February 16, 2023

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Michael Jordan turns 60 on Friday and His Airness is celebrating [[link removed]] with a $10 million gift to Make-A-Wish — the largest donation by an individual in the charity’s 43-year history.

World FIFA Expects North American World Cup to Anchor $11B Cycle [[link removed]]

Jessica Alcheh-USA TODAY Sports

FIFA expects to follow one record revenue cycle with another.

Soccer’s global governing body approved [[link removed]] its 2022 annual report, which anticipates $11 billion in revenue from 2023 to 2026.

FIFA brought in $7.6 billion in 2022, which of course was largely due to the World Cup in Qatar.

The organization also confirmed that hosts the U.S., Canada, and Mexico will all be granted automatic entry into the 2026 World Cup. The tournament will be played across 11 U.S. cities, three in Mexico, and two in Canada.

All three countries qualified for the 2022 World Cup.

In related news, Saudi Arabia was chosen unanimously by FIFA’s council to host the Club World Cup this December.

Saudi Arabia is also a contender for the 2030 World Cup and has pledged to underwrite the costs for potential co-hosts Greece and Egypt. Spain, Portugal, and Ukraine are also seeking to jointly host the tournament, as are Uruguay, Paraguay, Argentina, and Chile.

A final decision is expected in 2024.

Media Super Bowl Numbers Call Twitter’s Supposed Demise Into Question [[link removed]]

Photo by Tayfun Coskun

Twitter had one of its most active days ever during Super Bowl LVII, giving the platform a needed boost after a wild four months since Elon Musk took over as owner.

On game day, the total number of tweets in the U.S. was up 20% and total tweeters were up 18%, each year-over-year, according to sources familiar with the data.

Unsurprisingly, Patrick Mahomes, Jalen Hurts, and Travis Kelce were the most tweeted-about players during the Kansas City Chiefs’ 38-35 victory over the Philadelphia Eagles — but Rihanna [[link removed]]’s halftime performance was the most tweeted-about moment overall.

The Big Game results are major validation for Twitter after months of financial turmoil.

Of the company’s top 1,000 advertisers in September, 625 stopped advertising on Twitter by January, per CNN [[link removed]]. Monthly revenue dropped by more than 60% from October to January 25, according to the data — or from about $127 million to just over $48 million.

Musk rallied and struck deals [[link removed]] with two major Super Bowl sponsors — PepsiCo and Anheuser-Busch InBev — just days ahead of the game. But that may not have been enough to satisfy the CEO.

After failing to publish a hit Super Bowl tweet (by his standards), Musk reportedly [[link removed]] had the app’s algorithm tweaked so that his tweets would appear at the top of users’ timelines.

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A Business Born From Community

After 20 years of playing beach volleyball professionally, Kerri Walsh Jennings stepped away from the pro tour in 2019. Not because the five-time Olympian and three-time gold medalist lost love for the game, but rather because she thought it needed changing.

Walsh Jennings wanted to broaden the game and bring more people to the sport by highlighting all that it encompasses – nutrition, wellness routines and the overall lifestyle. That’s why in 2019 she and her husband launched p1440, a company dedicated to providing resources for aspiring athletes, coaches and all interested in living a life of intention.

In the latest episode of Driven with Michelle Wie West [[link removed]], in partnership with PitchBook, learn more about Walsh Jennings’ journey to becoming an entrepreneur, the importance of the people around you, and more.

Watch the full episode [[link removed]] here.

Fitness Tonal’s Valuation Could Drop to $500M As Connected Fitness Fades [[link removed]]

Tonal

At-home fitness startup Tonal needs a reboot.

The company’s valuation peaked [[link removed]] at $1.9 billion in September behind a $100 million funding round. Five months later, Bloomberg is reporting [[link removed]] that company’s seeking funds at a valuation of $500 million or less.

Much of the decline can be attributed to the connected fitness trend fizzling — a post-pandemic reality that’s also challenging [[link removed]] Peloton.

This news comes after Tonal cut [[link removed]] 35% of its workforce last summer. Talk of a potential IPO has quieted in recent months, as well.

Tonal’s investors include LeBron James, Serena Williams, Mike Tyson, and Steph Curry.

Peloton was in talks to acquire Tonal last year, per Bloomberg.

The leading reason an acquisition didn’t work out was that Peloton — which has failed to turn a profit for eight consecutive quarters — was looking to improve its cash position amid a continued restructuring.

Teams Barcelona in Hot Water Over Payments to Ref Consultant [[link removed]]

FC Barcelona

The relationship between FC Barcelona and a consulting company has raised suspicions that the team was bribing referees.

The iconic La Liga club was revealed [[link removed]] to have paid around $1.5 million from 2016-2018 to DASNIL 95 SL, a firm part-owned by Jose Maria Enriquez Negreira, who was on La Liga’s refereeing committee at the time. The revelation came out on the “Que T’hi Jugues” show on radio station SER Catalunya.

Barcelona acknowledged [[link removed]] the payments, saying they were for video reviews of young players on other clubs and consulting on officiating.

Team president Joan Laporta suggested that the practice is common among soccer teams and that the revelation is coming out because Barca is in first place in La Liga.

Negreira claimed in Spanish court that he didn’t influence how referees called games — and that he merely advised Barcelona on how to behave around specific referees.

Negreira was vice president of La Liga’s Technical Committee of Referees until 2018. Josep Maria Bartomeu was president of Barcelona at the time, but stepped down in 2020 amid tax fraud allegations.

Barcelona had a 78-game streak, ending in 2018, in which opposing teams were not awarded a penalty kick — Barca was given at least 32 penalty kicks during that period. The club also had a stretch of at least 28 games in which players weren’t given a single red card.

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The five-lesson course includes Pushing Culture Forward with Digital Collectibles, where Meta’s Emerging Sports Industries Lead, Omar Wilson, is joined by digital collectible execs from Dibbs, Dapper Labs, OneFootball, HEIR, and New Game Labs to discuss how the blockchain and NFTs will reshape both physical and digital collectibles [[link removed]] experiences for creators, brands, and fans across the globe.

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Conversation Starters From the wildest passes and the biggest dunks to the final serve, Atmosphere Sports is streaming sports back to the center with live scores, highlights, and more. Learn more [[link removed]].* Sunday’s game between LSU and South Carolina drew 1.5 million viewers on ESPN — making it the most-watched [[link removed]] regular-season women’s college basketball game since 2010. Federal judges aren’t feeling [[link removed]] the NCAA’s hotly contested amateurism model for athletes. Got $12.5 million lying around? Feel free to put in a bid [[link removed]] on Red Sox legend David Ortiz’s former Miami home. Front Office Sports Today They Said What?

Syndication: Arizona Republic

“The wild cards in [NBA media rights negotiations] are Fox and NBC. People tend to discount them because they’re not as glamorous or tech or as big as Google or Apple, but they’re good and smart and traditional. Don’t count them out.”

— Front Office Sports senior writer Mike McCarthy on the NBA’s next round of media rights negotiations, and why networks are just as attractive as streamers. The current set of $24 billion in deals runs through 2024-25.

Listen and subscribe on Apple [[link removed]], Google [[link removed]], and Spotify [[link removed]].

Today's Action

NBA

10:10 PM

Pelicans (+1800) at Lakers (-10000)

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NHL

07:08 PM

Jets (-195) at Blue Jackets (+165)

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NBA

07:30 PM

Bucks (-275) at Bulls (+230)

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*All times are EST unless otherwise noted.

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

Question Of The Day

How many times a month do you work on your golf game?

0 [[link removed]] 1-3 [[link removed]] 4+ [[link removed]]

Wednesday’s Answer

35% of respondents bet on Super Bowl LVII.

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