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 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 $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.

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 expensive team sale in history. Chelsea confirmed the consortium as the final bidder on Monday.

The Broncos are expected 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 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 around $68.4 billion.
• Harris, whose group includes Earvin “Magic” Johnson, has a net worth 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.

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 $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 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 a total audience delivery of 16 million viewers across NBC and its streaming platform Peacock — the most-watched Derby since 2019.