More star athletes are investing in Major League Soccer.

Milwaukee Bucks champion Giannis Antetokounmpo and Nashville Predators all-time leading scorer Filip Forsberg are joining Nashville SC as owners.

Antetokounmpo’s brothers, Thanasis, Kostas, and Alex — who all play professional basketball — will also join the ownership group. Giannis, who became a minority investor in the Milwaukee Brewers in 2021, said his father was a professional soccer player.

Forsberg and the Antetokounmpo brothers aren’t the first professional athletes to cross sports to join MLS.

Last year, Tennessee Titans All-Pro running back Derrick Henry — along with Reese Witherspoon and her husband, Jim Toth — became owners of the Nashville team. 

Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes purchased a stake in Sporting Kansas City in 2021, two years after Denver Broncos quarterback Russell Wilson purchased a stake in the Seattle Sounders.

Antetokounmpo isn’t the only NBA player to invest in the league either. 

Philadelphia 76ers star James Harden took a stake in the Houston Dynamo in 2019, and Phoenix Suns’ player Kevin Durant purchased a stake in the Philadelphia Union in 2020.

The investments continue to roll in as MLS team valuations are on the rise — the average valuation has climbed 85% since 2019 to $579 million, according to Forbes.

It’s been a year of big career changes for Troy Aikman. 

The Pro Football Hall of Famer jumped to ESPN’s “Monday Night Football” after over 20 years as the No. 1 NFL analyst at Fox Sports.

With his reported $90 million, five-year contract, Aikman’s now tied with Tony Romo of CBS Sports as the highest-paid talent on sports TV. 

Coming in early 2027, Aikman and Joe Buck will call ESPN’s first Super Bowl telecast. The two have called six Super Bowl telecasts at Fox. They’ll bring experience and gravitas that will be hard for other networks to match.

So what’s Aikman’s advice for Tom Brady when he enters the Fox broadcast booth for the 2024 season?

“Just to be himself. … You can fake it for a little bit, and then it catches up to you. You’ve got to put in the time. I think the fans deserve that – and Tom will give that to them.”

Meanwhile, the 56-year-old has become an entrepreneur, launching his EIGHT beer after his old Dallas Cowboys and UCLA jersey numbers. The three-time Super Bowl winner expects to take the new light brew outside of Texas for the first time this year.

EIGHT Elite Light Lager celebrated its first anniversary as the fastest-selling independent beer in Texas. 

Aikman and his partners just wrapped a second round of financing. He sees significant growth ahead for EIGHT, particularly among athletes who enjoy a cold brew.

Grupo Televisa has settled a complaint related to FIFA bribery accusations. 

The major Mexican broadcaster agreed to pay $95 million in a settlement with a group of investors. The investors said that a bribery scandal damaged Televisa’s brand and hurt its stock price, which has fallen 50% over the past 12 months.

Televisa is accused of bribing FIFA to secure World Cup rights in 2018, 2022, 2026, and 2030. The broadcaster has denied the allegations. The claim came out in a case against 21st Century Fox, which is also accused of bribing FIFA officials to win media rights.

The all-cash settlement still needs to be approved by a judge.

Televisa has endured a turbulent start to the year. Substantial gains in its stock price were largely wiped out by a poor earnings report in February, along with the acknowledgement that a planned merger with ​​Megacable would not go through.

FIFA is no stranger to bribery accusations. Witnesses claim that Qatari officials bought votes to secure the 2022 World Cup at around $1 million per vote. Similar claims have been made about Russia, which hosted the World Cup in 2018.

FanDuel, which claims it has a 50% market share in the U.S. sports betting market, continues to pay off for its parent company.

Flutter Entertainment, which also owns Betfair, Paddy Power, and PokerStars, posted a 27% increase in revenue to roughly $9.19 billion for its preliminary 2022 results, with average monthly players increasing 26%, attributed to expansion in the U.S. and benefits of the acquisitions of Sisal and Tombola. 

The increase in revenue was driven by a 67% sales jump in FanDuel, which is on track to become profitable this year.

In the U.S., Flutter’s revenue reached $3.2 billion.

But Flutter took a hit of around $47.8 million in December due to “customer friendly results” during the World Cup and in the Premier League. 

As of Dec. 31, the company’s net debt was around $5.5 billion.

Public Possibilities

Earlier this month, Flutter said its board is consulting with shareholders to gauge their interest in a listing on the U.S. stock exchange.

The company’s board reached the view that “an additional U.S. listing of Flutter’s ordinary shares will yield a number of long-term strategic and capital market benefits,” according to the Financial Times. 

The company would take a vote at its annual meeting in April after consulting with shareholders. The vote would require 75% approval.