🔊 Private Equity Is Officially Coming To College Sports

📰 TOP STORY
Elevate Raises $500M To Invest In College Athletic Departments

On the heels of the $2.8B House v. NCAA settlement, in which universities were approved to pay student-athletes up to $20.5M, a new initiative to invest in college athletic departments has been launched.

This past week, Elevate, a global sports and marketing agency, along with Velocity Capital Management, a sports-focused private equity fund, and Texas Permanent School Fund, announced a $500M fund to lend colleges and universities capital for projects that could create long-term growth.

The investments will be structured as private credit instead of an equity stake.

This means the fund won’t have ownership interest in any athletic departments, but will provide money upfront and get paid back over time.

They will also receive a share of the revenue the colleges generate after they recoup their initial investment.

The investment strategy will prioritize key infrastructure and commercial projects, such as:

• Modernizing venues

• Premium seating expansions

• Multimedia rights optimization

• NIL platforms

• Digital innovation

• Broader fan experience enhancements

Elevate currently collaborates with approximately 70 colleges and universities on ticketing strategy, hospitality, operations, and other services.

The move also follows similar efforts by RedBird Capital and Weatherford Capital, who launched a college sports-focused fund in 2024.

Why Is This Important?

This is obviously another monumental shift in college sports.

In the almost 4 years since NIL has been enacted, the business of college sports has been in flux and disarray, but the last week officially marked the end of amateurism in college sports.

We’re in an entirely new era now.

Colleges and universities are directly competing for recruits with their dollars, and investors see a huge opportunity.

Here are a few thoughts on this:

1. This isn’t just capital. It’s strategic capital. I’ve mentioned previously how you can receive funding from anywhere, but it’s a different ball game bringing on board experienced investors who have vast knowledge and expertise in this arena, like Elevate and Velocity.

2. The gap will continue to widen. We’re already seeing this happen on a smaller scale with student-athletes. Walk-ons are being eliminated. Olympic sports are being slashed. It’s a game of the haves and the have-nots, and it’ll likely get worse, unfortunately. We’ll see the top universities continue to excel and innovate, and smaller ones struggle to keep up and compete.

3. We’ll see many other players looking to invest in the coming years. More college sports-focused funds will emerge and vie for a piece of this massive industry. And since college sports don’t have barriers around allowing institutional capital, such as sovereign wealth funds, I wouldn’t be surprised if we see international players come into the mix as well.

How this all plays out long-term is to be determined, ofcourse, but one thing is for certain…

College sports will never go back to the way it was.

Big money is on the table with big-time players.

💰 MERGERS & MONEY MOVES 
New Racquet Sports Social Club Raises $20M

• Ballers Raises $20M. Ballers, a new padel and pickleball-focused social club, has raised $20M in a Series A round from a group of investment firms and pro athletes. Sharp Alpha and RHC Group led the latest round. The athletes that participated included Andre Agassi, Kim Clijsters, Sloane Stephens, Tyrese Maxey, Maarten Paes, Danny Green, Mo Bamba, Kelvin Beachum, Malcolm Jenkins, and Connor Garnett. Ballers plans on opening its first venue next month in Philadelphia, which will have six pickleball courts, three padel courts, two squash courts, four golf simulators, a putting green with sand bunkers, and a 95ft by 45ft turf field that will be used for soccer and other sports (more here).

• Somnee Raises $10M. Somnee, a leader in sleep technology delivering powered by AI-neurotech and software, recently raised $10M in a seed extension round led by Khosla Ventures. Marc Benioff’s TIME Ventures, LEAD VC (founded by the Adidas family), the NBA’s Orlando Magic ownership group (DeVos family), Seaside Ventures, Nelstone Ventures, and Metalab, among others, also participated. The company was a part of the NBA Launchpad program’s last cohort and is in discussions with other leagues, such as the MLB and NHL, as well as corporations and health care companies to expand the use of its smart sleep headband (more here).

• ReSpo.Vision Raises $5M. Poland-based ReSpo.Vision, a sports tech startup that uses AI and computer vision to turn single-camera sports broadcasts into precise 3D player tracking and tactical insights, has raised $5M (€4.2M) in its latest funding round. The investment round was led by VC funds Vinci and Smartlink, with participation from Premier League defender Jan Bednarek. Other high-profile angel investors include Snowflake Co-founder Marcin Zukowski and Wayve Co-Founder Amar Sha (more here).

• Machaxi Raises $1.5M. Machaxi, a sports tech startup focused on grassroots coaching and digital sports infrastructure, has raised $1.5M in a funding round led by Rainmatter, the investment arm of Zerodha. The round also saw participation from Indian badminton legend Prakash Padukone and existing investors. The funding will help Machaxi scale its operations beyond Bengaluru into three new cities, including Hyderabad, Pune, and Chennai, while also building a nationwide framework for AI-powered badminton coaching (more here).

• MLB Acquires Stake In Jomboy Media. MLB has acquired a stake in baseball-focused media platform Jomboy Media. The partnership will provide Jomboy Media with resources and access to MLB IP, while the league will benefit from additional exposure to the media company’s massive audience. Jimmy “Jomboy” O’Brien and Jake Storiale started the company in 2017 with a Yankees-focused podcast before expanding to cover the entire league. Financial details were not disclosed, but the investment was made through Baseball Endowment L.P., a private investment fund owned by all 30 MLB teams (more here).

• Pri0r1ty Intelligence Acquires Halfspace. Pri0r1ty Intelligence, a software company specializing in artificial intelligence and growth services for SMEs, has acquired Halfspace, a London-based sports data and marketing business. This acquisition aims to expand Pri0r1ty’s AI product deployment into the sports sector, leveraging Halfspace’s technology to enhance data-driven marketing and revenue opportunities (more here).

 🤝 PARTNERSHIPS
NFL & Genius Sports Go Deeper Into Betting

• NFL & Genius Sports Extend Partnership. The NFL and Genius Sports have agreed to a multi-year extension and expansion of their existing strategic technology partnership to power the next generation of NFL fan experiences through official data and video distribution. Genius Sports will remain the NFL’s exclusive distributor of real-time, official play-by-play statistics, proprietary Next Gen Stats data, and the League’s official sports betting data feed to media companies and sports betting operators globally (more here).

• UFC & Sports & Wellbeing Analytics Form Partnership. UFC, the world’s premier MMA organization, and Sports & Wellbeing Analytics, a global leader in sports technology to help protect athletes and optimize their performance, announced a collaboration to monitor and measure biometric characteristics (i.e., heart rate) and head impacts in combat sports. Sports & Wellbeing Analytics will work with the UFC to implement the PROTECHT advanced in-mouth sensor system, designed to monitor an athlete’s heart rate and head impacts in real-time through an instrumented mouthguard (more here).

• Philadelphia Union & Theta Labs Form Partnership. Philadelphia Union announced a multi-year partnership with Theta Labs, a leading provider of decentralized cloud computing services specifically for AI, media, and entertainment industries. Theta Labs will be the presenting partner of the official Philadelphia Union app, which is currently in development and is planned to launch later this summer. The app will feature Theta Lab’s AI assistant that will enhance fans’ gameday experience (more here).

• PlayMetrics & Stack Sports Merge. PlayMetrics, a North Carolina-based provider of operations management software for youth sports organizations, and Genstar Capital portfolio company Stack Sports, a Dallas-based sports organization software provider, have merged. Michael Doernberg, CEO of PlayMetrics, will lead the combined organization as CEO, and Jeff Young, CEO of Stack Sports, will transition to a strategic role as advisor to the board of directors. Genstar Capital will be the majority owner of the combined company. As part of the transaction, Genstar acquired PlayMetrics from Blue Star Innovation Partners, which had been the company’s lead investor since 2023. Financial terms were not disclosed (more here).

🔊 ATHLETES & OTHER NEWS
SL Benfica Launches First-Ever Immersive Store

• SL Benfica Launches Immersive Store Powered By Infinite Reality. Portuguese soccer giants S.L. Benfica have launched an immersive online store powered by Infinite Reality’s visualisation technology. The digital marketplace has been launched ahead of Lisbon side’s participation in the 2025 FIFA Club World Cup, with Benfica claiming they are the first professional soccer team to create a virtual experience for its official merchandise store. The 3D environment features a digital locker room showcasing team products, which is directly connected to the team’s existing online marketplace (more here).

• Sony’s Bet on Sports Pays Off With AI Line Judges At Wimbledon. Human line judges will be absent from Wimbledon this year. Instead, 12 cameras will stand courtside to call whether the ball lands in or out. The Grand Slam tennis championship will fully adopt electronic line calling courtesy of Sony Group Corp.’s subsidiary Hawk-Eye Innovations Ltd. The company utilizes artificial intelligence to precisely pinpoint a ball’s trajectory, providing gameplay analysis and refereeing support across 25 sports, including baseball and soccer (more information here).

• The LA Clippers Are Building The Future Of Tech In Sports. Halo Sports and Entertainment, owned by LA Clippers owner and former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, opened a new arena last year. Longtime Clippers executive Gillian Zucker became Halo’s CEO after its launch. She spoke with Fortune at their COO Summit about implementing tech, including facial recognition, throughout the NBA fans’ experience (more here).

• Fastbreak AI Launches AI Schedule Engine For Youth Sports. Fastbreak AI, the leading AI-powered sports operations software company, announced the launch of the AI Schedule Engine for amateur sports tournament operators in the Fastbreak Compete product. This new engine enables tournament directors to generate complete, competition-ready schedules in minutes, even for events with hundreds of teams across dozens of venues. Fastbreak's scheduling platform currently powers schedules for over 50 of the top professional sports leagues globally, including the NBA, NHL, NWSL, and MLS (more here).

🎙️ PODCAST INTERVIEWS
Building A Purpose-Driven PE Firm Focused On Sports & Entertainment With Peter Robert Casey

This week’s guest on the Vetted Sports podcast is Peter Robert Casey.

Peter Robert Casey is CEO of JDS Sports, a sports and entertainment holding company investing at the intersection of content & commerce.

At JDS Sports, Peter and his team provide capital, connections, and strategic guidance while working alongside founders and their teams from startup to profit to scale.

They also operate Play with Purpose, a donor-advised fund that supports nonprofits using sports for positive impact.

In this episode, we discuss:

‣ The areas in which they like to invest the most
‣ How the acquisition of legendary basketball magazine SLAM happened
‣ Where he sees the future of sports, culture, and community going

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