🔊 $120M Investment Into Youth Sports

📰 TOP STORY
Josh Harris’ Unrivaled Sports Raises $120M To Invest More Into Youth Sports

Washington Commanders’ owner Josh Harris has been on a tear the past couple of years. Don’t believe me? Here are some of the recent moves he’s made:

• Paid $6.05B for the franchise in 2023 (the highest price ever paid for a US sports team at the time)

• Won first playoff game in 20 years

• Made the NFC Championship

• Announced $3.8B stadium deal to move team back to DC

• Announced the DC as the 2027 NFL Draft host city

And this week, he made another significant one.

Unrivaled Sports, a youth sports holding company co-founded by Josh Harris and David Blitzer, raised $120M to expand its presence in venues, leagues, and competitions in baseball, soccer, basketball, flag football, and other sports.

DICK’s Sporting Goods led the latest round, investing in Unrivaled through DSG Ventures, the company’s venture capital fund that it formed in 2022.

Dynasty Equity, LionTree, Miller Sports & Entertainment, and existing investor, The Chernin Group, also participated in the round.

Unrivaled owns 15 youth sports venues and properties across the US, including the Cooperstown All-Star Village near the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, NY, the ForeverLawn sports complex near the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio, and Under the Lights Flag Football, a national youth flag football league.

Unrivaled Sports will leverage this new partnership and investment to:

• Expand access to more young athletes and their families across the country by further acquiring, building, and diversifying destinations and programming that deliver unrivaled experiences to girls and boys of all ages

• Elevate experiences by further investing in upgrading the fields of play, programming, and athlete experiences, from quality officiating to facilities and services that support the athlete and their fans

• Increase amenities across all Unrivaled Sports properties, such as lodging, food and beverage, and retail, to better serve guests and foster community

Why Does This Matter?

The youth sports space is at an interesting inflection point. While institutional capital coming into the space proves to be positive momentum and viable opportunity on one hand, on the other, many are wondering how this impacts amateurism and, ultimately, kids long-term. Investors see this as an untapped, fragmented ecosystem that has a ton of upside and return potential. It’s no different than any other industry that has been disrupted before. The difference in youth sports is the emotional sentiment and the families involved. There are visible gaps in this space that need to be improved and addressed, such as high costs, lack of quality development, high pressure, etc. The question is, will investor dollars negatively or positively impact these concerns? Are institutional investors concerned, or considering the athletes? The truth is, we don’t know yet. These things will play out over time. Even though it’s estimated to be a $70B industry by 2030, the youth sports industry is fragile and has a lot of unanswered questions surrounding its growth, but the one thing we do know is that, regardless of how you or I might feel, the flow of dollars will still be coming. Would love to hear your thoughts on the long-term implications of this.

💰 MERGERS & MONEY MOVES 
Micro Betting Startup Raises Series A Round

• Kero Gaming Raises $3M. Kero Gaming has closed a $3M Series A funding round, led by SIG Sports Investments Corp. (SIG Sports). The investment will accelerate the company’s growth with algorithmically-curated, real-time micro-betting. The round also included continued support from existing backers such as Eberg Capital, Sharp Alpha Advisors, Chicago Trading Company, Avenue H Capital, and Yolo Investments (more here).

• Absolute Sports Acquires TJRWrestling.net & ITRWrestling.com. Absolute Sports, a subsidiary of Nazara Technologies and the parent company of Sportskeeda.com, has signed definitive agreements to acquire TJRWrestling.net and ITRWrestling.com from Titan Insider Digital. The acquisition, valued at $1.25M, is an all-cash asset purchase via Absolute Sports' US subsidiary, Sportskeeda, and is expected to close within 45 days. This acquisition aims to strengthen Sportskeeda's presence in the combat sports segment and expand its reach in the U.S. market (more here).

• Footballco Acquires SoccerGrlProbs. Footballco, a soccer-focused digital media brand, has acquired SoccerGrlProbs, a women’s soccer content and commerce company. Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed. Footballco’s portfolio includes brands such as Goal, Mundial, Spox, Voetbalzone, Indivisa, Calciomercato, Front Three, Player, and Kooora that reach millions of fans globally (more here).

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 🤝 PARTNERSHIPS
Boardroom & Yahoo Sports Announce Content Collab

• Yahoo Sports & Boardroom Form Partnership. Yahoo Sports and Boardroom, the media brand co-founded by Kevin Durant and Rich Kleiman, covering the business of sports and entertainment, announced a content partnership that will help fans better understand the key players and storylines moving the business and culture of sports forward. The collaboration includes two major initiatives: Network with Rich Kleiman, a multi-platform video series, and a dedicated Boardroom hub, a destination on the Yahoo Sports website that will showcase full episodes and clips from the Network video series (more here).

• MLS, Apple & EA Sports Expand Partnership. EA SPORTS, the gaming powerhouse, is revolutionizing how fans engage with live soccer through an innovative new partnership with the MLS and Apple TV. Beginning this month, mobile users of EA SPORTS FC Mobile will be able to stream live MLS matches directly through the in-game FCM TV portal, with up to four matches available weekly via MLS Season Pass (more here).

• CAZ Investments & iCapital Form Partnership. Houston-based CAZ Investments is now on the iCapital Marketplace, offering its investment strategy focused on minority stakes in professional sports teams. Investing across the spectrum of major sporting leagues, the $9B firm is offering the strategy to financial advisors and their clients. In partnership with Arctos Sports Partners, CAZ has become one of the largest allocators to professional sports as an asset class (more here).

• RWS Global & OneTeam Partners Form Partnership. RWS Global, a live entertainment and sports company, and OneTeam Partners, the commercial partner to several Players’ Associations and elite athletes, announced a strategic partnership to reimagine the fan experience at sports venues across North America. RWS Global will utilize its expertise in creating one-of-a-kind, immersive fan experiences to transform stadiums and arenas into bespoke, seasonal worlds that celebrate the unique identity of each team and its fanbase (more here).

• Valencia CF & Legends Form Partnership. Valencia CF has reached an agreement with Legends, a global premium experiences company, to support the club’s strategic growth through the sales and revenue optimisation of the hospitality areas at the Nou Mestalla. The Nou Mestalla will set a new standard for elevating the fan experience, offering nine different concepts that respond to the distinct preferences, tastes, and needs of Valencia CF fans (more here).

🔊 ATHLETES & OTHER NEWS
Former Soccer Pros Lead New Soccer Club Ownership Group

• David Beckham & Gary Neville Acquire Salford City. Salford City Football Club has been taken over by a new ownership group led by David Beckham and Gary Neville. The club was previously part-owned by Beckham, Neville, and other members of the "Class of '92". The new consortium includes US-based businessman Declan Kelly and Mervyn Davies, the chairman of Britain's Lawn Tennis Association, among others (more here).

• Russell Westbrook Launches AI-Driven Funeral Planning Startup. Denver Nuggets point guard Russell Westbrook is launching an AI-driven funeral planning platform. Eazewell is a website that uses AI to help those who have lost a loved one with the next steps, like finding a funeral home or cremation provider, planning the funeral, financing, fundraising, and completing end-of-life tasks and paperwork. The platform, co-founded by Westbrook’s former NCAA National Champion at UConn, Donnell Beverly Jr., and Charlotte Hornets’ player enhancement coach Kemba Walker (more here).

• Michelle Wie West Invests In Togethxr. This week, legendary women’s golfer Michelle Wie West was announced as an active investor in TOGETHXR, the women-founded media company launched by sports icons Alex Morgan, Sue Bird, Simone Manuel, and Chloe Kim. The financial terms of West’s investment weren’t disclosed. West’s investment was a strategic move and part of an effort to expand the company’s reach into golf (more here).

• Mikaela Shiffrin Joins NWSL Denver's Ownership Group. Mikaela Shiffrin, the greatest alpine skier of all time, is stepping onto the soccer field as an owner. This week, she joined the ownership group of the NWSL’s Denver expansion team. The skier joins an ownership group led by Rob Cohen, CEO of Denver’s IMA Financial Group, and Ariel Investments Co-CEO Melody Hobson through Project Level — Ariel’s fund dedicated to investment in women’s sports (more here).

• CNBC Releases Global Soccer Team Valuations For 2025. The world’s 25 most valuable soccer teams are worth an average of $2.76B, according to CNBC’s Official Global Soccer Valuations 2025. On average, the 25 most valuable teams generated revenue of $520M and earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization, or EBITDA, of $54M last season, according to the valuations (more here).

• Saudi Sovereign Wealth Fund PIF Deepens Investment In Women’s Pro Golf. The Public Investment Fund, the sovereign wealth fund of Saudi Arabia, announced on Wednesday that it will become the title partner of five events that will take place on the Ladies European Tour. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. As part of this latest deal, the tour will revamp the five events, which will be collectively rebranded as the PIF Global Series (more here).

🎙️ PODCAST INTERVIEWS
Insights On The Sports Collectibles Sector With Long-Time Sports Investor Lance Dietz

This week’s guest on the Vetted Sports podcast is Lance Dietz.

Lance Dietz is an investor who focuses on sports technology startups, collectibles gaming, and other adjacent sectors for KB Partners. KB Partners is a Chicago-based VC firm focused on investing in early-stage companies at the intersection of sports and technology.

In this episode, we discuss:

‣ The growth of sports collectibles as an asset
‣ What KB Partners looks for in investment opportunities
‣ Some of the sports trends he’s paying the most attention to

Check out the full episode here: Apple | Spotify | YouTube