May 9, 2022

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What a ride it’s been for Nikola Jokic. He’s gone from the 41st overall pick in the 2014 NBA Draft to winning back-to-back MVP awards. And it gets better: The Denver Nuggets are expected to offer [[link removed]] Jokic a five-year, $254 million supermax extension this summer, according to The Athletic.

Liberty Media Bets On Vegas with $240M Land Buy

Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports

Formula 1 won’t come to Las Vegas for another year-and-a-half, but parent company Liberty Media is already making a huge investment in the city.

Liberty has agreed [[link removed]] to buy 39 acres of land east of the Las Vegas Strip for $240 million.

The area will house the pit and paddock complex for the Las Vegas Grand Prix, which will run its inaugural race in November 2023.The purchase will be funded from cash on hand in F1’s accounts.

“The revenues are growing, the race markets are growing, so they’re putting their money where their mouth is,” said McLaren CEO Zack Brown of Liberty on Saturday.

Rising Rights

With F1’s $5 million-per-year U.S. broadcast rights deal with ESPN ending in 2022, Liberty could seek [[link removed]] $75 million or more per year.

“We’re going to see a massive increase,” said Liberty CEO Greg Maffei last Friday.

Maffei noted that there are ongoing shifts in where sports properties can find the largest audiences.

“If you look at cable households, and how many there are compared to Netflix households and [Amazon] Prime households — the idea that the broadest audience is historically on cable — that’s becoming a lot less clear,” said Maffei.

Netflix is widely credited with growing the sport’s popularity through its hit series “Drive to Survive.”

“I don’t think we’d be sitting here at this racetrack [at the Miami Grand Prix] without what Netflix has done,” said Brown.

After $5.2B Deal for Chelsea, Boehly Likely Out of Broncos Race

Isaiah J. Downing-USA TODAY Sports

The Denver Broncos have likely lost one of their billionaire bidders for the team: Todd Boehly.

Boehly, an owner of the Los Angeles Dodgers, Lakers, and Sparks, is heading the group set to take over the Premier League’s Chelsea FC for $5.22 billion, the most [[link removed].] expensive team sale in history. Chelsea confirmed [[link removed]] the consortium as the final bidder on Monday.

The Broncos are expected [[link removed]] to fetch more than $4 billion. If Boehly purchased both teams, the total price tag would be more than double his estimated net worth of $4.5 billion — a stretch, even for a billionaire. Boehly, however, has not officially dropped out of the bidding for the Broncos.

The Gazette reported [[link removed]] that the Broncos sale is down to two groups — one led by Rob Walton, son of Walmart founder Sam Walton, and another led by Josh Harris, co-founder of Apollo Global Management and a Philadelphia 76ers owner.

Walton’s net worth is reportedly [[link removed]] around $68.4 billion.Harris, whose group includes Earvin “Magic” Johnson, has a net worth [[link removed]] of roughly $7.26 billion.

The Broncos denied that there are two finalists.

Time for Takeover

Chelsea’s takeover is subject to approval by the Premier League and U.K. government and must be completed by May 31 — when the team’s temporary license to operate expires.

A portion of the investment — around $3.07 billion — will purchase the shares in the club, which will then be deposited to a frozen U.K. bank account with the plan of donating 100% to charitable causes. Around $2.15 billion will go to investments in Stamford Bridge and Chelsea FC’s women’s team, along with other projects.

SPONSORED BY SAILGP

Chicago Takes Flight

Take one of the country’s premier sports towns, 2.71 million fans, and one of the most iconic skylines in the world and what do you get? An incredible live sports arena that race organizers have dubbed Chicago’s Skyline Stadium.

The Windy City will welcome SailGP [[link removed]] racing for the first time June 18-19 at the United States Sail Grand Prix Chicago at Navy Pier as the championship expands further into North America.

Expanding to 10 teams and 10 events for Season 3 [[link removed]], SailGP is on the rise. The total broadcast audience saw a 220% increase to 823.4 million viewers, with a dedicated broadcast audience of 39.2 million – representing a 131% increase on Season 1.

Learn more [[link removed]] about SailGP.

Historic Kentucky Derby Sets Record Betting Handle

Peter Casey-USA TODAY Sports

The second-largest upset in Kentucky Derby history saw a record number of wagers placed on the “greatest two minutes in sports,” according to ESPN.

Saturday’s 148th edition saw a record betting handle of $179 million in the parimutuel pool, a 17% increase compared to 2021. The historic race, won in dramatic fashion by 3-year-old colt Rich Strike at 80-to-1 odds, also represented an 8% uptick compared to the previous record set in 2019, per Churchill Downs.

Rich Strike — the biggest underdog to win since Donerail’s 91-to-1 odds back in 1913 — took home [[link removed]] $1.8 million for his owners, while second-place Epicenter pocketed $660,000 and third-place Zandon earned $300,000.

Only $501,135 of the pool was wagered on Rich Strike — lowest of any horse in the field. A record $273.8 million was bet on the Derby’s full 14-race card, up 9% from 2019.Derby Week reported a total handle of $391.8 million, up 14% from the previous record.

The Derby wasn’t the only race this weekend that generated record results for Churchill Downs. Friday’s Kentucky Oaks full race card reported a record [[link removed]] handle of $74.6 million, a 37% increase year-over-year and up 24% compared to the previous record in 2019.

Lots of Eyes Watching

One of the best races in Derby history also saw an impressive number of viewers tune in for the action. According to preliminary figures, the “Run for the Roses” averaged [[link removed]] a total audience delivery of 16 million viewers across NBC and its streaming platform Peacock — the most-watched Derby since 2019.

Conversation Starters In The Leadoff, RedBird Capital is reportedly in talks for an AC Milan bid, Oracle Red Bull and Crypto.com enjoy international spotlight at the Miami Grand Prix, Under Armour suffers a net loss of $60 million in Q4, and Vista Outdoor reports a record quarter. Click here to listen [[link removed]]. Teenage sensation Carlos Alcaraz continued his meteoric [[link removed]] rise to the top of the men’s tennis world with Sunday’s victory at the Madrid Open. The 19-year-old burned through the sport’s giants, defeating World No. 4 Rafael Nadal in the quarterfinals, No. 1 Novak Djokovic in the semis, and No. 3 Alexander Zverev in the final. WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert says that the league is looking at adding [[link removed]] two expansion teams in the next few years, per The Seattle Times. Multiple WNBA stars pushed the league to find ways to expand opportunities for players. After not playing together for months, Brad Marchand, Patrice Bergeron, and David Pastrnak combined for 16 points in Games 3 and 4 to give the Boston Bruins two consecutive wins [[link removed]] and should even their first-round playoff series against the Carolina Hurricanes. Subscribe to Scoreboard for more [[link removed]].

SPONSORED BY ATTEST

A Closer Look at the Streaming War

In their recent report to shareholders, Netflix announced that it lost subscribers for the first time in a decade, resulting in a net loss of 200,000 subscribers globally. However, data from Attest [[link removed]] indicates that actual usage in the U.S. is holding up.

Hulu and Peacock also show modest gains, while Amazon Prime takes a big hit with a 5.2% reduction in weekly viewers in the U.S. Amazon is not alone in losing viewers, as HBO Max and Disney+ fall by 3.1% and 2.2% respectively.

Meanwhile, the amount of people watching paid streaming services as a whole declined by 1%. Viewing time creeps up though, with a 2.2% increase in people watching for more than 4 hours a day.

Learn more [[link removed]] in Attest’s new media consumption report.

Market Movers

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

GOLF [[link removed]]

Acushnet Holdings Corp

[[link removed]]

$40.71

[[link removed]]

+1.52%

[[link removed]] DKS [[link removed]]

Dicks Sporting Goods, Inc.

[[link removed]]

$89.73

[[link removed]]

-1.41%

[[link removed]] MANU [[link removed]]

Manchester United Plc.

[[link removed]]

$13.18

[[link removed]]

-3.02%

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

Foot Locker Inc

[[link removed]]

$28.35

[[link removed]]

-3.14%

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

Rogers Communications Inc.

[[link removed]]

$49.36

[[link removed]]

-3.71%

[[link removed]] (Note: All as of market close on 5/9/22) What to Watch

The Boston Celtics face the Milwaukee Bucks on Monday at Fiserv Forum. The Bucks lead the Eastern Conference second-round playoff series 2-1.

How to Watch: 7:30 p.m. ET on TNT

Betting Odds: Bucks -1 || ML -115 || O/U 212.5

Pick: Expect the Bucks to build on Saturday’s win. Take Milwaukee to cover.

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

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