Some NBA champions with a knack for forward-thinking investments are getting in on pickleball as the sport gains popularity across America.

LRMR Ventures, the family office of LeBron James and his business partner Maverick Carter, are purchasing a Major League Pickleball team as part of an all-star consortium.

• NBA stars Draymond Green and Kevin Love, investment firm SC Holdings, Relevent Sports Group co-owner and CEO Daniel Sillman, and SpringHill Company CMO Paul Rivera are also part of the purchasing group.
• The team, whose name is yet to be determined, will be part of a four-team MLP expansion to 16 teams.
• Retired NFL champion Drew Brees, entrepreneur Gary Vaynerchuk, and Milwaukee Bucks owner Marc Lasry also own MLP teams.

“Having LRMR Ventures, SC Holdings, and their incredible group as owners and investors in Major League Pickleball is not just great for MLP, but it’s a watershed moment for pickleball in general,” said MLP founder Steve Kuhn.

The league’s prize purse across six 2023 tournaments will be more than $2 million.

LRMR Ventures and SC Holdings have linked up before, co-leading a $29 million investment in Canyon Bicycles in July.

Pickleball Mania

A Sports and Fitness Industry Association survey from February found that 4.8 million people in the U.S. played pickleball in 2021, representing average annual growth of 11.5% over five years.

The sport shows impressive age diversity, with all of the five main age brackets representing at least 12% of all players. It is most popular among the 18-34 demographic, which makes up 28.8% of all U.S. players.

LeBron, Draymond, and Love may have just boarded a rocket ship. There are 66 new places to play pickleball opening up in the U.S. every month — and MLP aims to grow pickleball to 40 million players by 2030.

Editor’s note: SC Holdings is an investor in Front Office Sports.

Steve Ballmer is ready to welcome both the Olympics and the World Cup to his adopted city soon, but in the meantime he’s making the most of owning the Los Angeles Clippers.

Forbes has once again ranked Ballmer, former CEO of Microsoft, as America’s richest sports owner for the eighth consecutive year. His net worth is an estimated $83 billion.

• Newcomer Rob Walton ($56.7 billion) took second after his purchase of the Denver Broncos.
• Four different sports round out the top five: David Tepper ($18.5 billion) owns the Carolina Panthers and Charlotte FC, Robert Pera ($17.6 billion) owns the Memphis Grizzlies, and Steve Cohen ($17.5 billion) owns the New York Mets. 
• Cleveland Cavaliers owner and Quicken Loans founder Daniel Gilbert ($17.3 billion) landed at No. 6 despite losing 44% of his wealth.
• Jerry Jones made the biggest one-year jump, 75.8%, to $16 billion. His $8 billion Dallas Cowboys are the most valuable NFL team.

Ballmer told Front Office Sports that even with the explosive growth in value across sports, he intends to remain focused on basketball.

Over the past four years, he successfully led an effort to renovate all 350 public basketball courts in L.A. after a $10 million donation to the city’s parks foundation.

Jump Ballmer

“I had a love for L.A. before I spent time here, and since I’ve been involved with the Clippers, I just like it more and more every year,” Ballmer told FOS. “If you’re going to be participants in the city like we are, we’re going to go all in.”

The Clippers are moving from Crypto.com Arena to the $2 billion Intuit Dome, opening in 2024.

The venue could be a host site for the Olympic Games in 2028. The Forum, which Ballmer bought for $400 million in 2020, is reportedly set to host gymnastics.

Fitness equipment company Nautilus is considering a sale of the company as part of a review of strategic alternatives.

Nautilus — maker of gym equipment, exercise bikes, and treadmills as well as the owner of Bowflex and Schwinn indoor cycling bikes — stated the review will “identify opportunities to accelerate the company’s digital transformation … and enhance shareholder value.”

The company aims to reach $1 billion in revenue with 2 million digital members by the end of fiscal 2026. 

• Nautilus is on pace to reach 500,000 members on its digital fitness platform JRNY by fiscal year-end 2023. 
• As of June 30, JRNY exceeded 360,000 members.

Last month, the company reported first-quarter net sales of $54.8 million, a 70.3% year-over-year decline but an 11% increase from pre-pandemic Q1FY2020. In the past 12 months, the company’s stock plummeted nearly 84% to a market cap of $52.8 million.

Nautilus doesn’t have a time frame to conclude the board-launched review, which arrives shortly after the company announced board member Anne Saunders would become board chair.

Naut Alone

Nautilus reported multiple record quarters in its last fiscal year, but is now facing tough decisions similar to other connected fitness companies as people return to the gym. 

Peloton, which reported a 28% year-over-year decline in fourth-quarter revenue to $678.7 million, recently announced plans to eliminate nearly 800 jobs. Tonal, which is backed by Serena Williams and LeBron James, announced plans to cut 35% of its workforce in July.

Sports deals in limbo after Voyager Digital filed for bankruptcy in July may have some hope — crypto exchange FTX won Voyager’s assets for $1.4 billion at a bankruptcy auction.

Of the bid, $1.3 billion was for the fair market value of the assets, with $111 million for “additional consideration” in anticipated incremental value. 

• In the Chapter 11 filing earlier this year, Voyager estimated that it had more than 100,000 creditors.
• It claimed it held between $1 billion and $10 billion in assets.

The sale to FTX will need to win a vote by creditors and pass “other customary closing conditions.”

Voyager had entered an agreement with the NWSL in December — one of the soccer league’s largest ever — in which players would receive financial education on cryptocurrencies and a portion of the deal in cryptocurrency.

Outlets reported last month that the NWSL told players that they could be out of money due to the bankruptcy, but NWSLPA executive director Meghann Burke said no players were missing paychecks, and “nothing in the CBA is in crypto.”

Starts and Stops 

Last year, Voyager became an international partner of the Dallas Mavericks, while also entering a deal with former NFL player Rob Gronkowski and extending that of NASCAR driver Landon Cassill.

In 2021, FTX paid $135 million for a 19-year naming rights deal for the home of the Miami Heat, but reportedly pulled out of a jersey patch deal with the Los Angeles Angels this year.