One of the leading tools for sports fan engagement now has a serious, fast-moving competitor that could potentially reshape the entire social media landscape.

Beloved by millions of fans, teams, leagues, players, and journalists, Twitter has been embroiled in near-constant controversy in the eight-plus months of Elon Musk’s ownership — and is now facing its first significant challenge in the real-time, short-form social media space from Threads. 

Developed by Facebook parent Meta and that company’s Instagram team, Threads is a text-focused outgrowth of Instagram and represents a new platform for real-time updates and public conversations.

Blowing past other rival entities such as Blue Sky and Mastodon, Threads attracted more than 30 million users in less than 24 hours of initial availability.

Threads’ development arrives with plenty of questions. As Musk has alienated many Twitter users with his embrace of extreme right-wing politics and impulsive management and policy shifts, the similarly reviled Meta co-founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg has his own history of flouting government regulation and spurring allegations of spreading misinformation. 

“This new effort is from a company proven to be rather derelict about user privacy and data,” Tom Richardson, Mercury Intermedia senior vice president and a longtime influential voice in digital sports media, told Front Office Sports.

On a practical level, key Twitter features — such as chronological feeds vital to that platform’s link to live sports — are not currently available on Threads.

In the early days of Threads, the service has already attracted top sports newsbreakers such Adam Schefter and Adrian Wojnarowski, heightening curiosity as to how large it can grow.

Las Vegas will add another major sporting event to the city’s roster by hosting the first NBA In-Season Tournament, which will be announced during NBA Con at Sin City’s Mandalay Bay.

ESPN reports Las Vegas will host the inaugural tournament’s semifinals and final on Dec. 7 and 9, 2023. The tournament’s full schedule, competitive structure, locations, trophy unveiling, and group drawings will all be revealed Saturday night on ESPN at 7:30 p.m. ET.

The NBA’s new CBA — which went into effect July 1 — has already laid out several parameters for the In-Season Tournament. A group stage will divide each conference’s 15 teams into three groups of five — each playing the other four once. Records from the prior season will determine group placement, with each including a team that finished first-third, fourth-sixth, seventh-ninth, 10th-12th, and 13th-15th.

The six group winners and a wild-card team from each conference — chosen from the best group-play record without winning — will advance to the eight-team, single-elimination knockout stage. After the first knockout round, the remaining games will be played at a neutral site — this year in Vegas.

The other 22 teams will play two additional regular-season games during the knockout stage. The four teams that lose in the first round of the knockout stage will play one extra regular-season game during the same time period. All stats will count toward the regular season except for the championship game, per ESPN.

ESPN and TNT are expected to broadcast this year’s tournament, but it could be sold as its own package when the NBA takes its media rights to market next year.

One of the foremost behind-the-scenes investors and dealmakers in sports just got a big pot of new money for more large-scale activity.

The Raine Group — a backer of major entities such as DraftKings, Premier Lacrosse League, and TelevisaUnivision, and a broker on record-setting team sales such as Chelsea FC — has closed on a new, $760 million fund focused on growth-stage companies in sports, media, entertainment, and gaming.

Raine Partners IV was developed from a variety of institutional investors — including undisclosed public pension plans, sovereign wealth funds, and family offices —  and gives the New York-based Raine nearly $4 billion in assets under management.

“We appreciate this vote of confidence from our limited partners, and we look forward to building on our firm’s strong track record,” said Sherri Williams, Raine partner and head of investor relations and fundraising.

The first investment from Raine Partners IV is in Tripledot Studios, a London-based mobile games developer boasting about 50 million monthly active users across its suite of products.

Raine also played a key role in brokering Endeavor’s $9.3 billion takeover of WWE and is leading the long-running sale process for Manchester United, which also could set another industry record.