This week’s most interesting sports business stories

In this week’s SportsMoney Playbook: The media business hub to sports betting, blockchain technology in betting, and our look at the NBA season. Plus: How Rockets Owner Makes Billions Richer During Pandemic.

Sports betting

Forget the pivot to video; media brands like Illustrated sports and Maxim have hit a jackpot by partnering with gambling companies.

While a handful of large companies currently control the online sports betting industry, blockchain technology has created an opportunity for small, self-regulating operators to emerge.

A recent report sees the sports game industry reaching $ 40 billion in revenue by 2033, and a venture capital fund wants to participate in the gold rush. He just raised $ 10 million to invest in technology start-ups focused on sports betting and online gambling.

Hockey

The Seattle Kraken, the NHLthe newest franchise of, want to do things differently, and that extends to their partnership with PepsiCo, which will see the brand commit to the sustainability goals of the New Kraken House, Climate engagement arena. Another new place, the latest UBS Arena—Begins a new era for the Islanders after the deterioration of Nassau Coliseum and failure Barclays Center experience.

Car race

Josh berry was a relatively unknown driver in Nascar‘s Xfinity Series, with only seven races to his name from 2014 to 2017. But after an unexpected opportunity to Dale Earnhardt Jr. and JR Motorsports, Berry notched two wins in 2021 and is aiming for a championship in 2022.

University sport

An AI-powered digital advertising platform specializing in product placement creates new opportunities for busy athletes with little time for their sponsors. LSU basketball player Shareef O’Neal is among the first to take advantage of it.

Three decades ago our Lady football star Raghib “Rocket” Ismail was in a different category with respect to national popularity and marketability. How would that have translated into the name, image and likeness market that exists today for college players? “I think it would have been fun, for sure,” he tells us.

New Fordham basketball coach Kyle neptune builds team chemistry, but not in the most traditional way. “He didn’t tell me he was going to take me to the opera,” said one Fordham player.

Soccer

Following a sexual misconduct scandal in the NWSL, a group of long-marginalized players speak with one voice and take control of their league, including stopping a game in protest last week.

Tennis

Maria sharapovaS’s tennis career may be over, but she’s preparing for a new personal – and, hopefully, lucrative – journey as an entrepreneur.

Featured story

How smart deals made Rockets owner Tilman Fertitta billions of dollars richer during pandemic

You can describe Rockets owner Tilman Fertitta in a number of ways: as a showman, risk taker, college dropout, reality TV star, or the guy who bought Atlantic City Casino from Donald Trump in 2011. and made it a success. But the one identity that arguably had the biggest impact on his wealth is that of a savvy financial engineer with a history of cutting the public in and out of his businesses and incurring and discharging debt when the time is right. Now he is getting richer using the hottest financial trend of the time.

Hot reads:

After further examination

Cricket’s bid to compete in the Los Angeles Olympics is in crisis after the sudden departure of England and Wales Cricket Council chairman Ian Watmore. A solid option to replace him is former PepsiCo CEO Indra Nooyi, a leading cricket trumpeter in the US market and one of America’s richest self-taught women. See Nooyi Net Worth.

The last word

“The cool thing is what’s going to be done with basketball that doesn’t play basketball. “ -Andy Borman

Basketball Hall of Fame Earl Monroe has teamed up with award-winning filmmaker to launch the first high school to specialize in basketball, but that’s not what you think. New York City School, of which Andy Borman is athletic director, plans to use the study of basketball as a means to educate children in business, science, journalism, math and languages . “It was kind of a dream for me,” Monroe tells us, more than 40 years after starting a similar summer program in Harlem. Learn more about the historic school.

You can subscribe to SportsMoney Playbook here.