FuboTV is still riding high—at least on the stock market—as the high-profile Venu Sports legal battle remains in a holding pattern.

In the first full day of trading following a federal judge placing a preliminary injunction against the debut of Venu Sports—the streaming alliance involving Disney, Fox, and Warner Bros. Discovery—FuboTV shares closed up by 17.6% at $1.80 per share. 

The sizable increase added to a separate 17% jump Friday in the immediate hours following the ruling. Earlier in Monday’s trading, FuboTV shares were up by more than 40%. The market activity is happening as Venu Sports is expected to soon contest the injunction ruling. Already, the three companies vowed to appeal in a joint statement. 

On the Other Side

Despite the serious legal broadside to Venu Sports from the preliminary injunction—one that could ultimately imperil the service—the stocks of Disney, Fox, and WBD seemingly were not all impacted on the stock market by the ruling. Shares in WBD ended Monday’s trading up by 3%, while Disney stock was up by 1.7%, and shares in Fox rose by 0.4%. 

A key reason for the apparent disconnect is that Venu Sports is not a particularly large entity in the context of the three media giants—despite the significant industry focus on the service. Each of those companies generates hefty quarterly revenue, ranging from Fox’s $3.1 billion to Disney’s $23.2 billion. 

Venu Sports, conversely, carries at least one notable projection of reaching five million subscribers by 2029. If that rather modest goal is achieved at the service’s introductory rate of $42.99 per month, that would generate less than $650 million in revenue per quarter—a sum that would be shared among the three companies. 

Big Stakes

For FuboTV, however, the stakes in the Venu Sports antitrust dispute remain rather dire, and executives said the survival of the company is at stake. Even with the recent run-up in shares, the stock is still down by nearly 43% for the year.

Some analysts, meanwhile, caution that FuboTV’s surge over the past two days could be an illusion. Seaport Research downgraded FuboTV on Monday to a neutral rating after five months of a buy rating.

“With no change in estimates at this point, and with company guidance indicating their subscriber projections do not reflect the potential impact of Venu operating in the market, we think shares are largely driven by the legal process at this point, including appeals,” the firm wrote in a note to clients.

The NFL regular season doesn’t start for more than two weeks, and the Olympics are over, but the potential marriage of the two sporting giants keeps generating widespread interest.

U.S. men’s flag national team quarterback Darrell Doucette made headlines over the weekend for his resistance to NFL players joining Team USA’s flag football squad for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics. “I think it’s disrespectful that they just automatically assume that they’re able to just join the Olympic team,” Doucette told The Guardian.

Doucette, 35, will lead the 12-man U.S. roster into the 2024 International Federation of American Football (IFAF) Flag Football World Championships, which begins Aug. 27 in Finland. But it was Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts who starred in an ad during the Paris Olympics touting the addition of flag football to the Games in 2028. Fellow star QBs Joe Burrow (Bengals) and Caleb Williams (Bears) have also made their potential Olympic interest known. So have Dolphins wideout Tyreek Hill and Cowboys pass rusher Micah Parsons, among other current and former NFL players.

A Lot on the Table

Despite the hype surrounding Olympic flag football, many details still need to be ironed out over the next four years. How many nations will compete in Los Angeles, and how they will qualify, have not been determined. Neither has the roster selection process for Team USA.

“We’re going to be very open-minded about anyone and everyone meeting the criteria that we set.” USA Football CEO Scott Hallenbeck told USA Today in December. “We’re going for the gold, and we will do what’s necessary to put the best team together.” No specific timetable for the Olympic process has been revealed.

Finding a Middle Ground

If active NFL players want to compete in the 2028 Olympics, and have the green light from team owners, it would seem to be a huge miss for USA Football, the IFAF, or the International Olympic Committee to not allow them to. Perhaps rosters could have a limit on how many NFL players are allowed, in order to still include full-time flag football players.

A controversial call during the Cincinnati Open has tennis stars asking for stricter enforcement of video replay.

Great Britain’s Jack Draper (above, left) won his round-of-16 match, 5–7, 6–4, 6–4, over Canada’s Félix Auger-Aliassime (above, right) after umpire Greg Allensworth ruled a volley from the Brit as legal. Auger-Aliassime believed that Draper had hit the ball first before it hit the ground on his side of the court, but the umpire ruled it a “fair shot.”

The Canadian smiled in disbelief as he approached Allensworth, and even called in another Open supervisor to argue the call. Draper said he wasn’t sure what actually happened, but he was open to replaying the shot.

“If [the supervisor] were to tell me that it hit the floor, I’d play the point again,” Draper said.

But it wasn’t either of the players’ call to make. It was Allensworth’s decision, and he held his ground.

“We can look at it after the match and if I see it wrong, I’ll admit it to you,” said Allensworth, who was also involved in another controversial call earlier in the tournament.

“But that’s going to be too late,” Auger-Aliassime replied.

Had the Canadian won the point, the score would have been 40–40 in a game that if he won, would have tied the score of the decisive third at 5 apiece.

Calls for Change

The replay of the shot has created a divisiveness among the tennis community. Some, like Australian pro Nick Kyrgios, thought it was clear Auger-Aliassime won the point, saying Allensworth made a “horrible call.”

Others couldn’t say for sure what happened after watching the replay. “I don’t think I have ever seen a shot like this,” Greek star Stefanos Tsitsipas, who lost to Draper in the round of 32, posted on X.

But for tennis great Novak Djokovic, the incident highlighted the inconsistent rules surrounding replay in tennis. 

“It’s embarrassing that we don’t have video replay of these kind of situations on the court,” the 24-time grand slam champion wrote on X. “What’s even more ridiculous is that we don’t have the rule in place that would allow chair umpires to change the original call based on the video review that happens off the court! Everyone who watches TV sees what happened on the replay, yet the players on the court are kept in ‘dark’ not knowing what’s the outcome.”

Video review is available in certain instances, particularly for line calls during the US Open, but even in that Grand Slam, only about 75% of the matches will use Hawk-Eye technology for line reviews. The use of Hawk-Eye would be difficult for smaller events because the installation of the tech for one court would cost $100,000, according to CNBC.

However, in the case of Friday’s match, Hawk-Eye tech wouldn’t even be needed. If the rules allowed a look at the broadcast feed, the umpire’s call could be overturned, allowing for a replay of the point.