual conference into a year-round platform backed by its technology (more here).

• LvlUp Ventures has invested in Tosch.ai, an Andover, Massachusetts startup that collects and standardizes college sports statistics. Tosch.ai pulls team, athlete, and coaching data from about 2,000 US colleges and universities into one platform and sells subscriptions for access. It covers 13 sports, including football, basketball, soccer, baseball, and lacrosse, across the NCAA, NAIA, NJCAA, 3C2A, and NWAC. Financial details were not disclosed (more here).

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• NBA has announced partnerships with the two leading prediction markets, Kalshi and Polymarket. The NBA said the partnerships create an integrity framework that gives the league greater influence over the markets offered, shares information, and includes a memorandum of understanding with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, the federal regulator that oversees the prediction market industry. Kalshi and Polymarket will become the NBA's preferred prediction market platforms and gain access to official league data and the right to use marks and logos on their sites (more here).

• The Philadelphia 76ers have announced a multi-year deal with Kalshi, making the company their official prediction market partner. The 76ers are the first NBA team to sign a deal with Kalshi. The agreement followed Kalshi's recently announced league-wide partnership with the NBA. Kalshi will receive promotional placements through the 76ers' mobile app, ticketing platform, and other team-operated digital channels (more here).

• Unrivaled Basketball and GEICO have announced a new multiyear partnership, signing the company as the league's official auto, property and commercial insurance partner. As part of the partnership, GEICO will receive placement on the back of all eight Unrivaled club uniforms. The brand will also serve as the presenting partner of the Unrivaled Creator Crew, a season-long initiative featuring a portfolio of creators who will bring fans closer to Unrivaled through original content and storytelling (more here).

• Motor racing’s FIA governing body and Amazon Web Services (AWS) have announced a new global partnership. Through the collaboration, AWS becomes the FIA's official partner for AI, cloud computing, machine learning, and cloud infrastructure. AWS will help shape the technical regulations for the next generation of Formula 1 cars. AWS will also provide the FIA’s technical and engineering teams with AI tools to strengthen the federation’s ability to develop regulations that advance safety, performance, and sustainability across the sport (more here).

• Villanova Athletics and Future Standard, a global alternative asset manager, announced a multi-year partnership that will feature the company's brand on the jerseys of all 24 Villanova varsity sports programs. Future Standard also plans to collaborate with the Villanova School of Business on educational programming, classroom engagement, and other initiatives that connect students with leaders and perspectives from the financial services industry. Lastly, the partnership includes plans for financial literacy programming for Villanova student-athletes (more here).

• The University of Georgia and Learfield, the leading media and technology company across college athletics, have agreed to a 15-year extended partnership to maximize revenue for Georgia Athletics and grow opportunities for Bulldog student-athletes. Through the partnership, Learfield will continue to help Georgia strengthen its position as a leader in student-athlete influencer marketing campaigns, sponsorships, and brand partnerships (more here).

• WHOOP, the human performance brand, announced that basketball legend LeBron James has joined as a global ambassador, formalizing a relationship that began more than a decade ago. One of the company's earliest members and now an investor, James will partner with WHOOP “to champion sustained athletic excellence and everyday vitality.” James began wearing WHOOP in 2015. Together, James and WHOOP will launch global initiatives and multimedia campaigns designed to inspire everyday athletes and consumers to invest in their body's future (more here).

• Philadelphia Eagles running back Saquon Barkley said NFL rules forced him to sell his ownership stake in prediction-market company Polymarket. Barkley told ​Front Office Sports this week that he previously held equity in the ‌company but divested after the league made clear that players cannot invest in or promote prediction-market operators. The NFL confirmed this week that its prohibition on players investing in or promoting sportsbooks also applies to prediction markets, though the league declined to ​discuss Barkley's situation specifically (more here).

• Mexican boxer Canelo Álvarez has partnered with the leading prediction market platform Kalshi as a brand ambassador and investor in a multi-year deal worth more than $10 million in company equity. The partnership will be mainly focused on expanding the company’s Spanish-speaking user base. Canelo will wear the Kalshi logo on his boxing trunks during his next fight against Christian Mbilli (more here).

• Duets Network, a platform to help startups in sports, entertainment and the creator economy find talent, support and funding, recently announced its launch. The platform focuses on pre-seed and seed-stage startups in these sectors, reviews each startup, connects founders with resources, and helps them prepare for investor introductions. It also vets experts and service providers before they join the network (more here).

• Angela Ruggiero, four-time Olympian and co-founder of Sports Innovation Lab, has partnered with Sans Thakur, TOWER founder and health science industry executive, to co-found and launch TOWER SPORTS, a new health and human performance platform designed to bring health science from the lab to the locker room, and ultimately to everyone. The company connects frontier health science with athletes, sports organizations and healthcare providers to accelerate innovation in recovery, diagnostics, women’s health, performance and longevity (more here).

• Global sportswear brand Under Armour has launched Protect This Mind, a wellness initiative that offers free mental health resources, peer-to-peer support and training for coaches and educators to help young student-athletes better navigate sport, school and life. Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin, the newest addition to the Under Armour roster, will serve as the program's athlete ambassador. Protect This Mind was developed in collaboration with Athletes for Hope, Born This Way Foundation, MEN’S X MENTAL, and Positive Coaching Alliance (more here).