Sports Tech & Venture Intelligence. Every Week.

The Khosla family paid $9.6 billion for the Seattle Seahawks this year, a league record for a control stake. That franchise is now the NFL's 14th most valuable team. Let that sink in.

Forbes' latest ranking has the Dallas Cowboys top at $17 billion, up 31% year-on-year, with every single franchise clearing $8 billion. For context, Forbes had Real Madrid as the most valuable football club at $9.5 billion back in May. That would place them 15th on the NFL list.

Speaking of football, next week we're at World Football Summit in Madrid launching the third edition of our Football Tech & Business Report. $8.1 billion in global football tech dealflow since 2021, ten innovation trends, twenty league and federation initiatives, plus deep dives on the World Cup tech stack and women's football MCOs.

A first look in today’s edition, just for you ;)

Upcoming: Football Tech & Business Report 2026

For our latest report, we’re launching the third edition of our Football Tech & Business Report next week at World Football Summit in Madrid.

Taking a global view on the beautiful game after this year’s World Cup, here’s a first look at the investment data, innovation trends and people featured inside.

Five highlights

• $8.1B | Global football tech dealflow
  Since 2021, incl. $476M in H1 2026 alone

• 77% | Of funding to fans & content
  Up from 68% across the full period

• $5.4B | Raised in Europe
  North America next with $2.5B

• 10 | Trends in football innovation
  Plus Women's Football and World Cup 26

• 20 | Innovation initiatives
  By teams, leagues and federations

Insights: Top Trends

Tech: Technology’s impact on the game itself

• Officiating technology moves from innovation to infrastructure

• The stadium of the future

• Young players are becoming football’s most valuable investment asset

• Have players have lost control of their own likeness?

Media & Fans: Media, gaming, and the new fan ecosystem

• Rise of entertainment-driven football formats

• Creator-led distribution redefining sports media

• Growing convergence of football and gaming

Business & Data: Ownership, data, and the business of football

• Rise and strain of multi-club ownership

• Stablecoins arrive on the shirt

• Fan ownership: An ongoing experiment

Women’s Football MCOs

• MCO in women’s football: The new frontier for ownership and innovation

FIFA WC26 Recap: FIFA World Cup 2026

Technology takes centre stage, with Tech @ FIFA World Cup 26 covering:

• Officiating

• Broadcast & Production

• Fan Experience

• Venue Operations & Security

• Player Performance & Welfare

More in the Full Report

• Innovators: The People Defining Football Innovation

• Startups to Watch: Companies Worth Your Attention

• Ecosystem: The Football Innovation Ecosystem

• Data in Full: Football Tech Dealflow

Stay tuned for the 2026 update. Until then,…

Trajektory Wins at the WFS Awards

Congratulations to Trajektory, winner of this year’s Most Innovative Supplier Award, presented by SportsTechX, at the WFS Awards.

The awards ceremony will take place on 15 September, during WFS Madrid 2026.

Look out for the full report next week as we bring the findings to Madrid.

Top News From The World Of Sports Tech & Biz

🏀 Genius Sports partnered with NBA All-Star Chris Paul, Ohh Dip!!! Entertainment and Words + Pictures to launch a sports media company producing athlete-led programming using sports data and technology.

🏎️ MotoGP Group selected Accenture to power a new direct-to-fan streaming platform for the 2027 season that was expected to bring MotoGP, Moto2, Moto3 and WorldSBK under one system and deliver richer, more personalized fan experiences.

⚙️ Apple announced new health and fitness features for Apple Watch Series 12, Apple Watch Ultra 4 and iPhone, including more accurate heart-rate sensing, a readiness score and a redesigned Health app with Apple Intelligence-powered health and longevity insights.

🏀 LeBron James partnered with Polymarket as the latest major athlete to enter the prediction market sector, following similar deals involving Giannis Antetokounmpo, Bryson DeChambeau and Lionel Messi.

⚽ UEFA and workwear brand STRAUSS announced a three-year partnership to support referee development across European football, which made STRAUSS UEFA’s first official refereeing partner and placed its branding on referee kits, VAR monitors and UEFA’s Video Operations Room.

🎾 Wimbledon ruled out dedicated influencer accreditation for 2027 after the US Open doubled creator credentials to around 100 and faced match disruptions involving filming, noise and ring lights.

🏈 Forbes valued the Dallas Cowboys at an NFL-record $17 billion, up 31% from last year, while all 32 teams reached at least $8 billion, the league’s combined value passed $300 billion and the average franchise value rose 34% to $9.5 billion.

🏏 Cricket Australia approved private investment in the Big Bash League and launched the sale of the Melbourne Renegades for new ownership from the 2027-28 season, saying the move would strengthen Australian cricket’s long-term future.

⚽ European Leagues expanded its European Commission complaint against FIFA to include the women’s international match calendar, alleging FIFA’s dual role as governing body and competition organiser created a conflict of interest that harmed domestic leagues.

⚽ Fossil Free Football called on UEFA to ban advertising by polluting companies from its competitions, arguing that fossil fuel sponsorships conflicted with the governing body’s climate commitments.

⛳ LIV Golf filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in New Jersey, sought to cancel existing player contracts, disclosed a $495 million secured loan from Saudi Arabia’s PIF and targeted a January 2027 return under a new LIV 2.0 structure.

💰 Playfly Sports, a sports revenue maximization company, secured a $250 million senior credit facility from Bain Capital’s Private Credit Group to support its continued growth.

💰 Shoot 360, a technology-powered basketball training platform, raised $7 million in growth funding led by COPA Innovation Laboratories and its investment subsidiary COPA Venture Capital to advance athlete development and support its expansion.

💰 Agassi Sports Entertainment raised $1.245 million through a private equity offering.

💰 PUNTR, a sports technology platform, secured $500,000 from Accretion Capital to build software that remembered each fan across every match, product, season and sport.

💰 ShowNxt received its third $10,000 grant from IDEA: Northeastern University’s Venture Accelerator, which brought its total funding from Northeastern University to $50,000.

💰 kicker ventures became a strategic investor in kitts for an undisclosed amount to support the expansion of its re-commerce marketplace for buying, selling and sharing football jerseys across Germany.

🤝 GameSquare agreed to acquire FanEngine’s sports, music and entertainment IP assets in a deal initially valued at around $15.9 million in stock, plus potential earnouts, to expand direct fan monetization across content, commerce, events and experiences.

🤝 A consortium led by L Catterton, HYROX founders Christian Toetzke and Moritz Fürste, and WndrCo acquired Infront Sports & Media’s majority stake in HYROX for an undisclosed amount, in a deal that reportedly valued the fitness racing company at around $700 million (€600 million), to support its global growth.

🤝 Lionel Messi reached a preliminary agreement to acquire a majority stake in Spanish second-division club CD Eldense for an undisclosed amount, subject to final legal and regulatory approvals.

💸 AIG agreed to acquire a stake in Salford City Lionesses for an undisclosed amount as part of its expanded Salford City partnership and was set to become the first Fortune 500 company to invest in an English women’s football team.

💸 Daniel Kretinsky increased his stake in West Ham United to 46% for an undisclosed amount, which made him the club’s largest shareholder and ended Amanda Staveley’s bid to invest.

⚽ Everton owner The Friedkin Group began seeking new investors less than two years after buying the club for around £331 million, as Premier League teams spent a record €4.1 billion during the summer transfer window.

💬 JOIN THE CONVERSATION

Sports Tech & Venture Intelligence. Every Week.

August's was the quietest month of the year so far as combined deal flow (venture + M&A) stayed under $200 million. Is everyone still on holiday? We're waiting for the post-summer energy to kick in. Full monthly breakdown below.

Meanwhile September kicks off hot as Polymarket raised $1 billion at a $21 billion valuation. A couple of weeks ago we looked at the evolution of fantasy sports from bedroom drafts to billion-dollar businesses. A similar deep dive on prediction markets coming soon.

Sports Tech Monthly Investment Roundup

After July's $1.83B M&A blockbuster, August cooled sharply. Venture funding slowed to just $14.4M across 9 deals, the quietest month of the year by a wide margin, with no $10M+ deals. The weight of the month sat in M&A, where Tabcorp's agreed $178.9M takeover of wagering-tech firm Betmakers stood as the only disclosed deal among six. Combined, total dealflow reached $193.3M.

Here's a quick summary:

• Geography: With so little venture capital in play, the funding map was thin. By deal count the USA led, followed by Japan, then Canada, France, the UK and Brazil. By capital the order flipped, with Canada out front on the back of Peripheral Labs' $8.7M seed, ahead of France and the US. On the M&A side, the USA and Australia accounted for two deals each, with the UK making up the fifth.

• Sectors: For the first time in months, 'For Fans' drew nothing on the funding side. 'For Executives' led at $9.1M (63.6%), with 'For Athletes' taking the rest at $5.2M (36.4%). The five acquisitions split across 'For Athletes' (two), 'For Executives' (two) and 'For Fans' (one).

• Top Deals: Peripheral Labs’ $8.7M seed round sent it to the top of a quiet funding table. M&A was where the money moved as Tabcorp agreed to acquire Betmakers for $178.9M, the month's only disclosed deal. Among the undisclosed transactions, VALD was the busiest acquirer, picking up both performance-testing maker GymAware and athlete-training platform Bridge Athletic. Elsewhere, DAZN acquired commercial-streaming platform Everpass; Sportz Interactive acquired AI-highlights firm Magnifi; and HitAi acquired fitness-gaming developer Quell.

See a more detailed breakdown on the Intelligence Hub.

Top News From The World Of Sports Tech & Biz

⚙️ Phobio and Kennesaw State University Athletics launched Hoot It Forward, an initiative with a $1 million fundraising goal that allowed businesses, alumni, fans, and supporters to turn used technology into funding for student-athletes.

🏈 Buffalo Bills quarterback Josh Allen launched Out of Pocket Studios, a media venture backing entertainment, commercial, and experiential projects, and became its CEO and executive producer on all projects.

🥊 Hero Esports unveiled CyberHero, a global robotic sports initiative set to debut in Riyadh on 9 September 2026 with the Middle East’s first humanoid robot kickboxing event featuring ten EngineAI T800 robots.

🤝 Securitize and Socios partnered to develop regulated Socios Equity Tokens designed to give eligible fans and investors minority stakes in professional sports teams, with Socios managing team and fan relationships and Securitize handling issuance and investor administration.

🏟️ The Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta debuted a miniature version of its Halo Board inside the control room during Atlanta Falcons and Atlanta United games to improve quality control, speed up show preparation, and support more detailed event production.

🏟️ SoFi Stadium, YouTube Theater, and Hollywood Park completed a broadcast infrastructure upgrade with Ross Video and Diversified that added new control rooms, spatial audio, lighting controls, and fiber infrastructure across the nearly 300-acre complex.

⚽ UC3 and Fanatics Collectibles extended their trading card, sticker, and trading card game partnership across all UEFA club competitions from 2027 to 2033, including new Debut Patch cards with game-worn patches from players’ first Champions League appearances.

📺 Yahoo Sports and Apple TV partnered to stream alternate broadcasts of Friday Night Baseball and MLS games across Yahoo Sports, featuring Yahoo experts and unique camera angles provided by Apple TV.

⚖️ New Jersey Attorney General Jennifer Davenport petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court to decide whether prediction markets could offer sports wagers without following state sports-gambling laws, amid related litigation across at least 20 states.

🏎️ 2025 F1 World Champion Lando Norris co-founded LN4 Fusion, a junior single-seater team that planned to compete in Italian F4, FRECA, and Formula 3, and launched a driver development initiative.

🏀 FIBA and MotoGP announced a 3x3 basketball showcase in Rimini on September 9 featuring MotoGP riders Marco Bezzecchi, Francesco Bagnaia, and Franco Morbidelli alongside 3x3 players, creators, and fans ahead of the San Marino Grand Prix.

🏀 The NBA fined the LA Clippers $30 million, stripped five first-round draft picks, suspended owner Steve Ballmer for one year, and ordered Kawhi Leonard to pay $700,000 after finding salary-cap circumvention violations involving off-court income arrangements.

💰 Polymarket, a prediction market, reportedly raised $1B in their latest round at a reported $21B valuation, lead by $300 million from Donald Trump Jr.’s investment fund 1789 Capital, who previously invested $200 million in the prediction site.

💰 Three Lions Acquisition, a SPAC focused on sports, hospitality, and real estate, raised $100 million through its initial public offering.

💰 Ultrahuman, a wearable technology startup, reportedly raised $60 million (Rs 583 crore) in Series C funding led by Qualcomm Ventures, with participation from Alpha Wave and other investors.

💰 Enhance, a Dubai-based SaaS platform for multi-site gym operators, raised $18.2 million in equity and venture debt from Global Ventures and Stride Ventures to expand in the United States.

🤝 GoPro agreed to merge with optical-photonics company Starman Optical under a deal in which GoPro shareholders would receive $285 million and retain around 10% of the combined company.

🤝 HITAI, a London-based sports movement intelligence platform, acquired the technology and IP of UK fitness gaming developer Quell for an undisclosed amount to strengthen its motion-tracking platform.

🤝 Supertri acquired the Brighton & Hove Triathlon for an undisclosed amount and planned to rebrand it as Supertri Brighton in 2027, when it would become its second UK event.

🏟️ Hillsborough County approved $796 million in public funding toward a planned $2.3 billion Tampa Bay Rays stadium across from Raymond James Stadium in Tampa.

💰 Entrepreneur Equity Partners and Jean-Paul Lempereur invested in Ligue 1 club RC Lens through a combined 16.72% stake for an undisclosed amount, with the capital earmarked for the redevelopment of Stade Bollaert-Delelis.

💰 David Shuman joined the New York Islanders’ ownership group as a limited partner in a deal of an undisclosed amount, subject to NHL approval.

🤝 Los Angeles Rams owner Stan Kroenke agreed to acquire the Los Angeles Angels from Arte Moreno for an undisclosed amount, and the deal was expected to close in the first quarter of 2027 pending MLB approval.

💬 JOIN THE CONVERSATION

Sports Tech & Venture Intelligence. Every Week.

A BlackSun is rising over sports investment as the new fund secured $1 billion for its first sports and media private equity fund, with plans to grow the vehicle to $7 billion. We’ve missed these new fund announcements but also know one is never far away.

This week's feature looks at a shift that's been accelerating with gusto: creators becoming broadcast partners. We break down what they're handing over, why, and where it likely ends up.

Creators: Sport's Newest Broadcast Partner

Four years ago, FIFA gave a Brazilian streamer the rights to show 22 matches from the 2022 World Cup for free on YouTube. An experiment that became CazéTV.

Built around streamer Casimiro Miguel by Brazilian sports media company LiveMode, the channel broke YouTube viewing records during that tournament and kept going with FIFA more events and rights from FIFA.

This summer, CazéTV became the only broadcaster in Brazil with the rights to show all 104 matches of the 2026 World Cup. Globo, the country's dominant football broadcaster for decades, carried 55. It is an extreme example of how quickly the relationship between sports rights holders and creators has changed.

For most of the last ten years, that relationship ran one way. Creators made shoulder content: reactions, interviews, challenges and analysis around the sport. When they wanted footage the rights holders controlled, the answer was usually a takedown notice. The compromise was a licensed highlights package, tightly bound and safely away from anything live. That boundary has been moving ever since.

• What They Are Handing Over

Earlier this month, Men in Blazers (MIB) streamed a live football match on its YouTube channel for the first time, carrying Tottenham against Hoffenheim to around 10,000 concurrent viewers. British-American broadcaster and Founder of MIB Roger Bennett had forecast 3,000. The audience is small. The detail underneath it is not.

"Tottenham came to us," Bennett said. "The Premier League teams want to own and speak to this fanbase in new and quite thoughtful ways." It started with matches nobody else was bidding for. The Bundesliga handed 20 live Friday night games each to Gary Neville's The Overlap and Mark Goldbridge's That's Football in the UK, sold alongside Sky, Amazon and the BBC.

Then the broadcast itself. The NBA commissioned an alternate telecast in April with Enjoy Basketball, the brand co-founded by YouTuber Kenny Beecham, running a Pistons game on the NBA App and League Pass.

Then the feed. In March the Bundesliga hired an agency, Creator Sports Network, to go and find creators to stream its matches in Canada. Three were selected, and their first simultaneous broadcasts on YouTube and Twitch covered Leipzig against Dortmund.

Then the contract. The NRL's new seven-year deal with Foxtel, Nine and Sky NZ is worth A$5.3 billion from 2028, and chief executive Andrew Abdo pointed to "the way in which modernisation has occurred in terms of content creators and clubs being able to access footage."

• Why They Are Bothering

Robin Austermann, who runs Bundesliga Americas, put it plainly. "It's imperative we look beyond conventional linear or even OTT platforms as exclusive broadcast partners." The league's Canadian fanbase is up 83% since 2018/19.

For broadcasters the logic is sharper still. DAZN is letting KSI stream matches for Dagenham & Redbridge, the club he co-owns, and has struck a similar arrangement in Portugal. Give away one free match a week on a creator's channel, and anyone who wants a second has to subscribe. Creators are not necessarily replacing a broadcaster. They can be an acquisition channel for one.

• The Money Question

Ampere Analysis looked at European creator rights deals and found "little to no money changing hands."

The Bundesliga made an estimated £8 to £10 million from its UK broadcast deals with Sky, Amazon and the BBC over the same period it gave those 40 matches away for close to nothing. Set that against the Premier League's UK domestic rights, which run to £6.7 billion across four seasons.

The audiences are modest too, and contested. Ampere found The Overlap averaging around 14,000 viewers across its Bundesliga streams, and when YouTube carried the NFL's Brazil game, executives at Fox and ESPN questioned whether Nielsen's count meant anything without accredited methodology.

For most rights holders, then, this still looks like the Spurs friendly. Marginal inventory, modest numbers, no fee worth reporting. But CazéTV shows what can happen when the experiment works.

• From Creator to Broadcaster

The 2022 World Cup was the beginning, not the exception.

CazéTV went on to carry the Women's World Cup, Club World Cup and other FIFA competitions. In May it took LaLiga rights in Brazil through 2032. In July it bought exclusive WTA Tour rights from ESPN. This month it began weekly Premier League and Champions League coverage in Brazil and Portugal.

Four years after being given 22 World Cup matches as a digital experiment, the creator-led channel had built a portfolio of premium sports rights and become the only broadcaster showing every match of the world's biggest sporting event in Brazil. Few creators will make that journey. But rights are only part of what is changing.

• The Creator Gets A Credential

In May 2025, Infantino (in)famously showed up on an iShowSpeed stream from his Los Angeles base, where they did backflips, and Infantino unveiled the official FIFA Club World Cup trophy and handed over a match ball.

This summer, FIFA launched its first global creator program around the World Cup and struck Preferred Platform agreements with TikTok and YouTube. Selected creators covered the tournament with premium Insider Access courtesy the powers at FIFA.

TikTok's 30 Creator Correspondents were given access to training sessions, press conferences, team bus arrivals, warm-ups and matchdays. YouTube assembled a global creator cohort representing more than 350 million subscribers, with access around the tournament and FIFA's archive.

The footage itself became more accessible too. For the first time, FIFA allowed official media partners to livestream the first ten minutes of every match on their YouTube channels, with selected games available in full. Historic matches and other footage from FIFA's digital archive were opened up for creators and fans.

And the audiences followed. More than 1.7 billion unique viewers watched World Cup-related content on YouTube during the tournament, including 550 million watching on television screens. Official YouTube broadcasts of the final peaked above 27 million concurrent viewers. On TikTok, official broadcaster livestreams generated 465 million unique views.

The experiment got a lot bigger, quick. And is clearly going nowhere. Creators aren't replacing broadcasters. Most don't have the capital, infrastructure or audience to do so, and the economics of these deals remain largely unproven.

But the old division where broadcasters got the game and creators talked about it division is disappearing. Now they are an increasingly integral part of the broadcast stack.

Top News From The World Of Sports Tech & Biz

• 🎾 The US Open approved credentials for close to 100 content creators, almost doubling its creator access as the USTA expanded its social media and cultural reach around the tournament.

• 📺 Men in Blazers’ Tottenham-Hoffenheim broadcast tripled its own viewer projection after 10,000 people watched the preseason match on its YouTube channel, with CEO Roger Bennett eyeing more live games.

• ⚙️ SportsTech Japan outlined its mission to bring innovation to sport through technology and create new value for athletes and fans worldwide, while emphasizing high performance, strong individual discretion and a professional sports team-like work culture.

• 🏏 Dream11 completed its pivot from fantasy sports to a global sports engagement platform, dropping all real-money contests after India’s 2025 Online Gaming Act and shifting toward content, live streaming, stats, commentary, community features, experiences and social contests.

• 🏈 DAZN added NCAA college sports to its platform, explaining subscription pricing and features for football and basketball coverage.

• 🏀 Abu Dhabi secured the first Euroleague Basketball SuperCup, a new competition opening the European club basketball season at Etihad Arena on Yas Island on 18 and 19 September.

• 🏐 LOVB Los Angeles announced Intuit Dome as its inaugural home venue and unveiled brand launch, Select-a-Seat and Fan Fest events ahead of its 2026-27 professional women’s volleyball debut season.

• 🏀 FIBA agreed an exclusive immersive live rights deal with L1VE for the FIBA 3×3 World Tour, Women’s Series and World Cup, adding a ticketed social presence platform that let fans experience live events through immersive headsets.

• 🏈 The Big 12 banned professionals from returning in all sports after the conference unanimously approved the rule change.

• ⛳ LIV Golf informed many employees that their roles would end in early September as it scaled back operations following the end of PIF funding and worked toward a reimagined LIV 2.0 with a new lead investor.

• ⚽ UEFA prepared a potential Swiss criminal complaint against FIFA president Gianni Infantino and possibly other FIFA officials over alleged criminal mismanagement linked to the proposed World Cup sell-off plan.

• 📺 Main Street Sports sued Comcast and Charter over underpaid licensing fees as the company continued winding down its regional sports networks portfolio.

• 💸 BlackSun secured $1 billion for its first sports and media private equity fund, with plans to grow the vehicle to $7 billion.

• 💸 Reach Capital closed $265 million Fund V to back early-stage founders applying AI to major challenges across learning, health, and work.

• 💰 Unrivaled surpassed its $100 million Series C fundraising target in a round led by Ten Pillars Sports Fund, backed by UC Investments, at a new league valuation of $650 million.

• 💰 Swish Basket raised $3.2 million in pre-seed funding led by Aristagora VC to scale its AI-powered basketball tracking platform globally.

• 💰 Paralo raised $360k (£270,000) in pre-seed funding to develop a new operating system for golf clubs and streamline the sport’s fragmented technology stack.

• 💰 Ginastee raised $120k in pre-seed funding led by Koinz Capital to grow its social wellness platform for fitness creators and influencers.

• 🤝 DAZN agreed to acquire EverPass Media for an undisclosed amount, combining DAZN’s global sports reach with EverPass’ U.S. commercial distribution platform and technology.

• 🤝 SI acquired Magnifi for an undisclosed amount, adding AI-powered video capabilities to its FanOS platform while accelerating its product roadmap and global sports market expansion.

• 💸 Robert Wood Johnson acquired a strategic minority stake in Aston Martin Aramco for an undisclosed amount and was set to join the company’s Board of Directors as Vice Chairman.

• 💸 Arctos Partners agreed to buy a minority stake in the Atlanta Falcons at a reported $10.6 billion valuation.

• 💸 Tim Finchem and his wife donated $13 million to help launch a new PGA Tour charity strategy ten years after he retired as commissioner.

• 🤝 American businessman Marc Stad purchased a controlling interest in the NBA’s Minnesota Timberwolves and WNBA’s Minnesota Lynx for an undisclosed amount.

• 🤝 Former Bayern Munich players Thomas Mueller, Mats Hummels and two other former Bayern players completed the acquisition of a majority stake in Portuguese club Estrela da Amadora for an undisclosed amount as part of an investment group.

• 🤝 NFL owners approved the sale of the Seattle Seahawks from the Estate of Paul G. Allen to the Khosla family in a unanimous vote in Atlanta, moving the transaction closer to completion.

• 💸 DraftKings closed a $700 million term loan and $750 million credit facility.

Sports Tech & Venture Intelligence. Every Week.

We flagged the Bezos-Liverpool interest in #190. Last Friday, FSG made it official: a minority stake in Liverpool was sold at a ~$7.1 billion valuation to a consortium led by Amit Bhatia (son-in-law of UK-based Indian billionaire Lakshmi Mittal) who will become vice-chairman, and backed by Jeff Bezos and others.

Initially reported at around 30%, it later emerged the consortium actually acquired roughly 38%. More significantly, the BBC reported that the deal includes a unilateral option for the consortium to buy a controlling stake within the next 12 months. Clearly this deal is primed for more action.

Speaking of the Premier League, it’s back today and so is Fantasy Premier League. In this week's feature, we look at how a game that started with 76k players in 2002 grew to 13M players last year and spawned an entire economy along the way.

Fantasy Football: The Original Sports Tech Product

The Premier League is back today. Another nine months of one of the most compelling leagues in world sport.

It also means the return of Fantasy Premier League, the English Premier League's official fantasy game.

Launched in 2002/03, FPL reportedly attracted 76,200 players in its first season. Last season, it crossed 13 million for the first time, with that number expected to grow further this year. That's roughly 170x growth, or a CAGR of around 24% over 24 years.

Each player making decisions about transfers, captaincy, fixtures and whether that new forward the promoted team signed is going to take penalties or not.

In many ways, fantasy might be the original consumer sports tech product.

60 Years of Reinvention

Modern fantasy sports traces its roots back more than 60 years, from early American football drafts in the 1960s through Rotisserie Baseball in the 1980s and internet-based games in the 1990s.

Technology progressively removed the friction, what once required friends manually drafting teams and calculating scores from newspaper statistics could suddenly be done automatically and at enormous scale.

And the product continues to evolve. Apart from new formats such as FPL Draft, this season the Premier League and Microsoft have launched an AI-powered FPL Companion using official league data to help managers with analysis and decisions.

The Ecosystem Around the Game

The growth of fantasy has created an entire economy around playing it.

There are now thousands of creators analysing the game across YouTube, podcasts, newsletters and social media. Many monetise those audiences through advertising, sponsorships, premium subscriptions on YouTube & Patreon, and paid communities on Discord.

Others have gone further and built products specifically for fantasy players: statistical models, transfer planners, price predictors, AI recommendations and dedicated apps. We've personally used several paid and free tools, all for the best chance of winning bragging rights amongst friends, and some cash to go with it. Yes, we’re in a few different prize pools with payouts through the season. Fantasy Football Hub, LazyFPL, LiveFPL & PlanFPL are our favourites.

The game created an audience. The audience birthed creators. And the creators built businesses that engage people even further in the game. A powerful flywheel.

Mega Deal Flow

Beyond the FPL community, the bigger evolution has been fantasy sector constantly reinventing itself through new formats, creating some enormous businesses along the way.

• DraftKings, founded in 2012 as a daily fantasy company, now has a market cap of around $13 billion.

• FanDuel, launched in 2009, was valued at approximately $31 billion when Flutter took full ownership last year.

• Sorare raised a $680 million Series B at a $4.3 billion valuation just three years after launching in 2018.

• More recently, Allwyn acquired 62.3% of PrizePicks (founded 2015) for $1.6 billion, implying a $2.5 billion enterprise value.

• Last month, IG Group agreed to acquire Underdog (founded 2020) for up to $1.3 billion, explicitly describing the opportunity around the convergence of trading, entertainment, prediction markets and fantasy.

This is before listing out a host of earlier stage venture investments. Serious capital continues to flow into the sector.

Gaming as an engagement layer

There is obviously an important distinction between free-to-play fantasy, real-money fantasy, prediction games and regulated sports betting.

But from an engagement perspective, they share one incredibly powerful characteristic: They give fans a reason to care about more moments, more players and more games.

That's why gaming in its various forms has become such an important layer around live sport. And why fantasy continues to reinvent itself more than 60 years after someone first had the slightly ridiculous idea of assembling an imaginary team of real athletes.

This weekend we'll be watching the Premier League as usual. With a close eye on newly promoted Coventry City.

Not because we've suddenly developed a deep appreciation for them. It's because they play fellow newcomers Hull City next week, and its very important to know which players to target for that fixture.

Our fantasy teams have given us a reason to care.

World Football Summit

🏆 THE FINALISTS FOR THE 2026 WFS AWARDS ARE HERE

We're proud to reveal the finalists for the 2026 WFS Awards, celebrating the professionals and organisations elevating the game, expanding the business, and deepening football's impact on society.

💡 Most Innovative Supplier by SportsTechX

• Biolyz

• Together with Empa (Swijin)

• Trajektory

Winners will be revealed on 3 September, with awards handed out on 15 September at Teatro Eslava in Madrid.

Top News From The World Of Sports Tech & Biz

⚙️ Burnley FC Innovation Hub opened applications for its second year, inviting next-generation sports technology companies to join the club’s innovation programme.

🏈 Travis Kelce, 3 Arts Sports and Publicis Sports launched Tekta, a new NIL activation designed to connect college athletes with brand opportunities.

⚙️ The Premier League agreed to fund live facial recognition technology for London’s Metropolitan Police on matchdays, after the system had been deployed at six previous Premier League matches including both north London derbies last season.

🏒 The NHL and FC Bayern Munich announced a fan engagement partnership to grow hockey in Germany as part of the league’s long-term international growth strategy. The NHL also confirmed 2027 Global Series games in Cologne and Munich.

⚽ Dagenham & Redbridge teamed up with DAZN and KSI for a season-long broadcast partnership that gave the YouTube star selected 2026-27 fixtures to livestream on his channel. KSI acquired a 20% minority stake in the team in March 2026.

⚽ Sky Sports dropped live coverage of Baller League, the celebrity six-a-side football competition, ahead of next season.

⛳ LeBron James launched a YouTube golf channel, with its first post running more than 90 minutes and featuring a reunion with members of the 2016 Cleveland Cavaliers.

🏀 NBA ad sales reached $2.1 billion in the first season of the league’s new media rights deals, as the New York Knicks capped the 2025-26 campaign with their first title in 53 years.

⛳ LIV Golf cancelled its Team Championships in Michigan and ended its season early after weeks of speculation, saying it needed to focus on building its next chapter.

🎮 The Esports Foundation postponed the inaugural Esports Nations Cup to November 2027.

⚖️ IG Group’s $1.3 billion Underdog Sports deal faced a court challenge after Aristotle Exchange Holding Co. alleged Underdog Sports executives duped it into a complex merger before engineering a separate sale of the combined prediction markets firm that would send hundreds of millions to insiders.

💰 CardVault by Tom Brady, a retailer dedicated to sports cards, trading cards, and authenticated memorabilia, announced its first strategic investor group, bringing together influential names such as RedBird Capital Founder Gerry Cardinale; Shawn "JAY-Z” Carter, UFC President and CEO Dana White and other leaders across sports, business, media, technology and entertainment to support the company's next phase of national growth.

💰 Peripheral, a Toronto-based AI research lab bringing spatial intelligence to live sports media, raised $8.7 million in seed funding co-led by Inovia Capital and Deloitte Ventures, with follow-on participation from Khosla Ventures and Entrepreneurs First, bringing total funding to $12.5 million.

💰 Swish Basket, a basketball data tracking startup using video and LiDAR-enabled sensors to track ball movement, player biomechanics and shot stats, raised $3.2 million in pre-seed funding led by Aristagora VC, with participation from Peter Kadas, Nika Capital and RGE Group.

💰 Crosscourt, a tech-enabled premium basketball fitness club backed by NBA All-Star Scottie Barnes and leaders behind Equinox, Barry’s, PrizePicks and Dollar Shave Club, raised $2 million in seed funding, bringing total capital raised to $4 million.

🤝 VALD acquired BridgeAthletic and GymAware for an undisclosed amount, combining athlete assessment, velocity-based training and strength-and-conditioning software into a connected performance technology platform as the combined group was valued at more than $1 billion.

💸 BrknPar Venture Fund added former MLB players Jon Jay and Tyson Ross as Athlete Venture Partners to bring athlete operator experience into the venture fund’s sports investment platform.

💸 Dynasty Financial Partners took a stake in Tom Brady’s NoBull for an undisclosed amount, adding exposure to the NFL legend’s athletic brand as Dynasty crossed $200 million in private markets funds over nine months.

💸 Fenway Sports Group announced a strategic minority investment in Liverpool FC from 1892 Holdings, an investor consortium featuring Jeff Bezos and Eduardo Saverin, as the club added new capital while remaining under FSG ownership. Estimated to be between 30% and 40%, the deal is believed to value the club at ~$7.1 Billion.

💸 Swedish buyout firm EQT acquired a majority stake in Melbourne Storm in a deal valuing the NRL club at about $200 million, marking the league’s first major international private equity investment.

💸 Arctos added a minority stake in the Atlanta Falcons for an undisclosed amount, making the NFL franchise the fourth team in its portfolio after the Chargers, Bills, and Browns.

💸 Gerard Piqué became a strategic shareholder in Global Chess League franchise FYERS American Gambits for an undisclosed amount, strengthening the team’s global ambitions as chess evolved into a more commercially scalable sport.

🤝 José E. Feliciano and Kwanza Jones received MLB owner approval to buy the San Diego Padres for $3.9 billion, setting a new league sale record above Steve Cohen’s $2.42 billion purchase of the New York Mets.

🤝 Leicester City owner King Power put the club up for sale for more than $270 million (£200 million), ending a 16-year ownership period that included the club’s Premier League title.

💬 JOIN THE CONVERSATION

Sports Tech & Venture Intelligence. Every Week.

A Saudi-led consortium including PIF, Silver Lake and Affinity Partners completed the $55 billion acquisition of Electronic Arts, the biggest sports-adjacent tech deal of the year by a distance. Elsewhere, Fanatics acquired its own CFTC-registered exchange and clearinghouse, building the infrastructure for its own prediction market. This space is moving fast - IG Group's $1.3B acquisition of Underdog Fantasy earlier this month laid down a major marker.

July's round-up showed up with $2 billion in deal flow with $253 million in funding across 17 deals, and $1.83 billion in M&A across 7 acquisitions. Full monthly breakdown below.

Sports Tech Monthly Investment Roundup

Funding held steady across July at $252.9M across 17 deals, but the real action was in M&A, where $1.83B changed hands across 7 acquisitions. The headline was IG Group's $1.3B move for fantasy and prediction platform Underdog Fantasy, the biggest sports tech acquisition of the year so far. Put both sides together and total deal flow for the month cleared $2.08B.

Here's a quick summary:

• Geography: By capital, funding was led by the USA at roughly $147M, with the UK second near $83M, and the rest spread across Spain, France, Australia and India. Deal count told the same story up top, USA then the UK, ahead of a long tail. On the M&A side, the USA drove six of the seven deals, with the Netherlands accounting for the other.

• Sectors: For a change, 'For Executives' led funding at $104.0M (41.1%), almost entirely on the back of Twelve Labs' $100M round. 'For Athletes' followed at $87.1M (34.4%) and 'For Fans' at $61.8M (24.4%). The acquisitions leaned heavily on golf and betting by value, the two disclosed deals being a golf-simulator maker and a fantasy platform.

• Top Deals: Twelve Labs raised $100M in a Series B to top the funding table. M&A was where the money moved: IG Group acquired Underdog Fantasy for $1.3B, and Versant Media bought golf-simulator maker Full Swing Golf for $530M. The other five were undisclosed: Graham Sports & Entertainment Partners acquired MyGolfSpy; Hudl acquired TeamUp; LeagueApps acquired the National Center for Safety Initiatives; HAVAS acquired SportVibes; and ABC Fitness acquired Replify.

Funding Rounds July 2026

Detailed breakdown available on the Intelligence Hub.

Top News From The World Of Sports Tech & Biz

⚙️ Former Intel president launched Rule 42, a sports recruiting platform designed to help coaches at colleges of all sizes find promising baseball and softball players. 

💸 Aldi launched a UK-wide Aldi Sports Fund programme, giving grassroots sports clubs the chance to apply for grants of up to £3,000 to cover equipment, kit, coaching, and facility hire.

💸 SPORTSDAQ partnered with GSIC to connect India’s growing sports marketplaces to a global sports tech and investment network ahead of SPORTSDAQ 2026 in Ahmedabad.

📺 Disney considered launching free streaming channels as CEO Josh D’Amaro doubled down on the company’s streaming business.

🏈 IFAF and Nike announced a multi-year global partnership to expand flag football worldwide ahead of the sport’s Olympic debut at LA28, beginning at the IFAF Flag Football World Championships in Düsseldorf.

⛳ Game Your Game debuted on the Nasdaq Capital Market under the ticker GYGY through a direct listing, bringing its AI-powered golf technology company to public markets.

⚽ Gotham FC, Flamingo, and the Women’s Sports Foundation announced Built to Move, a new study exploring the relationship between physical activity and greater body appreciation.

💰 Hilo, the health technology brand developed by Aktiia, raised $19 million in a Series B extension round, including new investment from Dell Family Office and continued support from existing backers, bringing total funding to more than $119 million as it launched its Hilo Core blood pressure monitoring system in the United States.

💰 USTA Ventures invested in Rec Technologies for an undisclosed amount to modernize how Americans discover and access tennis opportunities across public and private courts, facilities, coaches, and community programs through one connected recreation network.

💰 Collinson Group committed a further $1.9 million (£1.5 million) through Collinson Investments to support 10XU Group’s consolidation programme, deepening its travel and wellness partnership as 10XU expanded its FitTech ecosystem across WithU, Mvmnt, URUNN, and TrvlWell.

💰 Providence Equity Partners made an undisclosed strategic investment in THE•TEAM, the New York-based global sports, music, and entertainment marketing and talent representation agency, to support the company’s next phase of growth.

💰 Renaissance Technologies increased its stake in Genius Sports by 277% in Q1, adding 1.61 million shares to own 2.2 million shares worth approximately $9.7 million.

🤝 A Saudi-led consortium including Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, Silver Lake, and Affinity Partners completed the $55 billion acquisition of Electronic Arts, taking the maker of EA FC, The Sims, Madden NFL, and Battlefield private while loading the company with debt.

🤝 Fanatics agreed to acquire Water Street Labs and CX Clearinghouse from BGC Group for an undisclosed amount, giving Fanatics Markets its own CFTC-registered exchange and clearinghouse to build federally regulated prediction market infrastructure.

🤝 Versant completed its acquisition of sports technology company Full Swing from Bruin Capital and minority investors for approximately $530 million in cash, adding golf and baseball simulator hardware, integrated software, and performance data capabilities to its golf portfolio.

🤝 A consortium led by Amanda Staveley and PCP Capital Partners agreed to buy the Gold family’s stake in West Ham United for an undisclosed amount, with the transaction involving the shares inherited by Vanessa Gold from her late father David Gold.

💸 Longtime Oregon State supporters Wayne and Marta von Borstel completed a $3 million commitment to Oregon State women’s basketball, including a $1 million capstone gift to establish the von Borstel Women’s Basketball Endowment Fund for student-athlete development, competitive enhancements, program operations, benefits, and team priorities.

💬 JOIN THE CONVERSATION

Sports Tech & Venture Intelligence. Every Week.

This fantasy came true as IG Group agreed to acquire Underdog Fantasy for $2.15 billion, one of the biggest sports tech acquisitions ever. Meanwhile, FIFA's own fantasy deal got us thinking about the biggest (reported) investments in teams, leagues and sports organisations across 2026. There have been plenty, list below.

FIFA’s $20B Play and the New Sports Ownership Map

FIFA outlined one of the biggest capital moves ever proposed by a sports governing body this week. Its new FIFA Forward Enterprise would raise up to $4.2B at a $20B initial equity valuation, consolidating broadcast, sponsorship, ticketing, licensing and tournament operations into a single investable vehicle. Private investors would receive minority, non-controlling interests, while FIFA retained sole control. The structure required majority support from FIFA's 211 member associations.

That support hasn't materialised. In the last 24 hours UEFA and CONCACAF have already rejected the proposal. Whatever the merits of the proposal, good luck selling global football without Europe and North America in the room. But the ambition behind it is worth examining.

In 2026 alone, we've seen record franchise sales, institutional minority investments, private credit financings, owner recapitalisations and expansion bids reshape the business of sport. FIFA's proposal would take that evolution one step further, applying it to the commercial engine of global football itself.

We used this as an opportunity to map some of the largest reported-value investments in teams, leagues and sports organisations from that period. Given the sheer volume and value of transactions in the US market, we've split the list into US and Global (non-US).

United States

• Xiaomi co-founder Lin Bin bought 1% of the Miami Dolphins at a $12.5B implied valuation. The stake also covers Hard Rock Stadium, the Formula 1 Miami Grand Prix and the Miami Open, making this an investment in a wider sports enterprise.

• Ari Emanuel and Mark Shapiro acquired a combined 2% of the Las Vegas Raiders at a $9.9B implied valuation. The transaction deepens the franchise’s links with TKO, UFC and Silver Lake, while Mark Davis remains the controlling owner.

• The Seattle Seahawks agreed to a reported $9.612B sale to the Khosla family, which would set a new NFL transaction record. The deal requires league approval, while Vinod Khosla must divest his 3.1% stake in the San Francisco 49ers.

• The San Diego Padres agreed to a $3.9B control sale to a group led by Kwanza Jones and José E. Feliciano. The reported MLB-record transaction follows an ownership dispute after Peter Seidler’s death and remains subject to league approval.

• The New York Yankees entered advanced discussions with Apollo for nearly $3B in financing. The proposed package would comprise mostly debt with some equity, refinancing existing obligations and funding growth while the Steinbrenner family retains control.

• Blue Owl HomeCourt Partners acquired a Cleveland Cavaliers minority stake at a $5.5B valuation. Dan Gilbert retained majority ownership, while the deal became HomeCourt’s sixth investment in an NBA franchise.

• The Miami Marlins sold 15% to two South Florida families at a $1.55B valuation. Bruce Sherman remains the control owner, with the proceeds expected to reduce debt and strengthen the club’s available capital.

• Nationwide acquired 37% of the Columbus Crew at a $900M implied valuation. The insurer bought 30% from the Haslam family and 7% from the Edwards family, with the Haslams retaining control at 40%.

Global

• Rogers Communications agreed to pay C$4.35B, approximately $3.06B, for the remaining 25% of Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment. The deal would give Rogers full ownership of the Maple Leafs, Raptors, Toronto FC, Argonauts and Scotiabank Arena, subject to league approvals.

• Fenway Sports Group entered talks to sell 30% of Liverpool FC for £1.35B, approximately $1.821B, to an Amit Bhatia-led consortium. The proposal implies a $6B valuation, with FSG retaining control.

• An Aditya Birla-led consortium signed a $1.78B all-cash agreement to acquire 100% of Royal Challengers Bengaluru. The transaction covers both the IPL and WPL teams and has received CCI clearance, with BCCI approval still required.

• A Mittal family and Adar Poonawalla consortium agreed to acquire Rajasthan Royals for $1.65B. The valuation includes the IPL team, Paarl Royals and Barbados Royals, with completion expected after regulatory and league approvals.

• The proposed NBA Europe competition attracted bids ranging from $500M to $1B+ per permanent club slot. The NBA and FIBA are developing a structure with up to 12 permanent teams and four qualifying places, targeted for launch from 2027.

• Michele Kang acquired 87.78% of Olympique Lyonnais’ listed parent for $30M. The headline price formed part of a wider rescue package involving up to €71M in new capital and a significant debt restructuring.

Remember, this is just six to seven months of activity.

Even then, we've only captured a fraction of the transactions that took place. The direction of travel is clear: more capital, more institutional investors and increasingly sophisticated deal structures. FIFA's proposal wasn't an outlier, it was the logical extension of a trend already reshaping the sports industry.

Top News From The World Of Sports Tech & Biz

• ⛳ Topgolf announced its first World Series of Golf qualifying tournament across 30 venues in 11 U.S. states, with venue winners advancing to a national championship in Scottsdale for a chance to compete for a $250,000 prize.

• ⚾ The New York Mets partnered with Novig as their official prediction-market partner, becoming the first MLB team to sign a deal with a prediction market platform.

• 💸 Netflix reportedly paid $200 million for U.S. and Canada broadcast rights to the 2027 FIFA Women’s World Cup, strengthening its live sports portfolio around women’s football.

• 🎾 CazéTV acquired exclusive Brazilian broadcast rights to the full WTA Tour from 2027 through 2030, covering all WTA 250, WTA 500, and WTA 1000 tournaments.

• 🏈 Prime Video planned to bring Thursday Night Football production in-house after the 2026 NFL season, ending its NBC Sports production partnership after five years.

• 🏀 The WNBA All-Star Game averaged 3.16 million viewers on ABC, marking the fifth-largest audience of any kind in league history and increasing 44% from last year’s All-Star Game.

• 💸 FIFA proposed expanding football development funding to more than $10 billion, subject to approval by FIFA Member Associations, through FIFA Forward Enterprise, a new FIFA-owned commercial and event operations subsidiary that could raise up to $4.2 billion based on a $20 billion initial equity valuation. UEFA and CONCACAF have already rejected the proposal.

• ⚽ UEFA member associations voted to boycott FIFA tournaments amid opposition to FIFA’s proposed $20 billion commercial entity and possible private equity involvement in the World Cup.

• 💸 Premier League clubs unanimously approved a funded proposal for a new strategic partnership with the EFL starting in 2026/27, which would now be formally offered to EFL clubs while the league maintained record $2.1 billion (£1.6 billion) wider-game funding commitments every three years.

• ⚽ Real Madrid generated a record $1.4 billion in revenue during the 2025-26 season, excluding player transfers, becoming the first sports organization to surpass $1.4 billion in annual revenue and posting a profit for the 26th consecutive year.

• 🎾 The Six Kings Slam confirmed Carlos Alcaraz, Jannik Sinner, Novak Djokovic, Taylor Fritz, Alexander Zverev, and Alex de Minaur for its 2026 Saudi Arabia event from 21 to 24 October, with the six players competing for a $6 million prize pool.

• 🤝 Most Valuable Promotions and Professional Fighters League merged to create a new global combat sports company under the MVP banner, bringing together boxing, MMA, live events, athlete development, media, and worldwide content distribution under a fighter-first organization led by Jake Paul, Nakisa Bidarian, and CEO John Martin.

• 🏎️ Formula 1 and the FIA confirmed that Malaysia would host the 2026 Formula 1 Gulf Air Bahrain Grand Prix at Sepang International Circuit from 2–4 October, subject to final agreements and World Motor Sport Council approval.

• 💰 ProphetX, America’s first federally regulated sports-native prediction market, raised $35 million in a round led by Parlay Capital and Data Point Capital, with participation from more VCs..

• 💰 Onalabs, a Barcelona-based deep-tech company developing continuous non-invasive health monitoring solutions through sweat, raised $10.8 million (€9.3 million) from SETT, 1921 Ventures, nPrime, Reig Patrimonia, WA4STEAM, and other strategic investors.

• 💰 Marquee, an AI-native decision layer for professional sports organizations, raised $6.5 million in total funding from Axel Springer, Welltech Ventures, Apex Capital, AnD Ventures, 97212 Ventures, and JCP.

• 💰 Superstat, a Melbourne sports AI startup using computer vision to turn amateur match footage into structured performance data, raised $2.3 million (A$3.5 million) in pre-seed funding led by Blackbird.

• 💰 FutureSports, a Chicago-based independent index administrator transforming professional and college sports statistics into rules-based benchmark financial indexes, raised an undisclosed seed round co-led by Marquee Ventures.

• 🤝 IG Group agreed to acquire sports prediction platform Underdog in a deal worth up to $2.15 billion, giving the UK-based trading company a U.S. platform with more than 11 million registered users and over 5 million depositing customers.

• 🤝 ABC Fitness acquired Replify for an undisclosed amount, adding an agentic AI platform that automated member and prospect communications through virtual AI agents across voice, text, email, and chat to its Intelligent Operating System for gyms, studios, and health clubs.

• 💸 Nottingham Forest owner Evangelos Marinakis invested a reported $26 million (£20 million) per month to fund the club’s signing spree.

• 💸 The NFL distributed a record $14.5 billion to its teams last season, or $453.2 million per club, as the publicly owned Green Bay Packers reported $753 million in total revenue but warned that their nonprofit structure limited access to private equity capital available to rival franchises.

Sports Tech & Venture Intelligence. Every Week.

We're formally announcing something we've been building quietly: Playmakers, our private network for high-growth sports tech founders and CEOs, revealed its 24 Founding Members earlier this week.

The numbers speak for themselves: 13 nationalities, more than $250 million in venture funding raised and four founders with previous exits. In this week's lead, we introduce them and the companies they're building.

Playmakers by SportsTechX: The Founding Members

We soft-launched Playmakers in January to bring together the sharpest builders in sports tech. We wanted the first 24 members, assembled as three groups of eight, to come from our immediate network, through private recruitment. This was crucial as the Founding Member group wouldn't just join the network, they'd help build it.

Earlier this week we announced the Founding Member cohort of 24 founders and CEOs. 13 nationalities, $250 million+ in combined venture funding raised and four previous exits between them. This is a serious network for serious builders.

Every member meets a financial bar to join: $1M+ in annual revenue OR $3M+ in funding OR a previous €5M+ exit. And some do so comfortably: about 30% of the network is approaching or has surpassed $10 million in annual revenue.

Over the coming weeks, we'll share more on the founders, their companies and the problems they're solving across the sports industry. For now, meet the founders:

The founding members:

• Agustin Rozadas & Jose Gonzalez Ruzo, co-founders of OLIVER Sports: Wearable football tracker and performance platform helping players and teams monitor physical, technical and training data.

• Aldo Comi, CEO & co-founder of Soccerment: Football analytics platform providing wearables, data and predictive tools for player performance, scouting and match analysis.

• Andrew Zwiers, co-founder of Universal Speed Rating: Speed measurement and benchmarking platform helping athletes, coaches and scouts assess sprint performance.

• Avneesh Prakash, co-founder of CAMB.AI: Real-time speech translation and dubbing company helping sports leagues, broadcasters and media companies localise content across languages.

• Christian Richter, co-founder of Sporting Rock: Digital systems for league planning, match reports, live tickers, team management and sports administration.

• Christian Theil, CEO of turfcoach: Turf intelligence platform using sensors, data and agronomic science to help sports organisations monitor and manage playing surfaces.

• Christof Babinsky, CEO of ASB GlassFloor: Sports flooring tech providing LED glass floors that turn playing surfaces into programmable courts for sport, events and media.

• Dr. Christopher Jahns, founder & CEO of XU Group: Digital learning and AI-enablement tools for workforce education and process optimisation.

• David Sciama, co-founder of Coaches’ Voice: Football coach education platform offering expert-led content, courses, session-planning tools and development experiences for coaches and clubs.

• Eero Kuusi, co-founder & CEO of Zenniz: Smart tennis court technology combining electronic line calling, video, analytics and interactive tools.

• Erik Anderson, CEO of SportIQ: Smart basketball and analytics platform helping athletes, coaches and teams measure and improve shooting performance.

• Guy Aharon, CEO & co-founder of Playermaker: Football wearable using boot-mounted sensors to track technical and physical performance.

• Harrison Brown, co-founder and CEO of HEADCHECK Health: Concussion management platform helping standardise head-injury protocols, incident tracking and compliance.

• Jake George Schuster, founder & CEO of Gemini Sports AI: Analytics platform helping football clubs with recruitment, player trading, squad planning and front-office decision-making.

• Dr. Martin O’Reilly, CEO & co-founder of Output Sports: Athlete testing and performance tracking giving coaches one system for profiling, monitoring, training and programming.

• Martin Wiklund, founder & CEO of Sportswik: Live streaming and engagement tools platform helping federations, leagues and grassroots organisations create content, engage communities and develop new revenue streams.

• Sidhhant Agarwal, founder of SportVot: Production and Live streaming helping grassroots and emerging sports broadcast matches, capture data and reach fans.

• Sowbhagya Shetty, CEO of Data Sports Group: Data provider delivering real-time APIs, live scores, statistics and widgets across more than 80 sports and thousands of competitions.

• Dr. Tobias Haupt, founder & CEO of GAMECODE.Ai: Football analytics platform helping clubs customise analysis around their tactical identity and playing model.

• Tom Kuhr, COO of Fastbreak AI: Scheduling and operations platform helping leagues, event organisers and brands optimise fixtures, logistics and revenue opportunities.

• Valtteri Salomaki, CEO of EDGE Sound Research: Audio tech platform building intelligent sound infrastructure and immersive audio experiences for sports, venues and media.

• Victorien Tixier, co-founder & CEO of ScorePlay: Media asset management platform helping sports organisations organise, tag, distribute and monetise their content.

This is the starting point for Playmakers: a private network built around the people already building the future of sports technology.

Membership is intentionally selective, with each new member added based on stage, relevance and fit with the group. Full details on costs, criteria and what's included are on the website.

Top News From The World Of Sports Tech & Biz

• 📊 Underdog launched prediction markets on its own federally licensed prediction market exchange, expanding its sports gaming offering into event-based trading within the existing Underdog app.

• 📱 TikTok expanded its sports push by securing the first professional boxing event streamed exclusively on TikTok LIVE and a multi-year global partnership with the NBA and WNBA to deepen basketball engagement on the platform.

• 🏀 DICK’S Sporting Goods’ in-house content studio Cookie Jar & A Dream Studios announced Life In the W, a six-part WNBA documentary series following A’ja Wilson, Napheesa Collier, and DeWanna Bonner as branded investment in women’s sports storytelling continued to grow.

• 📺 W-Sport launched a direct-to-consumer streaming app dedicated to women’s sport, in selected territories across Europe, Asia and Africa.

• 🎾 Acemate introduced the S10 tennis robot, an autonomous training partner using binocular 4K vision, onboard AI, omnidirectional wheels, adjustable shot speed, spin and placement, and performance data tracking to recreate live rallies for solo tennis practice.

• ⛳ LIV Golf was sued by Canada-based Mobii Systems Group for more than $1 million over alleged unpaid licensing and usage fees tied to technology used in the league’s tournament streams. LIV Golf has also agreed to pay $1 million to settle a trademark infringement lawsuit with an Ohio-based golf tee manufacturer, Stinger Golf.

• 🤝 SURJ Sports Investment, Live Nation, and Oak View Group launched radia, a joint venture designed to support Saudi Arabia’s sports and events infrastructure through venue management, operations, activations, and commercialization.

• 📺 YouTube reported that FIFA World Cup 2026 became its most-viewed World Cup ever, with more than 1.7 billion unique viewers, over 550 million watching on TVs, official final broadcasts drawing over 21 million AMA across more than 40 markets, and FIFA’s official channel adding 7.5 million subscribers.

• ⚽ Arsene Wenger said FIFA would review the hydration breaks introduced at the 2026 World Cup after accepting they had not been popular during the tournament.

• 💰 Bluestone Equity Partners, the institutionally-backed global private equity firm focused on the Sports, Media & Entertainment industry, announced that it has led a $55 million growth equity investment in Poolhouse, the technology-enabled cue sports company founded by the creators of Topgolf and Puttshack.

• 💰 ENGO raised $5.9 million (€5.1 million) to expand its smart sports eyewear business, accelerate innovation in lightweight heads-up display technology, and support international growth.

• 💰 PlayVS raised $4 million in a fully sold equity round after financial strain triggered restructuring, cost cuts, leadership changes, and a return to paid school esports leagues.

• 💰 PathFinder raised a multi-million dollar angel round to launch BirdieSense, a next-generation sports AI agent.

• 🤝 Graham Sports & Entertainment Partners and Bolt Ventures acquired MyGolfSpy for an undisclosed amount to launch Pin High Golf, a new platform focused on golf media, product testing, and consumer insight.

• 🤝 Harbinger Sports Partners, the investment fund led by Mark Cuban and Rashaun Williams, bought a minority stake in the Athletics for an undisclosed amount, marking the firm’s first investment since launching in May.

• 💸 Swansea City sold a stake in its women’s team, providing significant immediate investment into the side competing in Welsh football’s top domestic tier.

• 📺 A judge paused Paramount’s $110 billion takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery, the parent company of TNT Sports, for at least 14 days after approving a temporary restraining order.

• 💸 Apollo, a minority investor in Wrexham, entered talks with the New York Yankees over a potential $2-3 billion financing deal that could create a commercial link between Wrexham and one of MLB’s most valuable franchises.

• 💸 Red Bull rejected a $3 billion Abu Dhabi-backed bid for Racing Bulls, its junior Formula 1 team, as F1 team valuations continued to hit record highs.

• 💸 Fenway Sports Group entered talks to sell a 30% stake in Liverpool to a consortium led by former Queens Park Rangers co-owner Amit Bhatia and backed by Lakshmi Mittal, with an offer of around $1.8 billion (£1.35 billion) on the table. Amazon founder Jeff Bezos also looking to join the bid.

• 💸 Leicester City owners King Power explored a sale of the club for an undisclosed amount, sounding out potential buyers a decade after the club’s Premier League title and after dropping two divisions.

• 💸 UK investment firm Boldhaven Management disclosed a 5.6% stake in Manchester United after amassing 3.1 million Class A shares, becoming the club’s second-biggest institutional holder.

• 💸 Nancy Walton Laurie and Bill Laurie explored a Las Vegas NBA expansion bid, with the Walmart-linked family worth around $18 billion seeking to secure a potential franchise.

Powering Innovation & Investment Insights in Sports. Every Week.

The UK’s Lawn Tennis Association (LTA) is the latest sports body looking to sports tech for its next advantage, partnering with Andy Murray and Alistair Brownlee backed Redrice Ventures to identify and back innovations across UK racket sports. Tennis Australia has been serving up aces in this space for a while through AO Startups and AO Ventures, including two new portfolio deals covered in this edition. Good to see more sports orgs realising the grass is greener on the innovation side.

This week's feature is Part II of our conversation with Dutch Sport Tech Fund. Part I was about where they're heading, this one is about why the model works: vertical discipline, athlete-led diligence, and distribution as the real moat in an era where software alone is no longer enough.

Why the Dutch Sport Tech Fund Bets on Data Over Emotion - And What That Looks Like in Practice

The investment model behind one of Europe's most active sports tech funds, explained.

Part II of our 2-part series with Dutch Sport Tech Fund. Part I was about where DSTF is heading, Part II is about why the model works.

Specialized sports tech funds occupy a unique position in venture capital. The asset class attracts capital precisely because sports generates passion. Passion can be a powerful source of conviction. But passion, when left unchecked by discipline, is often what kills returns. Overvalued "passion projects" that look compelling in a pitch deck but struggle in practice are a recurring feature of the landscape.

The challenge is separating genuine opportunity from emotional attachment. DSTF's answer to that problem is structural. Three pillars underpin how the fund selects, validates, and supports its portfolio companies - each built around the belief that sports technology cannot be evaluated through a traditional venture capital lens alone.

Pillar 1: Vertical Focus and MOIC Discipline

The fund invests exclusively across six defined verticals: human performance, data analytics, health and wellness (longevity), sports media and streaming, fan engagement, and fantasy sports and gaming.

The list matters less than what it signals: a deliberate refusal to chase anything that sits outside a defined scope, regardless of how compelling the narrative around it might be.

"Sports is an industry that leans heavily on sentiment," says Janssen. "Our team and our 250 investors are true sports lovers, but from day one, we had a strict agreement: we look purely at data, retention, and business fundamentals. Resisting the initial hype has, in hindsight, been our most important decision."

The other filter is growth rate. Every portfolio company must demonstrate a CAGR of 20%+. The underlying logic is that sports tech's strongest plays increasingly generate value well beyond the professional sports world: technologies developed for elite athletes finding their way into corporate wellness, entertainment, and mass consumer markets. That broader applicability is what makes the exit math work.

Pillar 2: Domain Expertise as a Competitive Advantage

Sports technology often sits at the intersection of software, hardware, performance science, health, and industry-specific regulations. Evaluating those businesses requires expertise that extends beyond traditional venture investing.

DSTF's approach incorporates perspectives from across that spectrum, including elite athletes who participate in the diligence process alongside technical, commercial, and financial specialists. The goal is to understand not only whether a company can grow, but whether it can scale across sports, geographies, and customer segments.

"Our due diligence is executed by our own teams, where technical specialists, HR experts, and accountants work alongside elite athletes," explains Chief Investor Relations Officer and three-time Olympic field hockey gold medalist Teun de Nooijer. "This creates an unprecedented level of buy-in, accountability, and depth. We don't evaluate technology from a computer screen; we test it directly in the harsh reality of elite sports. That validation is too critical to outsource."

Before any capital is committed, a company goes through a stress test covering product-market fit, go-to-market strategy, and competitor analysis. The technology must also demonstrate the ability to support significant future growth. According to DSTF, scalability is assessed during the technical review process, with the expectation that the platform can support a user base many times larger than its current footprint.

That last requirement is worth noting. A lot of sports tech products are built for a single market, a single sport, or a single use case. Scalability to 10x is a forcing function that eliminates a large category of otherwise interesting companies from consideration.

Pillar 3: The Network as the Moat

In the current era of generative AI, software can be replicated faster than at any previous point in history. Technical differentiation, the traditional VC moat, has a much shorter shelf life than it used to.

DSTF's answer is distribution.

"A tech solution is easily copied, but you don't just replicate an international network overnight. That is the result of a lifetime of relationships," says Business Development Officer Mark Snijders. "Our ecosystem gives portfolio companies direct access to the market, drastically shortens time-to-market, and prevents a startup from spending three years building something that ultimately nobody wants to download or wear. That network effect is our ultimate moat."

This is a thesis we've seen validated repeatedly in our own research. The sports tech companies that have scaled most effectively in recent years haven't necessarily had the best technology. They've had the best distribution. Access to clubs, leagues, federations, and commercial partners that compressed the sales cycle and provided the credibility needed to win enterprise deals.

DSTF's active operator model means portfolio companies inherit that network from day one rather than spending years building it themselves.

Fund II: The Same Model, Sharper

With Fund I in exit mode, Fund II sharpens the thesis rather than reinventing it. The shift is toward later-stage companies. Series A/B scale-ups with proven recurring revenues and demonstrable user retention. With Richard Bruens, former board member at Van Lanschot Kempen, leading as General Partner.

The first confirmed Fund II investment sets the tone: Playtomic, the global market leader in booking and matchmaking software for racket sports. The investment reflects the updated thesis: category-leading businesses with established user bases, proven retention, and strong network effects.

Our Take

One of the enduring debates in venture capital is whether specialist funds can consistently outperform generalists.

Our view is that specialization matters. Sports technology sits at the intersection of multiple industries, each with its own dynamics, stakeholders, and routes to market. Understanding those nuances can influence everything from sourcing and diligence to portfolio support and exit outcomes.

Capital alone is rarely enough. The most effective investors often bring industry knowledge, commercial relationships, distribution opportunities, and strategic guidance that extend well beyond the initial cheque.

DSTF has built its model around that belief. As Fund I enters its exit cycle, the next few years will provide an important test of whether a specialist approach can translate into superior outcomes and realized returns.

Our primary research on how VCs actually deploy capital into sports, surveying 30+ active investors, publishes later this year. If you want early access, make sure you're subscribed to the Intelligence Hub.

To learn more about DSTF's portfolio companies, Fund II, or ongoing strategic initiatives, visit their website or email them directly on info@dutchsporttechfund.com.

📰 THE LATEST

Top News From The World Of Sports Tech & Biz

⚾ MLB banned teams from using AI via dugout iPads to shape in-game decisions after around one-third of the league had relied heavily on the technology.

⚽ JD Sports and Uber Eats launched an on-demand football shirt delivery service for fans in London and Manchester.

🎾 ESPN delivered its second most-watched Wimbledon coverage ever in 2026, with the tournament generating double-digit audience increases across ESPN platforms.

⚽ PSG reportedly neared a Nike extension worth more than $1.3 billion (€1.1 billion), with the new contract set to pay the club around $116 million (€100 million) per year through 2037.

⚽ FIFA is planning a 30-minute World Cup final halftime show featuring Shakira, Madonna, Justin Bieber, BTS, and Coldplay, with BBC and ITV expected to broadcast the Super Bowl-style production while retaining time for first-half analysis.

⚽ FIFA president Gianni Infantino confirmed that FIFA would discuss expanding the men’s World Cup to 64 teams after the 2026 tournament, saying every nation should have the chance to dream of playing at football’s biggest event.

🎾 Budget cuts put the planned ATP-WTA joint commercial venture on indefinite hold amid possible reductions in the women’s game.

📺 Twelve U.S. states, including California and New York, sued to block Paramount’s proposed acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery, giving the media merger its first major legal challenge from a dozen U.S. states.

🏟️ Kansas Football continued its $448 million stadium renovation, ranking among the nation’s largest college football venue investments as the Jayhawks modernized fan experience and recruiting infrastructure through 2028.

🏀 NBA commissioner Adam Silver expecting the league’s aggregated streaming hub for local broadcasts to launch in time for the 2027-28 season, with sources saying YouTube was a leading candidate to house the platform.

💼 Global law firm Paul Hastings LLP launched a global Sports practice to advise investors, teams, leagues, governing bodies, broadcasters, esports and gaming companies, and other sports industry participants across transactions, litigation, regulation, finance, media, hospitality, and real estate.

💸 The LTA and Redrice Ventures, a leading investment firm focused on health, wellness and sport, have announced a strategic partnership to identify, support, and champion innovations that advance the future of racket sports in the UK. With the LTA entering venture capital for the first time.

💰 BGF invested $27 million (£20 million) into Warrington-based sports technology business Urban Zoo to develop its proprietary technology and support international growth, particularly in North America.

💰 Refr Sports closed a $2 million seed round led by Traction Capital to scale its referee management platform, support 350-400% year-over-year growth, and grow from more than 20,000 officials today toward 100,000 by the end of 2027.

💰 Cognify Health, a healthcare startup improving access to concussion testing for youth sports, raised a multi-million dollar funding round led by Game Changers Ventures, with participation from Westbound Equity, Advaith Anand, Viet Dinh, Jack Davis of Tamarisk Lane, and others, to expand headcount and enhance its products.

💰 AO Ventures invested in Scottish performance analytics company PlayerData and sports media platform ScorePlay, expanding the Tennis Australia and Australian Open venture arm’s sports technology portfolio to six companies.

💰 Hyperspace Ventures invested $3.4 million into Formula 1 racing alongside its private investor community, continuing its expansion across global sports and sports technology after deploying more than $27 million since Q4 2024.

💸 FC Barcelona secured a $244 million (€210 million) loan backed by future television rights revenue to support summer transfers, payroll obligations, and financial flexibility during Hansi Flick’s rebuild.

🤝 The Khosla family, including Vinod Khosla, agreed to purchase the Seattle Seahawks for $9.612 billion, setting a new NFL sale record, pending approval from league owners.

🤝 As1, a Bruin Capital portfolio company, agreed to acquire Denmark’s largest football agency Elite Consulting for an undisclosed amount, adding a Scandinavian player and coach representation business to a global agency representing more than 300 elite players with a total market value above €700 million.

💸 The International Cricket Council entered advanced talks to invest in India Bengaluru-based game-tech startup LightFury Games, marking its first startup investment as the company secured official ICC gaming rights across mobile, PC, and console globally.

💸 The New York Yankees advanced talks with Apollo Global Management to raise nearly $3 billion in financing, as more institutional capital flowed into professional sports.

💬 JOIN THE CONVERSATION

Powering Innovation & Investment Insights in Sports. Every Week.

Rogers Communications paid $3.06 billion (C$4.35 billion) for Kilmer Sports' remaining 25% stake in MLSE, taking full ownership of the Maple Leafs, Raptors, Toronto FC and Scotiabank Arena at a valuation north of $12 billion. Rogers and Kroenke Sports & Entertainment are now the only sports conglomerates owning three or more major professional teams. But unlike KSE, all of Rogers' assets sit in the same city, the fourth-largest in North America.

Speaking of a big week for big cheques, Sky agreed to buy ITV's media division for $2.1 billion. Versant picked up Full Swing from Bruin Capital for $530 million. And the Las Vegas Jacks secured $8 billion in financial commitments as they compete for an NBA expansion franchise.

This week's lead is a sit-down with Dutch Sport Tech Fund CEO Alexander Janssen at a pivotal moment: Fund I approaching maturity, exits being engineered, a US office opening in January. One of the first case studies in how a dedicated sports tech fund actually realises value. Part 1 of 2.

How One of Europe's Most Active Sports Tech Funds Is Engineering Its Exit

A conversation with Dutch Sport Tech Fund CEO Alexander Janssen, ahead of Fund II.

Since our inception, SportsTechX has tracked the evolution of the global sports tech ecosystem.

We've analysed where money is flowing, which companies are attracting attention, and which investors are shaping the market.

But following the money only tells part of the story.

For our next piece of primary research, we wanted to understand what happens before a deal gets done. We spoke with 30+ leading sports tech investors to unpack how they source opportunities, evaluate founders, and make investment decisions.

Every fund has its own approach, but the underlying frameworks are often more similar than they appear. We'll be sharing those insights soon.

In the lead-up, we got a rare opportunity to sit down with one of the most active funds in the space, and at an especially pivotal moment.

Founded in 2020, the Amsterdam-based Dutch Sport Tech Fund (DSTF) is one of Europe's earliest and most active dedicated sports tech investors. Five years in, the fund is hitting its maturity milestone. The story now shifts from portfolio building to something harder to execute: exits.

The lifecycle of a venture capital fund is a well-rehearsed narrative: raise, deploy, build, exit. Yet sports tech remains a young and highly fragmented market, with few historical examples to guide the journey from investment to exit. Many of the funds now approaching maturity are effectively becoming the industry's first case studies in how value gets realised.

In Part I of a two-part series, we sat down with DSTF CEO Alexander Janssen to talk about the fund's upcoming exit journey, the mechanics of building an "acquirable" ecosystem, and how their planned US expansion ties it all together. All ahead of the already-announced Fund II.

DSTF Fund I & Fund II At A Glance

Engineering a Portfolio With Exits Baked In

DSTF believes the value of Fund I lies not only in its individual portfolio companies, but in how they fit together.

"From day one, our strategy was never to simply collect isolated startups," says CEO Alexander Janssen. "We deliberately engineered a synergistic portfolio. In sport-tech, value compounds exponentially when platforms, data capabilities, media reach, and commercial networks actively reinforce one another."

Today, the portfolio sits at 16 companies, most having graduated from early-stage startups into established scale-ups, with a handful already operating at Series A or B level. For strategic buyers, Janssen argues, the interconnected structure is the proposition.

"Because of how we built the fund, we can offer buyers incredible optionality," he says. "A strategic buyer might come in to acquire a single standout asset, or they might look at a multi-asset transaction acquiring a cluster of connected companies within a specific vertical to secure immediate market dominance."

The Separation of the Pack

Five years of active portfolio management creates clarity. Janssen doesn't soften the picture.

"We are seeing a clear separation of the pack, in the best way possible. Right now, we have roughly seven high-growth frontrunners that have already surpassed a 3x MOIC. These companies have significant commercial momentum. In fact, some are already attracting inbound interest and are in active acquisition discussions as we speak."

But MOIC multiples aren't the only signal he's watching.

"We also hold a number of businesses that intentionally chose a more capital-efficient, organic growth route. They didn't play the hyper-scaling game, but they have rock-solid fundamentals and sustainable revenue. For the right strategic buyer looking for profitability and stable market integration, these are prime targets."

Not every portfolio company follows the same trajectory. Asked about the rest of the portfolio, Janssen remains optimistic: "We currently have no true laggards in the portfolio. The overall execution maturity is incredibly high."

Not Passive Capital

One consistent differentiator DSTF points to is what they call the "active shareholder" approach: staying embedded in commercial expansion, internationalization, and governance rather than sitting quietly on cap tables.

As the exit window opens, that hands-on posture is intensifying.

"Right now, the work is no longer about product-market fit or validation. It's about scaling readiness," says Janssen. "We are actively working with our founders to professionalize sales pipelines, sharpen strategic narratives, and align their financial reporting with the exact standards that global corporate buyers and PE firms expect. We want our companies to be plug-and-play for acquirers."

The LA Move: Timing Is Everything

Perhaps the most concrete signal of where DSTF is heading: effective January 1, 2027, the fund opens an office in Los Angeles.

The timing isn't incidental. With the FIFA World Cup underway and the 2028 Olympic Games approaching, Los Angeles is becoming an increasingly important hub for sports business, media, and investment activity.

"The LA office is a direct bridge for our portfolio companies," says Janssen. "It puts them face-to-face with major US sports stakeholders, media conglomerates, and tech buyers. The years leading up to an Olympic Games see a massive concentration of dealmaking and infrastructure spending. We are positioning our companies right where the capital is flowing."

Fund II: The Model, Scaled

While Fund I focuses on unlocking liquidity, DSTF is simultaneously laying groundwork for its next vehicle.

"Fund I proved the model, but Fund II is about scaling it," says Janssen. "While the first fund took early-stage risk, Fund II will focus exclusively on mature, late-stage scale-ups and Series A/B companies with proven traction."

The rationale reflects a broader market shift, one we've been tracking in our own research.

"The technical barriers to entry have fallen. Anyone can build a product quickly now. Therefore, technical differentiation alone is no longer a moat. The real winners of tomorrow are defined by execution, go-to-market dominance, and crucially user retention.

Fund II will back companies that have already proven they can retain customers, and we will use our global sports network to help them achieve international dominance."

Our Take:

The sports tech market is entering a new phase of maturity. After years focused on company creation, attention is increasingly shifting toward consolidation, acquisitions, and ultimately liquidity.

That makes DSTF's position particularly interesting. As one of Europe's first dedicated sports tech funds, it is among the first specialist investors approaching the exit stage at meaningful scale.

Whether the fund can successfully translate portfolio performance into realized returns remains to be seen. But if it does, DSTF could become an important case study for how dedicated sports tech funds create and realize value across a full investment cycle.

And if the market does move toward consolidation, few funds appear better positioned. Early entry, a concentrated portfolio, an active ownership model, and a growing international footprint could prove valuable advantages as the sector enters its next chapter.

In Part 2, we look under the hood of Fund I: the six investment verticals, the due diligence process, and the specific companies being positioned for strategic acquisition.

To learn more about DSTF's portfolio companies, Fund II, or ongoing strategic initiatives, visit their website or email them directly on info@dutchsporttechfund.com.

📰 THE LATEST

Top News From The World Of Sports Tech & Biz

⚽ Chelsea launched on Strava in a Premier League and Barclays Women’s Super League first, using the fitness app to connect the club’s global fanbase through running, training, and wellness.

🏀 Euroleague Basketball unveiled Euroleague Basketball+, a new strategic vision to become the digital home of European club basketball, combining competitions, content, technology, commercial opportunities and fan experiences into one integrated ecosystem, designed around a fan-first philosophy.

🏀 Euroleague Basketball also launched its franchise process as part of a long-term strategy to strengthen and expand Europe’s top club basketball league.

📺 Netflix, Disney, and YouTube showed interest in FIFA World Cup U.S. rights for 2030 and 2034, with FIFA likely to sell English and Spanish-language packages together in a deal that could reach $2 billion.

💸 The NRL (National Rugby League) sealed $3.7 billion in seven-year media rights deals with Foxtel, Nine, and Sky NZ, marking the richest broadcast contracts in Australian sporting history.

🏅 The International Olympic Committee lifted Russia’s suspension provisionally, opening the door for Russian athletes to compete for their country at the LA 2028 Olympic Games.

🏟️ Manchester United confirmed the proposed location for its new 100,000-seat stadium, marking another milestone in the club’s long-term plan to transform the Old Trafford area.

⛳ LIV Golf faced a $603 million lawsuit from plaintiffs who alleged Saudi Arabia’s PIF used their stolen golf league concepts after a failed $490 million deal.

💸 AO Ventures invested undisclosed amounts in Scottish wearable technology company PlayerData and sports media platform ScorePlay, taking the Tennis Australia and Australian Open venture arm’s portfolio to six companies as it backed technologies shaping sport and entertainment.

🤝 Rogers Communications agreed to acquire Kilmer Sports’ remaining 25% stake in Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment for $3.2 billion (C$4.35 billion), increasing its ownership of MLSE to 100% and bringing the Toronto Maple Leafs, Toronto Raptors, Toronto FC, Toronto Argonauts, and Scotiabank Arena under full Rogers ownership.

🤝 Sky agreed to acquire ITV’s Media & Entertainment division for $2.1 billion (£1.6 billion), combining Sky’s pay-TV, broadband, and streaming operations with ITV’s free-to-air channels and ITVX while leaving ITV Studios as a standalone production company.

🤝 Viaplay Group agreed to sell its Dutch streaming and broadcasting operations to DPG Media-owned Videoland for $166 million (€142 million) on a cash and debt-free basis, including a rights portfolio with Premier League, Bundesliga, Formula 1, and PDC darts.

🤝 Hudl acquired youth and high school athletics fundraising startup TeamUp for an undisclosed amount, marking its 19th sports technology acquisition and rebranding the product as Hudl Fundraising.

🤝 LeagueApps acquired the National Center for Safety Initiatives for an undisclosed amount, adding background checks and safety compliance services to its youth sports management platform.

🤝 Versant Media Group agreed to acquire golf simulator company Full Swing from Bruin Capital for $530 million in cash, expanding the Golf Channel owner’s sports technology and digital portfolio.

💸 APEX took a strategic stake in the Northern Super League for an undisclosed amount, marking the first completed private equity investment in a professional women’s soccer league globally and supporting Canada’s first professional women’s soccer league across commercial expansion, audience development, digital innovation, and international distribution.

💸 The Las Vegas Jacks secured $8 billion in financial commitments as the Jerry Colangelo-led group competed to acquire a prospective NBA expansion franchise in Las Vegas.

💸 JD Sports created a $1.4 million (£1 million) fund with BBC Children in Need to increase young people’s access to work experience and develop their skills and confidence.

💬 JOIN THE CONVERSATION

Powering Innovation & Investment Insights in Sports. Every Week.

NBA Europe has gone into full-court press mode. Recent updates from the NBA revealed that final bids are now in from more than 20 ownership groups, with some markets reportedly attracting offers north of $1 billion per franchise ahead of the planned October 2027 launch. The league's financial model projects franchises breaking even by year three and more than $10 billion flowing through the European basketball ecosystem over its first decade. Big numbers. Now comes the hard part: converting the game plan into real points scored.

In other news, Novak Djokovic joined the growing list of star athletes becoming "strategic partners" as he teamed up with General Atlantic, the $90 billion AUM investment platform. And June's dealflow roundup came in at $207 million across 25 deals, with Cosm's $100 million Series C doing most of the heavy lifting. Full breakdown below.

💡 INTELLIGENCE HUB

Sports Tech Monthly Investment Roundup

June 2026 kept up the year's habit of leaning on one giant round. Funding came in at $206.8M across 25 deals, down from May's $336.6M though busier by deal count, and nearly half the disclosed amount traced to a single company: Cosm's $100M Series C, led by Sony Pictures Entertainment. Along with two undisclosed acquisitions, putting total disclosed deal flow for the month at $206.8M.

Here's a quick summary:

• Geography: Funding by deal count was led by the USA, followed by France, the UK and India, with a long tail of smaller markets. By capital the US was well clear, carried by Cosm's $100M round out of Los Angeles. On the M&A side, the deals were split between India and the USA.

• Sectors: 'For Fans' dominated funding again, taking $160.1M (77.5%), with Cosm doing the heavy lifting. 'For Executives' edged past 'For Athletes' for second this month, $23.9M (11.6%) to $22.7M (11.0%). The two acquisitions landed one apiece in 'For Fans' and 'For Executives'.

• Top Deals: Apart from Cosm, on the M&A side, all three deals were undisclosed: FitnessForce Club Management Software (Mumbai) was acquired by Daxko (Birmingham, Alabama); Sports Card Investor (Atlanta) by CardsHQ (Atlanta); and ProCamps (Cincinnati) by FlexWork (Canton, Ohio).

Access every deal and see a more detailed breakdown on the Intelligence Hub.

📰 THE LATEST

Top News From The World Of Sports Tech & Biz

💸 NBA Launchpad expanded its pilot program to Asia with a dedicated track for regional startups in the program’s fifth year.

💸 Dubai Sports Council launched the Club Accelerators Programme as part of the Dubai Sports Sector Strategic Plan 2033 to strengthen club development across Dubai’s sports sector.

💸 Michigan State Athletics launched Spartan Ventures, a new commercial and revenue-generation initiative designed to support Michigan State Athletics in the evolving college sports landscape.

📺 Comcast planned to separate NBCUniversal and Sky from its connectivity business, splitting its media, film, theme park, and streaming operations from cable and broadband as competition intensified.

⚽ FIFA agreed a joint venture with European Football Clubs to operate the Club World Cup, likely expanding the 2029 edition and allowing more Premier League clubs to participate.

🥊 UFC Freedom 250 delivered 34 million total global viewers, becoming the most-watched UFC event ever in the U.S. while doubling its historic domestic audience internationally and generating 126 billion social views.

💸 Bob Iger and Joshua Kushner explored a bid for the NBA’s Las Vegas expansion team after hiring investment bankers and discussing plans for the potential franchise.

🏀 The NBA set the salary cap for the 2026-27 season at $164.961 million, with the salary cap and tax level taking effect on July 1.

🏀 The NBA laid off dozens of employees in a league office reorganization focused on expansion, local broadcasts, and new priorities including potential teams in the U.S. and Europe.

⚽ UEFA fined 14 clubs, including Juventus, Newcastle United, Aston Villa, and Chelsea, for breaching financial sustainability rules during the 2025-26 season.

💸 The NRL neared a $5 billion media rights agreement with Nine Entertainment and Foxtel, which would become the most expensive sports broadcast deal in Australian history and make the rugby league competition more valuable than the AFL for the first time.

🎾 Leading tennis players stood down from their Wimbledon prize money protest after two days following constructive meetings with tournament officials.

🎾 Andy and Jamie Murray launched The Set, a tennis-focused YouTube channel with long-term plans to expand into live events, podcasts, and sponsor-led opportunities.

💰 TwelveLabs, a video intelligence company, raised $100 million in Series B funding co-led by NEA and NAVER Ventures, with participation from Amazon, Radical Ventures, Korea Investment Partners, Index Ventures, Quadrille Capital, and Red Bull Ventures.

💰 Premier Lacrosse League closed a $100 million Series E financing round led by Ares and Joe Tsai, with additional investment from ESPN, Glen Powell, Rob Mac, Warren Zeiders, Tony Cavalero, and others, to expand media distribution, sponsorship, the Women’s Lacrosse League, and youth access ahead of lacrosse’s return at LA28.

💸 The NBA received finalized bids from more than 20 groups for NBA Europe, with some markets drawing offers above $1 billion for franchises in the planned European basketball league set to launch in October 2027.

💸 Novak Djokovic joined General Atlantic as a global strategic advisor, supporting the investment firm’s global platform through his experience across elite sport, wellness, longevity, and entrepreneurship.

💸 The Lewis family planned a $137 million (£100 million) cash injection into Tottenham Hotspur to help fund the Premier League club’s revamp after a difficult run of seasons.

💸 Gasol16 Ventures completed a $64 million (€55 million) investment in Liga F, acquiring between 35% and 49% of the clubs’ future commercial revenue rights to professionalize the league’s commercial model and accelerate international expansion despite Real Madrid dissent.

💸 The Premier Jumping League raised $50 million (£38 million) from the first sale of a team in the Frank McCourt-backed showjumping startup, with US investor and racing driver Jason McCarthy buying one of the 16 franchises ahead of the league’s launch next year.

💸 The Cleveland Cavaliers neared a deal to sell a 5% to 10% limited partner stake to Blue Owl at a combined $5.5 billion valuation for the NBA franchise and Cleveland’s incoming WNBA team.

💸 Lukas and Samantha Walton bought a minority stake in the Chicago Bulls and United Center, while the Reinsdorf family retained control of the NBA franchise.

🤝 DPG Media’s Videoland agreed to acquire Viaplay’s Dutch streaming and broadcasting business for $162 million (€142 million), gaining live sport for the first time through a rights portfolio including Premier League football, Bundesliga, Formula 1, and PDC darts.

🤝 FlexWork Sports acquired rival youth sports camp operator ProCamps in an eight-figure transaction, more than doubling its annual event offerings to around 1,000 while adding ProCamps’ G3 Marketing brand activation agency.

🤝 William Blair completed its acquisition of Inner Circle Sports for an undisclosed amount, adding the boutique investment bank focused on the global sports, media, and entertainment ecosystem to expand its advisory and capital markets platform.

🤝 City Football Group transferred all shares it held in Yokohama F. Marinos to Nissan Motor Co. for an undisclosed amount, while the Japanese club said it would continue its relationship with CFG as a partner club.

💬 JOIN THE CONVERSATION

Powering Innovation & Investment Insights in Sports. Every Week.

Sony Pictures Entertainment invested $100 million in Cosm, leading the immersive venue company's Series C as it expands its Shared Reality locations across the US.

This week's feature digs into what's driving smart-venue investment in 2026: from LED glass floors to AI concessions to predictive scheduling. We look at how the building itself is becoming a tech product.

💡 INTELLIGENCE HUB

The Full-Stack Venue

Smart venues just got a $100M headline. Sony Pictures Entertainment invested $100M in Cosm, leading the company’s Series C and taking a minority stake in the immersive technology, media and entertainment company. Cosm uses its Shared Reality technology to blend live sports and entertainment content with physical venues, and already has locations in Los Angeles, North Dallas and Atlanta, with Detroit and Cleveland next in line.

In our tracker, Organisations & Venues had already recorded $99.4M across 18 deals in 2026 so far. Counting Cosm, the broader smart-venue and immersive-venue set now sits at roughly $199M across 19 deals. The money is going into smart floors, venue checkout, event scheduling, predictive operations, immersive audio and smart training spaces.

The useful signal is who is getting involved. Sony, the NBA, NHL, USTA and Australian Open are all putting capital or strategic support behind the infrastructure layer of sport. The building itself is becoming a technology product.

The venue is becoming a media format

Cosm is the clearest example. Its Shared Reality venues take live sports and entertainment content and turn it into a ticketed, immersive in-person experience. Sony’s investment is explicitly tied to experiential entertainment, fandom and technology, with capital going toward venue expansion and technology development across sports and entertainment.

That matters because the venue is no longer limited to hosting the event. It can become a distribution format of its own: part cinema, part stadium, part live broadcast environment. For rights holders and media companies, this creates another way to package premium sports content beyond traditional broadcast and streaming.

The floor is now part of the media layer

ASB GlassFloor secured €30M in equity funding in late 2025 to scale its LED glass sports floor through a new rental and services model. Its LumiFlex floor turns the playing surface into a programmable display for graphics, advertising, training data and event content.

The technology moved into a major US competition this year when the Big 12 used ASB’s LED court for the 2026 Phillips 66 Big 12 Men’s and Women’s Basketball Tournaments, marking the first official US competition use of the floor. The court supports real-time branding, in-game activations, data-driven visuals and fan-engagement moments during play stoppages.

The concourse is being rebuilt around speed

Concession queues remain one of the clearest revenue leaks inside venues. VisioLab closed an $11M Series A in April to scale AI-powered self-checkout across US sports venues and global food service.

Its system uses visual recognition rather than barcode scanning, allowing fans to place food and drinks under a camera and pay faster. The company has deployments at the Orlando Magic’s Kia Center, Inter Miami’s new stadium, Mercedes-Benz Stadium and Bank of America Stadium, with existing operator relationships across Levy, Aramark and Delaware North.

The event now runs on software

Venue technology is also moving into scheduling, routing, staffing, ticketing, broadcast windows and event operations.

Fastbreak AI raised a $40M Series A in November 2025, with participation from the NBA, NHL and TMRW Sports. The company builds AI-driven scheduling and operations software for professional and amateur sports, helping leagues optimise travel, ticket sales, TV viewership and event logistics. USTA Ventures also invested in Fastbreak to optimise adult league match scheduling. The USTA said more than 300,000 players compete in its leagues each year, generating more than 2 million court hours that are currently scheduled manually.

Recentive Analytics raised a $45M Series B in March for predictive modelling across sports, entertainment and media. Its work covers ticketing, merchandise, viewership projections, scheduling and demand forecasting, with customers and partners including the NFL, MLB, NWSL, ESPN, Live Nation, USTA, Big Ten and others.

The Australian Open is also moving into this layer. AO Ventures announced its first investments in 2026, including Raven Controls, a platform for real-time incident management and operational coordination across large venues. It also backed Bolt6, Mindspring Padel and Padel Haus, linking officiating, financing and participation infrastructure under the same investment umbrella.

The fan experience is getting more immersive

Audio is also part of the venue stack. Shure became a minority investor in Edge Sound Research, a startup developing experiential audio technologies for sports, broadcast and venues. Shure said the NBA, MLS and USTA have worked with Edge Sound Research to enhance broadcasts for fans.

The use case is straightforward: better sound can make live and remote viewing feel closer to the action. For venues, premium suites and in-arena environments can become more immersive. For broadcasters, audio can become another layer of differentiation.

The grassroots venue is getting smarter too

This shift is also reaching amateur sport. Canada’s DRIVE Hockey secured a $100K government AI grant in June to support its smart arena network for hockey analytics. Its system uses sensors and AI to bring advanced tracking and performance data to amateur hockey environments.

That matters because the smart-venue opportunity cannot sit only inside premium arenas. If the same tools move into clubs, academies, training centres and community facilities, the market becomes much larger.

What this tells us

The building is becoming a product. Floors can display media. Concession stands can process fans faster. Schedules can be optimised for revenue. Audio can make the experience more immersive. Amateur venues can collect data that used to sit only at the elite level. Immersive venues like Cosm can turn live sports into a new form of in-person media.

That is the real smart-venue story. The next phase of sports infrastructure will be about making every surface, queue, schedule, seat and training space more measurable, more flexible and more commercially useful.

📰 THE LATEST

Top News From The World Of Sports Tech & Biz

⚙️ ESPN launched ESPN Fan House, a fan-centric engagement hub powered by Flowcode, to connect fans more deeply with ESPN experiences.

📊 Omnicom unveiled Acxiom Fan Graph, a sports marketing intelligence platform designed to unify media, commerce, and consumer engagement data so brands could better understand, activate, and measure sports audiences.

💸 The International Olympic Committee created a $100 million athlete grant fund that allowed Olympians to apply for $10,000 grants after competing at a Summer or Winter Games.

💸 Arctos Sports, RVX Ventures, and Magellan Development Group launched a national sports-anchored development platform to build mixed-use real estate projects around sports venues.

🥊 Electronic Arts launched EA SPORTS UFC 6 worldwide on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S, using Markerless Capture, next-gen Sapien Technology, Flow State mechanics, Real-Time Contact, Frostbite-powered ragdoll physics, and new modes including Hall of Legends and The Legacy.

📺 Warner Bros. Discovery and AWS announced an agentic AI-powered advertising technology platform built on AWS to unify WBD’s linear and digital ad inventory planning, activation, and optimization.

🎾 Wimbledon and IBM introduced new watsonx-powered AI fan experiences and modernized digital platforms across the Wimbledon app and wimbledon.com to provide seamless and personalized experiences for global tennis fans during The Championships 2026.

🏋️ Hong Kong secured the 2027 Hyrox World Championships after growing from hosting Asia-Pacific’s inaugural Hyrox event in 2022 with fewer than 1,000 athletes to around 20,000 participants this year.

📺 iShowSpeed partnered with FIFA, Fox Sports, and YouTube to stream live FIFA World Cup matches during the tournament.

🎾 Wimbledon’s Hawk-Eye technology shut down during qualifying at Roehampton after 36°C heat caused a power issue that disrupted the electronic line-calling system five days before the Championships, though organisers expected the system to operate normally at the event.

⛳ Clubhaus won Golfweek Tech Lab’s Business Solutions category with a QR-code ordering system designed to make on-course food and beverage ordering easier for golf courses.

🏀 Real Madrid signed a ten-year extension with Euroleague keeping the club tied to the competition despite recent NBA Europe speculation.

🎾 Leading tennis players planned to expand their prize money protest at Wimbledon despite the tournament increasing its 2026 prize pot by 20%.

🎾 The International Tennis Federation rebranded as World Tennis, changing the name of the governing body that oversaw the Davis Cup, Billie Jean King Cup, and tennis at the Olympics and Paralympics.

🏟️ Manchester United secured a crucial land deal as the club advanced plans for a £2 billion, 100,000-seat stadium designed to transform the area around Old Trafford.

💰 Sony Pictures Entertainment invested $100 million in Cosm, a global technology, media, and entertainment company, to accelerate its immersive venue and Shared Reality technology experience across sports and entertainment content.

💰 Enhanced Group announced that it has entered into an agreement for a $50 million strategic equity financing via a private investment in public equity financing transaction led by Apeiron Investment Group, the family office of Enhanced Co-Founder and Chairman Christian Angermayer, with participation from Co-Founder and CEO Maximilian Martin and leading global institutional investors.

💰 Sportway Media Group raised $23.3 million (€20 million) in financing led by Gamma Waves with continued participation from existing shareholders, valuing the AI-driven sports media company at approximately $107 million (€92 million) post-money as it scaled automated sports broadcasting from youth leagues to national federations.

💰 ALT Sports Data closed a $5 million financing round led by Game Changers Ventures, with participation from Relay Ventures and Scrum Ventures, to scale its League Operating System combining official data, integrity and compliance, fan engagement, media distribution, and sports betting commercial activation for more than 30 leagues worldwide.

💰 Sir Mo Farah’s URUNN secured a seven-figure raise from private investors and continued investment from FitTech platform 10XU to accelerate talent expansion, product development, and global user growth for its performance-driven running app.

🤝 Daxko acquired FitnessForce for an undisclosed amount, broadening its global fitness software portfolio with an API-first membership management platform built for multi-location, franchise, and international fitness operators.

🤝 Michele Kang agreed to acquire 87.8% of Eagle Football Group SA, the parent company of Olympique Lyonnais, from Eagle Bidco through court-appointed administrator Cork Gully for an undisclosed amount.

🤝 Bay Collective completed the acquisition of a majority stake in Sunderland Women for an undisclosed amount, adding the English WSL 2 club to its women’s football portfolio.

🤝 South Shields co-owner Geoff Thompson agreed to acquire a majority shareholding in Durham Women for an undisclosed amount, saving the WSL 2 club’s future after it warned it could cease operations without new investment.

🤝 MSP Sports Capital acquired a majority stake in New Zealand SailGP team the Black Foils for an undisclosed amount, extending its sports portfolio as SailGP continued its commercialisation push.

💸 KKR-owned Arctos Partners, RVX Ventures, and Magellan Development Group backed a $288 million mixed-use sports entertainment district at the University of Tennessee as the first project in their venue-adjacent development partnership.

💸 Newcastle United held talks with KKR-owned Arctos Partners over a potential investment into the Premier League club and its stadium.

💸 The Professional Women’s Hockey League secured its first outside investments from Kilmer Sports Ventures and Ilitch Companies, which joined the league as strategic partners.

💸 CVC Capital Partners IX invested in Chess.com for an undisclosed amount, joining longstanding investor General Atlantic as the world’s largest online chess platform expanded its global community offering.

💸 Ex-Newcastle co-owners Amanda Staveley and Mehrdad Ghodoussi considered a potential West Ham United takeover.

📺 DAZN restructured its business to make it easier to raise new equity or pursue a potential IPO as the lossmaking sports streaming company sought fresh capital.

Powering Innovation & Investment Insights in Sports. Every Week.

The athlete-to-investor pipeline continues gushing as Gareth Bale launched a $500 million fund alongside Juggernaut Capital Partners, while former NFLer Marques Colston and retired MMA fighter Nick Edwards launched The Champion Fund. Meanwhile, LVMH-backed L Catterton made its first CHAMP (CHampion Athlete Managing Partner) fund deal and has reportedly entered talks to buy into HYROX.

In this week's feature we look under the hood at the tech engine running the World Cup. The Trionda ball sending 500 data points per second to VAR, robot dogs patrolling stadiums, digital twins monitoring venue operations in real time, referee body-cam footage used in broadcast. It isn't just the biggest stage in sports, it's the biggest live test bed for sports technology.

💡 INTELLIGENCE HUB

The Tech Layer Running Underneath the World Cup

The World Cup is the biggest stage in sports - for teams, players, broadcasters, sponsors and host cities alike. It's also the most demanding live test bed for the technology now operating underneath major sporting events. This year’s ball, the Trionda is a great example. At its core is a 500Hz inertial measurement unit (IMU) motion sensor chip, developed in collaboration with German tech firm Kinexon. The sensor measures the movement of the ball 500 times per second, capturing data on its speed, spin and direction.

That’s just one example. While the Al Rihla ball at Qatar 2022 also had a chip, this year’s expanded 48-team tournament across the USA, Canada, and Mexico is deploying new tools across fan movement, team engagement, player data, officiating, security, advertising, and accessibility:

📣 Fans

• EB Systems: Kansas City startup EB Systems is using its CrowdFlow Beacon technology to measure real-time fan movement across venues and brand activations. Its beacons are being used by brands at every FIFA Fan Festival and host stadium throughout the United States. The real use case is sponsor measurement: understanding whether fans actually engage with activations, how crowds move, and which event investments work.

• Google Gemini: Google signed official technology sponsor deals with the Iraq and Morocco national teams, focused on fan engagement through AI-generated cheering visuals, team anthems, match analysis and fan activations. The pattern worth noting: AI platforms are entering national team sponsorship not as infrastructure providers, but as fan engagement tools, giving teams content capabilities that didn't previously exist at scale.

🏃 Athletes

• FIFA Power Rankings, powered by Aramco: FIFA match data and Enhanced Football Intelligence algorithms power FIFA’s new player Power Rankings. Every eligible outfield player receives objective scores across attacking, creativity and defending, while goalkeepers are assessed across possession and goal-defending categories. Every player at a World Cup has a publicly visible, algorithmically generated performance score.

• Wearables and GPS tracking: GPS vests and recovery wearables are already embedded in elite football. Reporting around this World Cup points to teams using systems from companies such as Catapult and STATSports, while England players have been seen using WHOOP to monitor recovery, sleep and strain during the tournament. The useful point here is practical: performance tech has moved from training-ground support to tournament-day decision-making.

👀 Officiating

• Advanced SAOT, Hawk-Eye and Lenovo AI: Originally debuted at Qatar 2022, in 2026 FIFA introduced Advanced Semi-Automated Offside Technology (SAOT). FIFA says clear offsides can be sent directly to match officials on the pitch, speeding up decisions. Lenovo is also supporting VAR provider Hawk-Eye Innovations with infrastructure, while AI-enabled 3D player avatars will be used in offside replays and broadcast visualisation.

• Referee View: Referee body cameras are also back after being trialed at the FIFA Club World Cup 2025. For FIFA 2026, Lenovo’s AI-driven stabilisation overlay is being used to improve picture quality, giving broadcasters referee-view footage with steadier images. Referee-view footage is becoming a necessary broadcast asset.

🏟️ Stadium Operations and Security

• Digital twins and robot dogs: Lenovo’s tournament operations stack includes digital twins of venues, designed to help FIFA monitor situations in and around stadiums and support real-time operational decisions. On security, Hyundai and Boston Dynamics’ Spot robots are being deployed at the venues in Dallas and New York/New Jersey, while Mexican authorities have also deployed the four-legged robots for security support around Monterrey. Venue operations and security moving from reactive to predictive, with AI-assisted monitoring replacing manual oversight at scale.

🪧 Advertising

• Sportradar: Sportradar is positioning the 2026 World Cup as a major use case for AI-led, real-time advertising. Its advertising stack includes programmatic display, digital out-of-home, video, podcast audio, paid social and paid search products. The broader point is that live sports data is becoming a creative trigger, helping advertisers adapt campaigns around match context, fan behaviour and real-time moments.

❤️‍🩹 Accessibility

• FIFA accessibility services: FIFA 2026 is the first FIFA tournament to provide sign language interpretation broadcasts for every match. Group-stage matches in the USA and Canada will feature American Sign Language (ASL), while matches in Mexico will feature Mexican Sign Language (LSM). FIFA is also providing audio-descriptive commentary for all matches, plus the opening and closing ceremonies, through the FIFA Audio app.

The World Cup has always been a proving ground for sports technology. This edition is broader than broadcast and officiating. It now touches crowd analytics, fan content, player scoring, venue operations, robotics, advertising and accessibility.

That is the real shift. Major events are becoming full-stack technology environments. The companies and systems being tested here will not stay limited to the World Cup. Versions of the same tools will move into leagues, clubs, venues, sponsors and fan experiences over the next few years. The best players get scouted at tournaments. So does the technology.

📰 THE LATEST

Top News From The World Of Sports Tech & Biz

• 💸 USTA launched the inaugural USTA Connect Innovation Challenge, a nationwide open call for US-based tech innovators, engineers, and startups to build tennis technology using USTA and US Open datasets, with three finalists receiving funded travel to pitch at the 2026 US Open and one winner taking a $10,000 prize.

• 📊 DAZN and ADI Predictstreet launched a free-to-play FIFA World Cup 2026 prediction market experience on DAZN, giving fans real-time predictions, sentiment tracking, leaderboards, rewards, and the chance to win match tickets.

• ⚽ FIFA confirmed that a technical outage prevented VAR’s semi-automated offside technology from being used on the controversial call that led to Switzerland’s opening goal against Qatar.

• 📺 CNBC added 11 simulcast WNBA games to expose the league to an affluent business-news audience as the network moved further into live sports after spinning out from Comcast.

• 💸 Indian cricketer Yuzvendra Chahal launched the SprintX Playmaker Accelerator in Hyderabad to support SportsTech, gaming, eSports, and New Age Media startups in India including funding support of up to $30k (Rs 25 lakh).

• 🎮 Electronic Arts pushed further into sports-linked advertising by introducing EA Advertising, a platform designed to connect brands with EA’s portfolio across in-game, community, and real-world experiences tied to franchises including Madden NFL and EA Sports FC.

• ⛳ Topgolf announced that its latest venue in Parsippany, New Jersey venue opens on July 3, 2026 as its first new prototype, featuring golf games, arcade games, reimagined outfield targets and slope the “My Bay, My Way” personalized app offering and 350 to 400 expected jobs.

• 💸 Play the Game launched a public donation-backed Journalism Fund to finance original, investigative, and analytical journalism on corruption, governance failures, abuse of power, human rights violations, and the political use of international sport.

• 🏀 The WNBA expanded its regular season from 44 games to 50 games beginning in 2027, marking another growth milestone for the league.

• 🏀 Knicks championship merchandise became Fanatics’ top-selling championship gear across all sports within the first 24 hours of a title, following New York’s first NBA Finals victory in 53 years.

• 🏀 The 2026 NBA Finals between the New York Knicks and San Antonio Spurs averaged 20.6 million viewers on ABC and ESPN, becoming the most-watched NBA Finals since 1998 and capping the league’s most-watched postseason in 28 years.

• 🏏 JioStar reported that IPL 2026 became the tournament’s most-watched season ever, crossing 1.2 billion viewers across platforms, reaching 870 billion minutes of watch time, and drawing more than 400 million viewers for the final.

• 🏎️ Formula 1 reported a 35% reduction in its carbon footprint since 2018, keeping the series on track for its Net Zero 2030 target after cutting emissions across freight, logistics, broadcast, race operations, factories, facilities, and offices.

• 🎾 Wimbledon increased its 2026 prize money by 20% to a record £64.2 million, the largest uplift in tournament history, with ATP and WTA champions set to receive £3.6 million each and first-round losers receiving £80,000.

• 💸 Gareth Bale and Juggernaut Capital Partners launched the Juggernaut Sports Fund, targeting more than $500 million to invest across teams and leagues, youth sports, women’s sports, and golf, hospitality and experiential assets.

• 💸 Retired athletes Marques Colston and Nick Edwards launched The Champion Fund to make sports investing more accessible, with four early investments already made.

• 💰 Rocapine, a Paris-based wellness venture studio building apps designed to help people build healthier habits, raised $13 million in Series A funding led by Educapital, with participation from Daphni, Ring Capital, Centre Court Capital, and high profile individual investors.

• 💰 swsh, a New York-headquartered AI-powered fan engagement platform for live experiences, raised $4 million in seed funding led by Game Changers Ventures, with participation from Stellation Capital, SignalFire, MaC Venture Capital and prominent individuals.

• 💰 Hexis, a performance nutrition platform built on carbohydrate periodisation science, raised $2.1 million (€1.85 million) in seed funding led by APEX Capital, with participation from Enterprise Ireland and ScaleX, to accelerate its elite sport offering and fund a direct-to-consumer expansion later this year.

• 💰 Vibefam, an AI-powered operating system for fitness and wellness businesses with operations in Singapore and New York, raised $1 million in seed funding led by a Singapore-based family office, with backing from Hustle Fund, Ignite Asia, and strategic fitness and wellness investors.

• 💰 DRIVE, a Vancouver-based sports technology company building a Smart Arena network for hockey analytics, secured a $100k government AI grant from the National Research Council’s IRAP to bring Sports AI to market and passed its 2025 player-tracking volume in record time.

• 💰 Rohit Sharma invested in fitness startup Fittr for an undisclosed amount, moving from ambassador to investor.

• 🤝 Fox Corporation agreed to acquire Roku for $22 billion, in cash & shares to combine Fox’s news, sports, and entertainment channels with Roku’s streaming hardware, Roku Channel platform, and connected-TV reach.

• 🤝 Seven Seven Six, Alexis Ohanian’s venture capital firm, acquired college-focused trading card company ONIT for an undisclosed amount, with sports executive Evan Parker joining as CEO.

• 💸 L Catterton is eyeing the fast-growing fitness racing market as their CHAMP fund invested nearly $50 million for a minority stake in US activewear brand Rhoback, while also reportedly entering exclusive talks to buy a stake in extreme fitness brand HYROX from Infront Sports & Media for an undisclosed amount.

• 💸 BIG3 agreed to go public through a business combination with Graf Global Corp. at a $290 million pre-money valuation, with Ice Cube, Jeff Kwatinetz, and Clyde Drexler continuing to lead the 3-on-3 basketball league and the transaction expected to close in Q4 2026.

• 💸 Pau Gasol’s Gasol16 Ventures proposed a $63 million (€55 million) investment in Spain’s Liga F and its 16 clubs to professionalize the women’s football league’s commercial model and accelerate its internationalization, pending approval at an extraordinary club assembly on June 29.

• 🤝 Daniel Kretinsky agreed to buy additional West Ham United shares from Vanessa Gold for an undisclosed amount, making the Czech billionaire the club’s largest shareholder.

• 🤝 Ares Management and Michele Kang have neared a deal to take control of financially strained French football club Olympique Lyonnais for an undisclosed amount.

• 🤝 The US billionaire owners of Crystal Palace explored a sale of the Premier League club for an undisclosed amount and appointed Raine Group to handle a process.

• 💸 Manchester United took out a further $125 million in long-term debt, refinancing borrowings linked to the Glazer family’s 2005 takeover and taking total debt to $550 million at a higher interest rate.

Powering Innovation & Investment Insights in Sports. Every Week.

If you were around the sports tech ecosystem pre-Covid, the ASICS TENKAN-TEN program in Barcelona will ring a bell, one of the earliest sports tech focused accelerators. It went quiet after Covid, but ASICS is back with a new competition. More details below.

May's monthly roundup came in strong at $1.5 billion in total dealflow, $1.2 billion of which was Genius Sports' acquisition of digital sports and gambling media network Legend. Any bets on next month's number?

💡 SPORTS TECH MONTHLY DEALFLOW

$1.5 BILLION IN TOTAL INVESTMENT THIS MAY

May 2026 split into two very different stories. Venture funding cooled to $336.6M across 15 deals, down from April's $819.4M, with a single round doing most of the heavy lifting: Pickleball.com's $225M raise accounted for roughly two-thirds of the month's total. The bigger story sat in the M&A column, where Genius Sports completed its $1.2 billion acquisition of sports and gaming media network Legend. Together, that pushed total dealflow past $1.5 billion for the month.

Here's a quick summary:

• Geography: Funding was overwhelmingly USA-led, powered by Pickleball.com's mega-round, with India the next-largest market on the back of Nazara Technologies. The remaining capital spread across the UK, Sweden, Switzerland, Norway, Italy, Saudi Arabia and Germany. On the M&A side, disclosed value was 100% US-based, anchored by the Genius Sports acquisition of Legend in Eugene; by deal count, the five transactions also touched Norway and the Netherlands.

• Sectors: 'For Fans' dominated funding again, capturing $279.4M (83.0%) and continuing its run as the most-funded sector of the year. 'For Athletes' followed at $49.3M (14.6%) and 'For Executives' at $8.0M (2.4%). M&A by deal count was led by 'For Athletes' and 'For Executives' (two deals each, 40% apiece), with 'For Fans' making up the remaining one (20%).

• Top Deals: Pickleball.com raised $225M to anchor the month, followed by Nazara Technologies at $54.4M and Muybridge at $16M. On the M&A side, Genius Sports acquired Legend for $1.2 billion, the only disclosed transaction of the month; the racket-sports tie-up between SportAI and Padelytics was among the deals left undisclosed.

See a more detailed breakdown on the Intelligence Hub below.

📰 THE LATEST

Top News From The World Of Sports Tech & Biz

💸 ASICS Ventures launched Kenzen, a startup pitch competition focused on customer experience startups across movement, retail, digital communities, and wellness and offering an $80k prize plus potential ASICS pilot. In partnership with the University of Michigan and LEAD VC, the inaugural edition will be held in Ann Arbor on October 22, 2026. Applications close July 30, 2026.

⚽ The DFL introduced Captain, a dialogue-based AI feature in the Bundesliga app that gave fans access to live statistics, historical match data, tactical analysis, trivia, and video highlights through individual requests.

More from the upcoming FIFA World Cup:

• 🎮 FIFA and Netflix Games announced FIFA World Cup: Launch Edition, a new football gaming experience launching exclusively on Netflix Games on 11 June, featuring all 48 participating teams, all 16 tournament stadiums, more than 1,200 players, phone-as-controller gameplay, at no additional cost for Netflix subscribers.

• ⚽ The FAA established temporary flight restrictions over FIFA World Cup 2026 stadiums, fan events, and base camps across the United States, banning unauthorized drone operations within match-day restricted airspace and warning operators of fines up to $100k, drone confiscation, and federal criminal charges.

• 📺 FOX Sports developed BRISK, its Broadcast Remote IP Studio Kit, to support remote FIFA World Cup 2026 coverage across North America through portable server racks that connected remote cameras and sets to its Los Angeles studio via IP workflows.

⛳ The Athletic added PGA TOUR highlights to its golf coverage from every round, beginning with the Memorial Tournament presented by Workday, as PGA TOUR footage became the latest addition to The New York Times Company’s sports coverage.

🏎️ Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS F1 Team deployed an all-electric Mercedes-Benz Trucks eActros 600 to cover all nine European races of the 2026 Formula One season, transporting key operational infrastructure over approximately 15,000 km as part of its wider sustainable logistics program.

🏎️ NASCAR Impact and DraftKings hosted the inaugural Veteran Tech Accelerator during the 2026 Coca-Cola 600 weekend at Charlotte Motor Speedway, welcoming seven veterans transitioning to civilian life for behind-the-scenes exposure to motorsports technology, broadcast production, live event operations, mentorship, and career pathways.

📺 CBS Sports secured English-language US rights to the Barclays Women’s Super League through the 2029-30 season, with Paramount+ set to stream 183 matches each season from September 2026, CBS Sports Network airing one weekly match, and select games airing on CBS Sports Golazo Network.

📺 Zee Entertainment struck a last-minute $40 million FIFA World Cup 2026 broadcast deal for India, avoiding a blackout less than two weeks before kick-off and securing live games for its Unite8 Sports linear channels and Zee5 streaming platform.

🏀 The San Antonio Spurs and Oklahoma City Thunder Western Conference Finals averaged 10.8 million viewers per game on NBC and Peacock as the most-watched Conference Finals in 24 years, while Game 7 averaged 15.9 million viewers and peaked at 17.7 million.

🏀 NBA commissioner Adam Silver confirmed that NBA Europe remained on track to launch in the 2027-28 season with FIBA, with final franchise bids due in June and team announcements expected later this year as London and Manchester stayed in contention for potential franchises.

⚽ Forbes reported that the world’s 30 most valuable soccer clubs were worth a combined $87 billion in 2026, with Real Madrid retaining the top spot and the ranking featuring 11 Premier League clubs.

💸 TMRW Sports and Alex Morgan’s Trybe Ventures added world No. 1 tennis player Aryna Sabalenka, two-time Olympic hockey gold medalist Hilary Knight, and five WNBA players to WTGL’s investor group, strengthening the new women’s team golf league being developed in partnership with the LPGA before its fall launch.

💰 Agilitas, an India-based vertically integrated sportswear platform, raised $26.5 million (Rs 225 crore) from Nexus Venture Partners and Rainmatter by Zerodha to strengthen manufacturing, brand building, retail, and technology as its pushing toward global scale.

💰 Noa, an online wellness startup raised $5.7 million (€5 million) in a round led by Founders Future with participation from Kima Ventures, Drysdale, Eden, Intuition, and mobile-sector business angels to launch its first fitness and Pilates app designed first for women and build a premium online wellness brand.

💰 Nardo, an Australian sports technology platform for grassroots and semi-professional clubs, secured $1 million in pre-seed funding as former Socceroo Tim Cahill joined as an investor and strategic partner to accelerate commercial expansion across the United States, United Kingdom, and the Middle East.

💰 Vivilo, an Italian AI-powered event content startup formerly known as Jubatus, raised $715,000 (€628,000) in pre-seed funding from Italian investors to support growth, platform development, team expansion, and the creation and distribution of personalized photo and video content for event participants.

💰 TIVA Performance, a French performance cosmetics company, secured $600,000 (€525,000) in a pre-seed round led by APEX to establish tactical topicals across pro sports, fitness racing, and gym settings through products including grip-enhancing gel and friction-mitigating balm.

💰 US tech company Teamworks will expand its Belfast engineering team over the next three years, advancing the company’s research and development in AI, data and platform capabilities. Invest Northern Ireland offered Teamworks $0.5 million (£398,077) in financial support for a three-year Belfast R&D project.

💰 CardsHQ and Sports Card Investor merged after receiving an undisclosed strategic growth investment led by Shamrock Capital alongside EnOne Ventures to merge into a single CardsHQ platform and fund new stores, and deeper integration of content, commerce, live breaking, and community for trading card collectors.

🤝 RTL Group completed its $78 million (€68 million) acquisition of Sky Deutschland from Comcast, bringing together two major German-speaking European media and broadcasting operations.

🤝 Brand Velocity Group acquired RCX Sports from Raine Partners for an undisclosed amount to scale the North American youth sports platform that manages official league-backed programs including NFL Flag, MLS GO, Jr. NBA and Jr. WNBA Leagues, MLB Pitch, Hit & Run, and NHL Street.

💸 Los Angeles Lakers star Luka Dončić invested in an ownership group led by former Dallas Mavericks executive Donnie Nelson that purchased Italian Lega Basket Serie A club Vanoli Cremona for an undisclosed amount, with the team eyeing an NBA Europe future.

💸 The Sacramento Pitch secured $1.8 billion in public-private funding for a shovel-ready 50-acre stadium site as business, civic, tribal, and community leaders launched a campaign to bring an MLB expansion franchise to Greater Sacramento.

💸Members of the Glazer family are reportedly studying a part or full divestment of their Manchester United stake after more than 20 years of ownership, as the club continued to operate under a split ownership structure involving the family and Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s INEOS.

💸 885 Capital acquired full control of CD Leganés in a deal valuing the Spanish second division club at around $116.5 million (€100 million), after buying out Blue Crow Sports Group’s stake and increasing its ownership to 99.1%.

💸 A pair of South Florida-linked families bought roughly 15% of the Miami Marlins at a $1.55 billion valuation, giving owner Bruce Sherman new capital as the MLB franchise addressed its debt position.

💸 Nationwide Mutual Insurance agreed to buy a 37% stake in the Columbus Crew at a $900 million valuation, after partnering with the Haslam family to secure the 18th NWSL franchise in Columbus.

💸 Melinda French Gates joined the Seattle Kraken as a minority investor, pending NHL approval, becoming part of an ownership group led by majority owner and managing partner Samantha Holloway alongside investors David Wright, Andy Jassy, and Jerry Bruckheimer.

💬 JOIN THE CONVERSATION

Powering Innovation & Investment Insights in Sports. Every Week.

A US consortium put in a $2.3 billion bid for SSC Napoli. FIFA World Cup prep is accelerating - Fan IDs live, AI concierges across host cities, 40 matches headed to Cosm's 12K LED domes. But such events don't take place without their fair share of controversy, this time it's ticket prices (surprise) as the New York and New Jersey attorneys launch an investigation into ticketing practices.

In our lead this week we recap SPORT[GEN] Summit in Paris - a strong debut means they have earned their place on our ‘recommended events’ calendar.

💡 EVENTS

SPORT[GEN] Summit Recap: Paris Puts Sports Innovation in Focus

The first edition of SPORT[GEN] Summit brought the sports business community to Paris for two days of conversations across investment, technology, media, women’s sport, fan engagement and performance. The event’s strongest part was the breadth of the room: rights holders, investors, startups, technology partners, media companies and sports organisations all looking at how the industry is evolving with new capital, AI, emerging formats and changing fan behaviour.

The summit also featured The Draft, a startup competition supported by BNP Paribas, PSG Labs, AWS & SportsTechX.

Nine companies pitched, three made the podium:

• 🥇 PLAYBACK: An integrated platform for players, coaches and fans. Combining video, GPS, operations, tagging, analytics, clip distribution and player data in one interface. The platform includes AI match tagging, instant video breakdowns, player benchmarks and automated clip delivery, making it relevant for teams trying to reduce fragmented workflows across performance and analysis.

• 🥉Sports Impact Technologies: Focused on athlete safety through real-time head impact monitoring. The Dublin-based startup is developing wearable technology to detect and monitor head impacts, addressing one of the most important welfare challenges in contact sport.

• 🥈 Billy: Next-gen event ticketing platform for promoters across concerts, festivals, conferences, sport events and live shows. The French startup is focused on helping organisers create branded ticketing experiences, sell tickets and grow communities around events, which makes it directly relevant to the fan experience and live sports economy.

The SPORT[GEN] Summit landed as a top-tier conference. Add the fact that it's a first edition really shows the direction of travel for sports tech events.

Great speaker lineup, classy venue, strong engagement amongst attendees. Everything you need to make a conference worth the trip.

Sports tech events are absolutely taking it up a notch. Thanks for the invite, looking forward to the next one.

📰 THE LATEST

Top News From The World Of Sports Tech & Biz

⚽ England and Manchester United defender Harry Maguire co-founded and invested in Feedz, an AI coaching app that converted spoken audio notes into structured player reports for athletes, parents, and coaching staff.

⚽ Lots of news about the upcoming FIFA World Cup 2026

• FIFA launched the FIFA Fan ID, a free physical card and fan memento available to every FIFA World Cup 2026 ticket holder across all 104 matches and 16 stadiums, unlocking a digital experiences.

• Fanatics Markets and ADI Predictstreet launched a FIFA World Cup 2026 Hub for U.S. fans, combining global football prediction markets with tournament news, official player data, and in-app content across the Fanatics Markets app and website in 23 U.S. states and four territories.

• Cosm and FOX Sports expanded their FIFA World Cup 2026 partnership to show 40 matches at Cosm’s shared reality venues in Los Angeles, Dallas, and Atlanta on 27m-wide 12K+ LED domes, while Diversified was set to host a US v Australia watch party at InfoComm.

• The BBC planned to skip the first-ever FIFA World Cup final halftime show featuring Shakira, Madonna, and BTS on its main broadcast and keep its traditional halftime coverage focused on pundit analysis.

• FIFA World Cup host cities deployed AI concierges for visitors, including Frisco’s GuideGeek-powered Frankie, NYC Tourism’s Ellis and Libby bots, and an Official NYNJ World Cup Concierge backed by the New York New Jersey host committee.

• An investigation by the New York and New Jersey State Attorneys into FIFA’s ticketing practices for the upcoming World Cup.

🏎️ Scuderia Ferrari HP used IBM’s AI to overhaul its fan app with games, AI-written race summaries, behind-the-scenes team and driver stories, predictions, and an AI companion, as the team aimed to turn race data into more personalized storytelling for fans.

🏈 The Canadian Football League signed six-year media agreements with Bell Media’s TSN and RDS, added DAZN as a broadcast partner, and named YouTube as a premier platform partner from 2027 in the largest media rights deal in league history.

⚽ Apple TV streamed the LA Galaxy vs Houston Dynamo FC MLS match from Dignity Health Sports Park as the first major professional live sports event captured entirely on iPhone 17 Pro, with iPhones positioned across the venue and paired with a $265k Fujinon Duvo 25-1000 cinema box lens.

🏏 South African cricket legend AB de Villiers joined AI-powered cricket technology platform Kabuni as a super coach, alongside Sourav Ganguly and Shane Watson, as the company expanded its coaching and development platform powered by AI, biomechanics, motion capture, and real-time tracking in India’s grassroots cricket ecosystem.

⚾ Major League Baseball announced a partnership with RISE Worldwide, a wholly owned Reliance Industries subsidiary, to grow baseball in India through marketing, social media, commercial initiatives, grassroots activations, digital content, and a live event in Mumbai in October 2026.

🏏 SI (formerly Sportz Interactive) enabled six IPL franchises to build more than 10 million first-party fan profiles during the 2026 season through its FanOS engagement operating system, converting passive social followers into known, consented users owned directly by each franchise.

🏀 Euroleague CEO Chus Bueno said the league remained open to a partnership with NBA Europe but warned cooperation was not inevitable as Euroleague prepared a major direct-to-consumer push and targeted a €3 billion valuation.

🏒 The PWHL Players Association published individual player salaries for the first time, with 194 players earning between $37k and $126k only 10 players receiving six-figure compensation, and roughly two-thirds earning less than $60,000.

💰 PlayerData, a Scotland-founded performance tech company, raised $12 million in Series A funding led by Pentland Ventures, Darco Ventures, and Bolt Ventures, with Tennis Australia and Kevin Durant’s 35V joining as strategic investors, as it expanded from a lower-cost GPS wearable into connected ball technology and AI-powered video.

💰 Coachbetter, a Zurich-based sports technology company modernizing the operational infrastructure of amateur and youth soccer clubs, secured $8.2 million in pre-Series A funding from Brighteye Ventures, Swiss Founders Fund, ZEN11, Hansi Flick, Paul Lambert, and Julian Draxler to expand its engineering and product teams, enhance platform functionality, strengthen collaborations with professional soccer organizations, and scale into new international markets and club structures.

💸 Zlatan Ibrahimović joined Italian sports performance analysis company K-Sport as a shareholder, global ambassador, and anchor investor to support its international expansion across Europe, the United States, and Asia as the company launched a new funding round.

🤝 SportAI acquired Padelytics for an undisclosed amount, bringing together two AI and video analysis companies to build a racket sports platform focused on padel, tennis, and pickleball.

🤝 Billionaire Patrick Soon-Shiong bought a Major League Volleyball expansion team in Los Angeles for an undisclosed amount, with Ben Priest set to co-own the franchise ahead of its debut next year.

🤝 Athvance Sports acquired a significant stake in Benelux MMA organization Levels Fight League for an undisclosed amount, adding a fast-growing fight platform with proven fighter development and international expansion potential to Athvance Capital’s sports IP portfolio.

💰 LIV Golf is seeking up to $350 million in new investment and planned to shrink to a 10-event schedule while giving players equity stakes, as it tried to survive the loss of Saudi PIF backing after 2026.

🤝 A US consortium led by Underdog Global Partners offered about $2.3 billion (€2 billion) to acquire SSC Napoli from the De Laurentiis family.

💬 JOIN THE CONVERSATION

Powering Innovation & Investment Insights in Sports. Every Week.

A busy week in the world of sports: US Democrats are trying to ban PE in youth sports, LIV Golf is preparing for a potential US bankruptcy filing, the Esports World Cup is moving to Paris, MSG Sports is splitting the Knicks and Rangers into separate companies, the NBA Playoffs just delivered their highest viewership in 29 years, and so on. So actually, just a regular week in sports in 2026.

Speaking of big announcements: ~$5 billion in committed capital has been announced so far in 2026 across sports-focused funds. For context, we're 38.9% into the year. From billion-dollar buyout vehicles to €5 million angel collectives, this week we mapped every active fund, who's behind them, and the four themes capital is concentrating around.

💡 INTELLIGENCE HUB

We're not even five months into 2026 and the industry has already announced roughly $5 billion in committed capital across sports-focused and sports-adjacent funds. Private equity, venture, athlete-led platforms, women's sport, betting infrastructure, sustainability, accessibility, sports IP, we have the full spectrum.

Announced commitments are one thing. The bigger question is deployment. How much gets put to work, and when, is what actually matters. That's what we'll be watching. Here's the full list of funds launched and active in 2026:

1. Otro Capital, Fund I, $1.2B (USA): Dedicated sports buyout fund targeting control stakes in premium sports assets. Closed oversubscribed at more than double its $500M original target. Existing exposure includes Alpine Racing (F1), Two Circles, FlexWork Sports and Utah Brands & Entertainment. The largest first-time dedicated sports buyout fund ever raised globally.

2. Bruin Capital, $1B (USA): New global sports platform capitalized by Bruin, 26North, TJC and other partners. George Pyne's firm targets sports economy "second-level enablers" including technology, data, media and commercial services. Total capital raised since 2015 now exceeds $2B.

3. Domain Entertainment Fund II, $768M (USA): Atlanta-based vehicle from Domain Capital Group, investing in film libraries, television participation and music catalogs. Sports is included as an additional entertainment-related allocation. The vehicle sits in the sports-adjacent category alongside literary works and theatrical productions.

4. L Catterton, CHAMP, reported $500M (USA): Athlete-led consumer co-investment platform with Patricof Co, where 250+ athletes co-own portfolio companies. The strategy spans food, apparel, wellness and adjacent consumer categories. Named athletes include Cooper Flagg, Tyrese Haliburton, Mike Trout, Dak Prescott and Kevin Durant via 35V.

5. 154 Partners, Fund I, $400M (USA): Debut lower-middle-market PE fund closed at hard cap, founded by former Blackstone colleagues Isaac Harrouche and Mike Berlin in partnership with David Blitzer. Sports and live events identified as a core opportunity area. Has already invested in a sports and live event-focused guest services platform.

6. Ariel Investments, Project Level, $250M first close (USA): Chicago-based women's sports growth capital vehicle led by Mellody Hobson and Jason Wright. Reached its $250M first close in February with a reported $1B total target. Initial investments in Denver Summit FC (NWSL) and League One Volleyball.

7. EnOne Ventures, reported $250M target (USA): Joint vehicle from OneTeam Partners and EnTrust Global, focused on athlete-backed businesses where athlete IP drives value creation. Coverage spans tech, consumer platforms, health, wellness and youth sports. Anchor investors include an Asian sovereign wealth fund, family offices and Fanatics. Initial investments: MARI and The Realest.

8. Sideline Group, Fund I, $155M (USA): NYC-based vehicle backing the "offline economy" across consumer, sports, media, entertainment, active lifestyle and live experiences. Founded by Greg Mazlin (ex-Silver Lake, Tiger Global). Portfolio includes Bandit Running, Urban Golf Performance, MARI and Milky Way Park.

9. Synergy Sports Capital, Fund I, $150M target (USA): Houston-based PE vehicle targeting controlling stakes in emerging sports leagues, teams and ecosystem assets outside the Big Four. Founded by ex-NFL receiver Terrence C. Murphy Sr., with Reggie Bush as a Partner. First deals: Atlético Dallas (USL) and LOVB Salt Lake.

10. InStudio Ventures, Sports & Performance Fund, $50M (USA): Los Angeles-based early-stage sports and performance technology fund led by Danny Cortenraede with an emphasis on AI-led businesses. Anchored by stakes in the Buffalo Bills, LA Chargers and Aston Martin F1. Existing portfolio includes Springbok Analytics.

11. Pleasant/Rock (USA): Sports and real estate investment and development platform founded by Malcolm Jenkins and Brian K. Hinds Jr. New Jersey-headquartered with $200M+ in active developments. Targets $500M in total investments by 2028 across sports-adjacent real estate, workforce housing and modular development.

12. Gamma Waves Partners, €55M of €100M target (Netherlands): Amsterdam-based permanent capital platform at the intersection of Sports IP and Sports Tech. Founded by former Juventus president Andrea Agnelli, Giorgio Chiellini and Rocco Benetton, with Kyang Yung as CIO. Targets minority stakes in clubs, teams, athletes and growth-stage sports tech.

13. COREangels SportsTech, €5M (Portugal): Lisbon-based pan-European angel collective backing early-stage sports tech startups across AI, data, wearables, fan engagement and esports. Launched in 2025 with first close and first investments deploying in 2026. Co-managed with OW Ventures, average ticket ~€120K.

14. BettingStartups Capital (Canada): Founder-funded pre-seed and seed vehicle for sports betting, iGaming and B2B infrastructure startups, writing checks of $100K to $250K. Co-led by former Pinnacle CEO Paris Smith, investor Magnus Hedman and BettingStartups founder Jesse Learmonth. First investment: InsightPlay.ai.

15. Wales Golf G4D Accessibility Fund, £500K (UK): Grant programme from Sport Wales with Welsh Government support, administered by Wales Golf and tied to Wales hosting the G4D Open at Celtic Manor. Clubs can apply for capital projects up to £20K each with 20% co-funding.

16. Admiral Group Sustainability in Sport Fund II, £100K (UK): Welsh grant programme run by the Welsh Sports Association in partnership with Admiral's Green Fund Initiative. Second-year round opened in late 2025 with winners announced and capital distributed in 2026. Supports grassroots organisations driving environmental change through sport.

Four themes from this list:

1. Scaled buyouts are getting serious: Otro at $1.2B, Bruin at $1B, 154 Partners at $400M. These aren't opportunistic plays. Dedicated sports PE is institutionalising.

2. Athletes are becoming capitalists: L Catterton's CHAMP, EnOne, Synergy, Pleasant/Rock. Athletes co-owning the businesses built around their names and IP. Has been happening for a while and isn’t going to stop. The endorsement deal is starting to look quaint.

3. Women's sport is getting real money: Ariel's Project Level at $250M targeting $1B, LOVB, Denver Summit FC. Not tokenistic cheques. Structured growth capital with return expectations attached.

4. The edges of the ecosystem: Betting infrastructure, sustainability, accessibility, angel collectives. BettingStartups writing $100K cheques in Canada. Wales Golf running a £500K grants programme. The money is going everywhere now.

The industry is attracting every kind of money. The deployment numbers will tell the real story. Watch this space.

📰 THE LATEST

Top News From The World Of Sports Tech & Biz

• 🎮 EA Sports FC Pro Mobile launched a global esports circuit with qualifiers, regional events, and a $350,000 prize pool leading to a World Championship.

• 🎮 ESL FACEIT Group and TikTok launched the first esports vertical livestream broadcast product co-developed for TikTok, debuting at Intel Extreme Masters Atlanta to reach the global gaming community.

• 🎮 The Esports Foundation announced that the 2026 Esports World Cup would be hosted in Paris, France.

• 🏅 FORM won the Smarter Athletics & Aquatics Innovation Award for its HeadCoach 2.0 technology at the 2026 Smarter Sports Awards (formerly the STA Awards), becoming a three-time winner, building on back-to-back best wearable tech victories in 23 and 24.

• ⚙️ Apple expanded Apple Sports to more than 90 new countries and regions, bringing availability to more than 170 markets globally.

• 🏀 The 2026 NBA Playoffs delivered the highest viewership through the Conference Semifinals in 29 years, averaging 4.5 million viewers per game across ABC, ESPN, NBC/Peacock, and Amazon Prime Video.

• 📺 FIFA finalized a World Cup broadcast agreement in China worth a reported $60 million just weeks before the tournament began.

• 🏎️ NASCAR is shifting away from using Nielsen's new "Big Data" formula for counting ratings for the rest of the season, amid concerns that it's uniquely harming the auto racing series. NASCAR viewing was down 1% for the Fox portion of the 2026 season with Big Data but up 1% with the old Panel-only method.

• 🏃 Athlos announced that its all-female track meet would make its London debut in September as the event expanded to two editions.

• ⚽ UEFA vowed to strictly enforce rules preventing clubs under the same ownership from competing together in the Women’s Champions League.

• 🎾 French Open players planned a media protest over prize money after claiming their share of revenue had dropped to 14.3% compared with 22% at other events. A topic we covered in depth in our recent report. 

• 🏈 The NFL planned to expand its international schedule in 2027, with executive vice president Peter O’Reilly saying the league was exploring future game sites in Asian markets including Japan. While also targeting a 2027 launch for a professional flag football league.

• 🏀 The San Antonio Spurs and New Orleans Pelicans scheduled regular-season games in Paris and Manchester in 2027, with Manchester set to host its first NBA regular-season game.

• 💸 MSG Sports advanced plans to split the New York Rangers and New York Knicks into separate companies through an SEC filing.

• 🏟️ DraftKings announced plans to close its in-person sportsbook at Wrigley Field after operating the venue for about two years.

• 💰 Zerodha acquired more than 3.5 million shares in Nazara Technologies for $10.9 million (₹93.05 crore), while its promoter entity Axana Estates purchased 14.8 million shares for $46 million (₹392.9 crore).

• 💰 Muybridge raised $16 million in a Series A funding round led by Investinor, Fairpoint, Idekapital and RunwayFBU, to expand its software-defined imaging platform for virtual real-time camera perspectives in sports and live event production.

• 💰 SponsorCX, secured an additional undisclosed investment into their Series A funding round led by Kickstart, with participation from Blueprint Equity, Capital Eleven, Frazier Group, Helm Ventures, to further develop its partnership operations platform for sponsorship management.

• 🤝 Panasonic Projector and Display Corporation acquired UK-based media technology company Hive Media Control to strengthen its live production and media workflow capabilities.

• 🤝 Global sports, music, and entertainment company THE·TEAM acquired a significant ownership in Italian football talent representation business, GG11.

• 🏟️ The Tampa Bay Rays, Hillsborough County, and the city of Tampa agreed on a new funding memorandum for a proposed $2.3 billion stadium project in West Tampa.

• 🏅 US Democrats are pushing a new legislation to ban private equity firms from owning youth sports businesses amid growing investor activity in the sector.

• 💸 A private equity fund acquired the Owen Sound Attack, making the franchise the first Canadian Hockey League team owned by a private equity group.

• 💸 Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund considered selling a minority stake in Newcastle United to help finance a potential £1 billion stadium and infrastructure redevelopment project.

• 💸 Ari Emanuel and Michael Dell joined a group of investors purchasing a minority stake in the Las Vegas Raiders.

• 💸 LIV Golf began preparing for a potential US bankruptcy filing if it failed to secure new funding by the end of the season.

• 💸 TKO Group executives Ari Emanuel and Mark Shapiro invested in the Las Vegas Raiders alongside other investors at a reported $9.9 billion valuation.

• 💸 The United States Tennis Association seeks $400 million in private debt financing from institutional investors to refurbish Arthur Ashe Stadium in New York.

💬 JOIN THE CONVERSATION

Powering Innovation & Investment Insights in Sports. Every Week.

Jake Paul isn't the only one taking big swings in boxing. This week Bruin Capital stepped into the ring with a 15% stake in Matchroom at a valuation north of $1.35 billion, backing its US expansion. Elsewhere, a Sergio Ramos-led consortium agreed to acquire Sevilla FC for €444 million, the NBA is apparently putting $3 billion on the table to cover potential early losses for its European league, and Cristiano Ronaldo invested in a sports streaming platform ahead of the World Cup.

This week's feature from our Global SportsTech Ecosystem Report breaks down the structural momentum behind competitive running: record participation, record retention, and a $13.8 billion events market that keeps growing.

Are you running to a finish line this year or would you rather run a bar tab? Let us know in the poll below.

💡 GSTER26: COMPETITIVE RUNNING IS HAVING ITS MOMENT

Record finishers, record revenues, and a new breed of runner turning race weekends into destination experiences , competitive running has become one of the fastest-growing segments in global sports.

• 59,226 finishers at 2025 NYC Marathon , largest US race ever

• 3.1% race churn rate in 2025 , record low

• $13.8B global marathon events market (2024)

INSIGHT

Competitive running is shifting from a niche endurance sport into a global, event-driven participation economy.

Record-breaking marathon participation is no longer an outlier, it's the new baseline. The 2025 TCS New York City Marathon reached 59,226 finishers, while London matched that scale with 56,000. This growth is not episodic , it is structural.

The clearest signal: only 129 of the 4,209 races with over 500 participants failed to return in 2025 , a churn rate of 3.1%, down from 3.9% in 2024 and 5.0% in 2023, and a record low. The market isn't just expanding , it is stabilizing, professionalizing, and consolidating.

WHY IT'S HAPPENING

1. Events as the Anchor

   75% of Gen Z athletes report that a signed-up race is the primary driver keeping them training. A race entry creates a fixed goal, social accountability, and a financial commitment. It anchors training in a way gym memberships don't.

2. Running as Social Currency

   Running has become a visible identity. Training runs, gear, and race completion are shared across platforms for status , from Strava to TikTok and even LinkedIn. Especially as major races are oversubscribed, lottery-based, and increasingly exclusive. Entry itself has become a signal: something to earn, not just buy.

3. The New Third Space

   As traditional social venues decline, run clubs have emerged as vital community infrastructure. For Gen Z and Millennials, they replace dating apps and networking events , one in five Gen Z users has gone on a date with someone they met through exercise.

4. Move for Mental Health

   Runners cite stress and anxiety management as a major motivator. The structured, goal-oriented nature of race training creates routine and focus. Completing a race, a goal set months in advance, delivers a measurable sense of progress and accomplishment that few other activities can replicate.

Continue reading about why it’s happening and why it matters in the full Global Sports Tech Ecosystem interactive web report.

📰 THE LATEST

Top News From The World Of Sports Tech & Biz

⚙️ IBM launched and kicked off the IBM Sports Tech Startup Challenge at Web Summit Vancouver, marking the first showcase in a global initiative to find and accelerate cutting-edge AI startups transforming the world of sports.

⚙️ The San Francisco Unicorns developed an AI-driven product to support team operations and performance analysis as the franchise continued building on its early Major League Cricket success.

🤝 FIFA and Fanatics signed a long-term exclusive collectibles licensing agreement covering trading cards, stickers, and trading card games as part of an expanded commercial partnership.

⚽ FIFA introduced collectible debut patches for players making their first World Cup appearance during the upcoming tournament.

📺 FOX Sports and Cosm partnered to broadcast 40 FIFA World Cup 2026 matches at Cosm venues in Los Angeles, Dallas, and Atlanta.

⚽ Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund signed an agreement to become an official supporter of the FIFA World Cup 2026 ahead of Saudi Arabia hosting the 2034 tournament.

⛳ The PGA Tour relaxed its social media policy to give players greater access to official content for audience growth and fan engagement.

🏅 US lawmakers introduced legislation requiring private equity firms to divest from youth sports businesses following scrutiny of investor involvement in the sector.

⚙️ Genius Sports filed a patent infringement lawsuit against SportsCastr over technology involving real-time graphics integrated into live sports broadcasts.

⚽ Manchester City opened a new £10 million women’s first-team facility at the City Football Academy to support its women’s football operations.

📺 FOX Sports funded a three-year fandom and social connection research initiative at Harvard Kennedy School’s Shorenstein Center to study sports audiences and community engagement.

📺 The WNBA surpassed $3 billion in total media rights value after adding more than $900 million in new agreements since deals with Disney, Amazon, and NBCUniversal were announced in 2024.

🏒 The NHL increased its salary cap by $8.5 million to $104 million, creating significant financial shifts across the league.

💰 PE firm Bruin Capital agreed to purchase a minority 15% stake at a valuation north of $1.35 billion (£1 billion) in sports promoter Matchroom who aims to accelerate its US expansion.

💰 Stockholm-based tennis tracking startup PlayReplay raised $12 million (with participation from Centre Court Capital) as it expands electronic line-calling, now a fixture at elite events, to lower-level play.

💰 Professional Sports Authenticator’s parent company, Collectors, is investing $200 million into the authentication and grading giant to expand operations over the next 18 months.

💰 United Sports Rock partnered with Athleteq.App to support the expansion of technology designed to measure and train mental performance in professional sports.

🤝 ve2ventures acquired sports content platform Content Stadium in its largest deal to date to expand its sports and media ecosystem.

🤝 Cristiano Ronaldo acquired a stake in sports streaming platform LiveModeTV, linked to Brazil’s CazéTV, as part of his expansion into digital sports media ahead of the next World Cup.

🏀 The NBA offered $3 billion to accelerate the launch of a new European basketball league after prospective owners raised concerns about profitability timelines.

💸 Sixth Street is pitching a dedicated sports and entertainment fund to Australian investors and wealthy families while simultaneously exploring active investments in the Australian sports market.

🤝 A consortium led by Sergio Ramos and backed by the Five Eleven Capital has reached an agreement in principle worth around €444 million to acquire Sevilla FC in January.

🤝 The WNBA and NBA Board of Governors approved the sale and relocation of the Connecticut Sun to Houston under new owner Tilman Fertitta ahead of the 2027 season.

🤝 Aston Villa's ownership group, V Sports, are advancing in talks to acquire a controlling stake in French second-division club, FC Annecy, as part of their multi-club ownership strategy.

💸 The World Surf League is evaluating bringing on new investment, including the possibility of selling, after receiving a significant amount of inbound interest as investor interest rises in niche sports leagues

💸 Venezia FC, the professional football club of Venice, announced that it completed a significant minority investment from an investment vehicle led by Tim Leiweke and Francesca Bodie, as part of a €100 million fund raise during 2025-26.

💸 A takeover of Exeter Chiefs by the owners of Premier League AFC Bournemouth has been approved by the Prem rugby club.

💸 ITV continued active discussions with Sky regarding a potential sale of the broadcaster’s network assets.

💬 JOIN THE CONVERSATION

Powering Innovation & Investment Insights in Sports. Every Week.

Four PE deals across four very different sports this week: football's third tier, pickleball, golf clubs, and the IPL. Anyone had that bingo card? Maybe last week, definitely not five years ago.

Our GSTER26 deep dive looks at the structures that decide how athletes actually get paid once the capital that's flying about finally lands.

💡 GSTER26 : WHO HOLDS THE POWER - HOW ATHLETES GET PAID IN SPORTS

Three payment models run professional sport:

• The team that employs you

• The tour that pays you to compete

• The promoter who controls access to the stage

The nuances of each model determine who holds the power in sports, who carries risk, and who actually gets rich.

• ~50%: Share of league revenue NBA players receive, protected by decades of collective bargaining. By comparison, the Premier League average is 60-70%, while in the IPL it’s 18%.

• +33%: Jump in PGA Tour prize money in a single season (by ~$150M) after LIV Golf launched. In the previous eight years combined, the purse had grown just 19%.

• $375M: UFC antitrust settlement paid to fighters in 2025, after a ten-year lawsuit proved the promoter suppressed pay through exclusive contracts and buyouts of rival promotions.

THE STRUCTURE DECIDES

Cristiano Ronaldo earns his wage whether he scores or sits injured in the stands. Novak Djokovic earns nothing from competition the weeks he doesn't play, for any reason. Two of the greatest athletes of their generation - opposite financial realities. The difference is the structure their sport chose.

Every sport, consciously or not, made a foundational decision about how money flows to athletes. That decision shapes everything downstream: who holds leverage, who absorbs financial risk, and who accumulates lasting wealth. There are three models.

• THE TEAM PAYS YOU - A guaranteed salary in exchange for your movement, your image, and your leverage. Football. Basketball.

• THE TOUR PAYS YOU - Prize money based purely on results. No safety net, but no one owns your upside either. Tennis. Golf.

• THE PROMOTER PAYS YOU - Whoever controls access to the biggest stage controls the purse. Boxing. MMA.

Most sports blend elements of all three. The interesting question is always which model dominates and who decided.

More than decisions, these were actually structures built by the people who already had power. The UFC generated $775 million in revenue in the first half of 2025 alone. Its fighters received 17% of it. The sport itself isn't the variable. The structure is.

HOW WE GOT HERE

• THE SHIFTING LEVERAGE: For most of sports history, the imbalance was large but hidden as deals were private. Athletes had no data, no advisors, no alternative. The Bosman ruling in 1995 began slowly shifting leverage. What changed everything was scale and transparency. Sport got richer, deals got public, and social media gave athletes a direct line to their own fanbase. For the first time, the leverage sat with the athlete.

• ATHLETE REVENUE SHARE BY SPORT: Ranges of how much of the money reaches the athletes, across sports, geographies and structures

THE SHIFT

For most of sports history, athletes accepted the model they were born into. Three moments made that impossible to continue.

• LIV GOLF: When Capital Challenged a Century-Old Monopoly

  For 93 years, the PGA Tour held a structural monopoly over professional golf. No guaranteed income, no safety net, no alternative.

• UFC ANTITRUST: When Fighters Finally Fought Back

  UFC fighters were not simply under-paid, averaging $7,500 per fight while their promoter signed billion-dollar television deals, they had no other option.

• NIL: When the Last Unpaid Workforce Got Theirs

  The NCAA spent decades generating billions from athletes prohibited from earning a cent from their own name.

Read more about this shift and where we go from here in the full interactive web report. And how now, for the first time, athletes have enough capital, enough data, and enough alternatives to build something of their own.

📰 THE LATEST

Top News From The World Of Sports Tech & Biz

🎾 AO Startups opened applications for its latest cohort after helping startups including BOLT6 progress from a 2023 pilot to Australian Open commercial deals in 2024 and beyond, while Raven Controls advanced from a 2024 United Cup pilot to an AO Ventures investment in 2026.

🏎️ ALT Sports Data and Caesars Entertainment partnered to launch a new Formula 1 betting product powered by official data, predictive modeling, and race-level simulations across Caesars Sportsbook and William Hill platforms.

📺 LaLiga announced plans to shut down its OTT streaming platform LaLiga+ after nearly a decade of operation.

⚾ The NCAA rules committee approved the experimental use of robot umpires to challenge balls and strikes during the SEC Tournament.

🏈 The NFL introduced new broadcast technology initiatives for the 2026 season after television ratings for the NFL Draft declined despite record in-person attendance.

🏈 YouTube and Netflix prepared to split the NFL’s new five-game media rights package under the league’s latest broadcast agreement.

🎳 Triple B Media launched Bowling TV, a free ad-supported 24/7 FAST channel dedicated to bowling and distributed across platforms including Prime Video, LG Channels, Xumo Play, and DISH TV.

🎾 Accenture and the WTA announced a multi-year partnership focused on improving player experiences and shaping the future of women’s tennis through technology and innovation.

⚙️ Fit:match AI, a 3D body analytics platform for sports performance, announced a strategic partnership with Playmaker Recruiting to provide college coaches, scouts, and recruiting staff with direct access to verified 3D anthropometric athlete data.

🏀 CNBC reported that the Golden State Valkyries became the first WNBA franchise valued at $1 billion in its 2026 team valuation rankings.

🏀 The 2026 NBA Playoffs delivered the most-watched first round in 33 years, with Game 7 between the 76ers and Celtics averaging 11 million viewers on NBC and Peacock.

📺 FIFA faces broadcast uncertainty for the upcoming World Cup in China and India after broadcasters in both countries had yet to finalize media rights agreements weeks before the tournament.

📺 UEFA secured global broadcast agreements across 19 territories approaching $6 billion in annual revenue for competitions including the Champions League.

🏏 Cricket Australia paused plans to sell stakes in Big Bash franchises after resistance to the proposed privatization strategy.

💸 KKR, a leading global investment firm, announced that it has closed its previously announced acquisition of Arctos Partners, a premier institutional investor in professional sports franchise stakes globally and a leader in asset management solutions for sponsors. The transaction has received the specified sports league approvals required for closing.

💸 KKR made a strategic investment in MLS NEXT Pro through a new entity called Hometown Soccer Holdings to accelerate league growth, community engagement, and new market opportunities.

💸 Apollo Global Management led a $225 million investment into Major League Pickleball and the PPA Tour, which will operate under a new parent company called Pickleball Inc.

💰 Stockholm-based tennis tracking startup PlayReplay raised $12 million to expand its electronic line-calling technology for lower-level tennis after deploying the system across 350k sessions ranging from junior tournaments to professional events.

💰 Saudi Arabia-based healthtech company Metafare raised $1 million in funding from Harmonics Ventures and family offices to scale its virtual wellness solutions platform.

⛳ Private equity firm ‌KSL Capital Partners has agreed to buy Invited Clubs, an operator of golf and membership clubs, for around $3 billion, including debt

🤝 DAZN acquired streaming technology company ViewLift for close to $100 million to support its expansion ambitions in the United States.

🤝 Genius Sports completed its acquisition of digital sports and gaming media network Legend for an undisclosed amount to expand its capabilities across official sports data, media, advertising, and iGaming.

🤝 Betterguards acquired the smart fabric intellectual property of fellow NBA Launchpad graduate Nextiles to advance data-driven injury prevention technology.

🤝 William Blair agreed to acquire boutique investment bank Inner Circle Sports to strengthen its presence across the global sports, media, and entertainment ecosystem.

🤝 Billionaire Lakshmi Mittal and his family acquired a 75% stake in IPL franchise Rajasthan Royals for $1.65 billion as Kal Solmani’s proposed deal collapsed.

🤝 A US consortium led by Arise Capital Partners completed the takeover of Sheffield Wednesday, ending Dejphon Chansiri’s ownership of the club.

⚽ American investors expressed interest in acquiring INEOS-owned French football club OGC Nice, which has been formally up for sale for several months.

💬 JOIN THE CONVERSATION

Powering Innovation & Investment Insights in Sports. Every Week.

Another week, this time its two new sports funds. InStudio Ventures launched their $50 million fund anchored by stakes in the Bills and Chargers. While former Juventus president Andrea Agnelli launched Gamma Waves Partners targeting sports IP and tech.

April's monthly roundup shows $819 million in sports tech funding across 16 deals, with Stats Perform's $750 million haul doing most of the heavy lifting. Full breakdown below.

Plus, the NBA is fielding $10B expansion bids from Las Vegas and Seattle, Brighton announced Europe's first purpose-built women's football stadium, and Man City launched a VR fan experience.

💡 INTELLIGENCE HUB

SPORTS TECH INVESTMENT MONTHLY ROUND UP

April 2026 continued the strong momentum from March, with funding reaching $819.4M across 16 deals, while no M&A values were disclosed despite a few transactions taking place. The month was heavily driven by two large rounds from a single company (Stats Perform), skewing both sector and geographic distribution.

Here’s a quick summary:

• Geography:
  Funding was overwhelmingly concentrated in the USA, which accounted for $752.8M (92.3%) of total capital raised. The remaining activity was split across China ($28.0M, 3.4%), India ($23.6M, 2.9%), and Germany ($11.0M, 1.3%).
  On the M&A side, both deals were US-linked, making North America 100% of activity by count.

• Sectors:
  Funding was almost entirely driven by ‘For Athletes’, which captured $782.8M (95.5%) of total funding. ‘For Fans’ accounted for $23.6M (2.9%), while ‘For Executives’ made up just $13.0M (1.6%).
  M&A activity was split evenly between ‘For Athletes’ (50%) and ‘For Executives’ (50%).

• Top Deals:

  Stats Perform raised $475M in debt financing and an additional $275M funding round, accounting for the majority of April’s dealflow.

  On the M&A side, ViewLift was acquired by DAZN, and Sportsbox AI was acquired by Bryson DeChambeau, with both deal values undisclosed.

See a more detailed breakdown on the Intelligence Hub and the Global Sports Tech Ecosystem Report.

🏹 SPORT[GEN] SUMMIT

The deals don't happen in the stands, they happen in this room.

1,000+ professionals. 300 organizations. 70% director level.

27 & 28 May 2026 - Pavillon Gabriel, Paris

This is where sport business gets done. Not watched.

SPORT[GEN] Summit is an international, premium event dedicated to the sports business, bringing together on May 27–28, 2026 at Pavillon Gabriel in Paris, executives, rights holders, investors, brands and sponsors, media, and technology solution providers.

With over 1,000 decision-makers and speakers from organizations such as the ATP Tour, PSG, SailGP, the NFL, AWS and JP Morgan, SPORT[GEN] is the platform to build partnerships and shape the future of sport.

You can get a 30% discount on any Startup or Pro tickets using the code: STXPARIS

Don’t miss out on this trip to Paris!

📰 THE LATEST

Top News From The World Of Sports Tech & Biz

⚽ Manchester City launched City Space, an official VR experience built on the Xtadium platform in partnership with YBVR to deliver immersive fan engagement.

⚽ Major League Soccer selected five AI companies for its third Innovation Lab cohort to advance player performance, fan engagement, and media technology.

💸 Monshaat launched a 24-week sports innovation incubator program to support entrepreneurship across sports and connected technologies in Saudi Arabia.

🏓 Researchers developed a table tennis robot called Ace capable of competing with elite players, highlighting advancements in robotics and sports technology.

📺 Gray Media and RAJ Sports launched Rose City SportsNet, a new Portland-based regional network focused on women’s sports programming.

🏀 Meta introduced Live Chats on Threads to enable real-time public group conversations around major cultural events including the NBA Playoffs and Finals.

📺 The NFL and Skydance Sports formed a new studio partnership to develop sports content as part of their broader media collaboration.

⛳ Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund planned to withdraw funding for LIV Golf after the 2026 season following years of multi-billion dollar investment in the circuit.

⚽ Brighton & Hove Albion announced plans to build Europe’s first purpose-built women’s soccer stadium, joining two existing venues in the United States, with an estimated cost of £75–80 million.

🏀 The NBA received interest from multiple investor groups for potential expansion teams in Las Vegas and Seattle, which the league planned to sell for up to $10 billion.

🏟️ The Canadian federal government pledged $660 million over five years to national sport organizations to address participation and funding challenges.

🏅 Magpies Sporting Club launched a Community Grants program to fund athletes and community organizations across men’s sport, women’s sport, and development initiatives in Mackay, Australia.

💸 InStudio Ventures launched a $50 million sports investing fund anchored by small stakes in the Buffalo Bills and Los Angeles Chargers to target sports technology startups.

💸 Former Juventus president Andrea Agnelli, former ⁠Juventus player Giorgio Chiellini, ​and Rocco Benetton, heir of the Italian family ​behind the global fashion brand, came together to launch new fund Gamma ‌Waves Partners to invest in sports-related intellectual property and technology.

💸 EquiDeFi launched a platform allowing fans to invest in emerging sports leagues, starting with Gamebred Fighting Championship, through a private investment model.

💸 Domain Capital Group launched a Sports Credit Strategy and closed a new separately managed account focused on receivables tied to European football player transfers and media rights.

💸 UCF approved the creation of an Athletics Strategic Investment Fund to support one-time initiatives and adapt to the evolving financial landscape of college sports.

💰 Metasports Interactive, a mobile gaming company, raised $20 million in user acquisition funding from London-based growth financing firm Metica to scale marketing efforts and expand its multiplayer cricket game Hitwicket globally.

💰 SportVot, an India-based sports-tech platform, raised $3.9 million (Rs 32.7 crore) in a funding round led by IAN Alpha Fund to drive international expansion and enhance its AI-led sports production and distribution platform that streams over 500,000 matches globally.

💰 Ohio State student Eric Ishekwene secured $50,000 in startup funding through the President’s Buckeye Accelerator to develop his sports-tech venture.

💰 Teamworks secured a significant growth investment led by Hg to accelerate its AI and data strategy across elite sports organizations.

📺 Warner Bros Discovery shareholders approved a proposed $110 billion merger with Paramount Skydance, pending regulatory approval and potential legal challenges.

💸 Thrive Capital acquired a minority stake in the San Francisco Giants through its new holding company Thrive Eternal to expand into professional sports ownership.

🤝 BSN Sports acquired Sports Endeavors and Lax.com for an undisclosed amount to expand its presence in sports apparel, equipment, and direct-to-consumer retail.

🤝 HOK acquired Detroit-based architecture firm Rossetti, known for its sports venue design and renovation work, for an undisclosed amount to strengthen its global sports architecture portfolio.

💸 Big 12 Conference secured a private capital deal to add at least $12.5 million to the conference, with an optional $30 million per school, without granting ownership or governance stakes.

🏟️ TD Garden announced a $100 million multi-year redevelopment investment plan to transform its premium hospitality offerings, including upgrades to the Society Suite experience and event-level clubs.

💬 JOIN THE CONVERSATION