January 11, 2021

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To say NBA fans were excited to see Klay Thompson’s return would be an understatement. There were 844,000 average viewers on NBA TV, 110 million views on NBA platforms, and it was the most-viewed regular-season ‘moment’ ever on NBA social media.

Planet Fitness to Buy 114 Locations for $800M

JOHN HEIDER-Imagn/Design: Alex Brooks

Amid uncertainty for the gym industry, Planet Fitness is doubling down.

The affordable gym chain is acquiring [[link removed]] 114 locations from Sunshine Fitness, its first franchisee, for $800 million in cash and stock. Sunshine Fitness operates in the Southeastern U.S.

Planet Fitness will use a mix of cash on hand and new securitized notes issued from an existing financing facility to pay $425 million of the total bill.

Planet Fitness said it ended 2021 with 15.2 million members, marking a 12-month increase of 1.7 million people. It had 2,254 gyms in its system.Despite this hefty transaction, Planet Fitness said it was “retaining its asset-light business model,” and will own around 10% of its system-wide store base once the deal closes. State of the Gym

The gym industry has faced the twin challenges of the global pandemic and the rise of at-home fitness [[link removed]], but recent data suggests a recovery.

ClassPass showed [[link removed]] a 329% increase in in-person fitness reservations from January to November 2021. Live-stream workouts had a corresponding fall of 58% over the same period, bottoming out at just 2% of ClassPass reservations, compared to 89% in April 2020.

Hybrid work models may be benefiting the gym industry: 70% of respondents in a ClassPass survey said they have gone to a gym or fitness studio on days they’re working from home.

Placer.ai found [[link removed]] that weekly gym visits recovered to 2019 levels by the end of 2021, despite being around 30% below the 2019 benchmark in February 2021.

PPTV Ordered to Pay Premier League $213M

Premier League/Design: Alex Brooks

The High Court in London ruled that Chinese broadcaster PPTV must pay the English Premier League at least $213 million following a nearly year-long rights battle.

PPTV failed to pay two installments to the league last year, which resulted in the English Premier League terminating the three-season deal [[link removed]] worth roughly $650 million. The broadcaster attributed [[link removed]] its missed payments to pandemic-related schedule changes.

The deal, which would have been the Premier League’s biggest overseas contract, only lasted one season. As part of the contract termination, money from the rights was passed down to the league’s 20 clubs.

Judge Peter Foster said that just because unforeseen events “may transpire … does not mean the court will rewrite the parties’ bargain and impose different terms.”

He ordered two payments of $210.3 million and $2.673 million from PPLive Sports International, PPTV’s parent company, along with legal costs and interests. Judge Foster noted that PPTV did not pay outstanding legal fees owed to its lawyers last year. Suning-Owned PPTV

Chinese conglomerate Suning purchased [[link removed]] PPTV for $420 million in 2013. Three years later, the company purchased a minority stake in Serie A’s Inter Milan as part of a $307 million deal.

Suning reported [[link removed]] $642 million in third-quarter net losses.

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Maserati Returns to Single-Seater Motorsports with Formula E

Maserati/Design: Alex Brooks

After a more-than-60-year absence, Maserati is making a return to single-seater motorsports in 2023 by joining Formula E, a racing championship that only uses electric cars [[link removed]].

“To have this brand come into the ABB Formula E Championship, into the electric revolution that we’re pushing, is really an incredible moment for Formula E,” said founder Alejandro Agag.

Maserati’s desire to join Formula E is the byproduct of its parent company Stellantis’ pledge to invest more than $35 billion through the end of 2025 to develop software and electrify vehicles.

Maserati will make its Formula E debut in Season 9 with the new Gen3 car.The company will be the first Italian brand to compete in the motorsport championship. New Era Ahead

Despite canceling nine of its 14 scheduled races during the 2019-20 season, Formula E lost [[link removed]] just $43,700 before taxes in its sixth season, down from a loss of $12 million the year before.

Formula E has imposed new financial regulations ahead of Season 9. The regulations enhance the long-term financial sustainability of Formula E by monitoring and controlling the spending of teams and their manufacturers.

Conversation Starters In The Leadoff, Apple is in talks with MLB to broadcast live games, sports teams are set to invest at least $10 billion in new stadiums, a judge tosses out a $1.8 billion Madison Square Garden lawsuit, and Tempe reportedly rejects the Arizona Coyotes $1.7 billion stadium plan. Click here to listen [[link removed]]. UFC has secured an international partnership [[link removed]] with Discovery Inc. The deal will see Discovery+ air UFC fights in the Netherlands and in Spain on Eurosport. Developers have pocketed [[link removed]] more than $260 billion in revenue on the App Store since 2008. Revenue is up roughly $60 million compared to what Apple reported a year ago. A group of investors have hired [[link removed]] attorney Beth Wilkinson, seeking representation to combat the sale of the NWSL’s Washington Spirit. Wilkinson investigated allegations of workplace misconduct and sexual harassment at the Washington Football Team. Georgia’s first national championship since 1980 [[link removed]] wasn’t entirely unexpected. But in context, the win was groundbreaking for one reason — Nick Saban (almost) never loses. Subscribe to Sports Section [[link removed]] for more on Georgia’s 33-18 win over Alabama and the team’s dominant season.

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Market Movers

U.S. stocks experienced gains across all three major indexes on Tuesday. Here’s a look at how sports-related stocks performed:

MSGS [[link removed]]

Madison Square Garden Sports Corp

[[link removed]]

$168.89

[[link removed]]

+0.23%

[[link removed]] FL [[link removed]]

Foot Locker Inc

[[link removed]]

$42.40

[[link removed]]

+0.40%

[[link removed]] RCI [[link removed]]

Rogers Communications Inc.

[[link removed]]

$49.37

[[link removed]]

+1.46%

[[link removed]] ELY [[link removed]]

Callaway Golf Co.

[[link removed]]

$27.88

[[link removed]]

+3.41%

[[link removed]] T [[link removed]]

AT&T, Inc.

[[link removed]]

$26.34

[[link removed]]

-0.19%

[[link removed]] NKE [[link removed]]

Nike, Inc.

[[link removed]]

$150.01

[[link removed]]

-0.79%

[[link removed]] (Note: All as of market close on 1/11/22) What to Watch

The Auburn Tigers (14-1) face the Alabama Crimson Tide (11-4) tonight at Coleman Coliseum.

How to Watch: 9 p.m. ET on ESPN

Betting Odds: Alabama -3 || ML -150 || O/U 156* ( Bet on DraftKings [[link removed]])

Pick: Expect the Tigers to build on 12 consecutive wins. Take Auburn to cover.

Who ya got? Reply to this newsletter with your prediction for the Auburn-Alabama winner and final score.

Shoutout: Congrats to FOS reader Ron MacSpadyen for correctly predicting the Georgia Bulldogs’ national championship win over the Alabama Crimson Tide!

*Odds/lines subject to change. T&Cs apply. See draftkings.com/sportsbook [[link removed]]for details.

Written by Owen Poindexter [[link removed]], Abigail Gentrup [[link removed]], Justin Byers [[link removed]]

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