The 4th Quarter: Latest In Sports Tech This Week, March 7th, 2025

Podcast with Dropback CEO, Chip Ganassi x OpenAI Partnership, New Job Board

Mar 07, 2025

Podcast with Luke Bogus: Y-Combinator Sports-Tech CEO Raises $1.6M for NIL Software Suite Startup

A few weeks ago, we had a chance to record a 30-minute podcast with Luke Bogus, the Co-Founder and CEO of Dropback. This unique startup just raised $1.6M from Y Combinator, Reach Capital, Twenty Two Ventures, among others.

Luke and Nick are building a suite of software tools for university athletic directors and GMs. The product suite will allow GMs to manage rosters & NIL salary caps.

🎙️Check out our ~30 min podcast here

➕Connect with Luke or feel free to reach out to us for an intro

💻More information on Dropback

Sports-Tech Market Activity: Investors & Deals

Venture Capital

FanUp, a mobile gaming app focused on fantasy sports and pop culture for women, Gen Z, and casual gamers, raised a strategic financing round (Mar. 4th)
- Funds to fuel growth, partnerships, influencers, and new gaming features
- Investors include Tru Skye Ventures and 9.58 Ventures [FinSMEs]
Welevel, a Munich-based game studio that develops survival and city-builder titles, raised $5.7M in funding to streamline development and personalized gameplay (Mar. 6th)
- Expanding team and accelerating creation of a triple-A sandbox survival game
- Investment led by Bitkraft Ventures; other investors include top figures from Roblox, Shopify, and Crunchyroll among others [GamesBeat]
StepOut, a video-based performance analytics platform for coaches, analysts, and players, raised $500K in Seed funding (Mar. 3rd)
- Driving expansion in the US, Australia, Middle East, and Spain
- Future broadening of tech to additional sports beyond football (soccer)
- Investment led by Rainmatter; other investors include Misfits Capital and IndigoEdge among others [FinSMEs]

M&A and Investments

PE firm CVC Capital eyes $1B takeover of Tennis’ Madrid and Miami Open tournaments (Mar. 4th)
- Competing with Endeavor’s CEO Ariel Emanuel and other possible bidders
- Raine Group, to handle sale process; Goldman retained to advise Emanuel’s bid
- Interest from EQT and Providence Equity, although bids have yet to be confirmed
- CVC previously acquired 20% stake in WTA Tour’s commercial business for $150M [SportsPro]
PIF-backed SURJ reportedly in talks to acquire a stake in World Athletics’ new commercial entity at potential £500M ($644M) valuation (Mar. 6th)
- Investment could accelerate the sport’s commercialization, supporting new events and financial distribution
- SURJ has invested $1B in DAZN, $100M in the PFL, with additional stakes in EuroLeague and €250M ($270M) for new cycling league [SportsPro]
TKO Group closes deal to acquire IMG, On Location, and Professional Bull Riders (PBR) from Endeavor (Feb. 28th)
- IMG's licensing, modeling, and golf/tennis businesses to remain under Endeavor
- Morgan Stanley advised TKO; Raine, Latham & Watkins represented Endeavor [SBJ]
US Consortium reaches non-binding deal for 51% stake in Scottish Rangers FC ahead of 2025-26 Scottish Premiership (Mar. 3rd)
- Group led by Paraag Marathe (49ers) and Andrew Cavenagh (ParetoHealth)
- 51% stake, rumored, could be an initial step to wider investment from consortium
- Scottish ownership rules may initially cap individual stakes at 24.9%, though changes could be coming [Sportcal]
Guild Esports, a pro esports organization with teams competing in Apex Legends, COD, and Valorant among others, acquires fan engagement platform Encore (Mar. 6th)
- Encore’s Fan ID tech to enhance Guild’s fan insights and engagement strategies
- Strengthening Guild’s offerings for teams, influencers, publishers, and brands
- Guild Esports investors include soccer legend David Beckham [Sport Industry Group]
Serena Williams to join ownership group of first Canadian WNBA franchise, Toronto Tempo (Mar. 3rd)
- Investment is currently awaiting final league approval
- Debuting in 2026 at the Coca-Cola Coliseum, hosting games across Canada
- Williams to actively contribute to team’s visual branding, including jersey designs and merch collabs [WNBA]
TickPick, an online ticket marketplace, acquires fellow small/mid-sized venue ticketing platform Fanimal to expand into primary ticketing (Mar. 6th)
- Following a $250M growth investment from PE firm Brighton Park Capital
- Fanimal, founded in 2019, boasts over 250K users, serving hundreds of venues
- Enhances TickPick’s partnership with LaLiga N.A. for watch parties and events [FinSMEs]
Mohegan Tribe, a Connecticut-based Native American tribal nation, explores investments for WNBA’s Connecticut Sun amid debt troubles (Mar. 5th)
- Tribe's total debt reaches $3.1B, with $470M maturing in FY 2025
- Minority stakes in franchise may be sold to fund new practice facility [SBJ]

Photo Creds: IndyCar - Chip Ganassi Racing partners with OpenAI to to optimize performance for racing strategies and front office efforts

Strategic Ventures

TKO Group confirms launch of new boxing league backed by Saudi support, spearheaded by Dana White (Mar. 6th)
- Partnership backed by Saudi sports and entertainment entity, Sela
- UFC’s Dana White and WWE’s Nick Khan to lead operations, with Saudi Arabian adviser, Turki Alalshikh, playing a key role
- Aims to reshape sport with one world championship per weight class and better matchmaking [Sportico]
Fanatics partners with Ticketmaster to launch new ‘Fanatics Ticket Marketplace’ (Mar. 5th)
- Integrating Ticketmaster’s ticketing services into its app to expand offerings
- Focused on growing Fanatics' ticket and merch sales, with plans for future growth [Sportico]
Chip Ganassi Racing collaborates with OpenAI for ‘strategic research’ partnership (Feb. 28th)
- Marking OpenAI’s first venture into motorsports
- Optimizing performance for racing strategy and front office efforts
- OpenAI branding to be featured on all CGR race cars in the INDYCAR and INDY NXT Series for the full season [Chip Ganassi Racing]
Coldplay to offer first-ever World Cup Final halftime show at 2026 MetLife final (Mar. 6th)
- Show will be produced in partnership with advocacy group Global Citizen
- Coldplay's Chris Martin and manager to help curate event, but may not perform [Inside World Football]
FIFAe, FIFA’s esports division, launches ‘innovation challenge’ for esports tech firms to enhance biometric tracking for live broadcasts (Feb. 27th)
- Aims to expand features like heartbeat tracking, eye movement, brain waves, and reaction time
- Proposals must be self-funded, with goal of improving broadcasts and fan engagement [Esports Insider]
NFL and AWS unveil Combine IQ, a fan-accessible Next Gen Stats dashboard (Feb. 27th)
- Tracks 40-yard split, acceleration, and positional benchmarks
- Built with Amazon QuickSight, designed to make scouting data more digestible
- Using RFID data from Zebra Tech. and historical combine stats since 2003 to create predictive draft scores [SBJ]
Formula 1 partners with emerging-sports betting data supplier, ALT Sports Data, to drive fan engagement via new markets (Feb. 28th)
- ALT Sports Data named ‘official betting data provider’ for F1
- Generating real-time predictive analytics and proprietary odds solutions [Insider Sport]

Big 12 teams up with sports content tech company, WSC Sports, to create AI-powered video content for social media and FAST channel (Mar. 4th)
- Focusing on custom highlights for football and men’s /women’s basketball
- WSC works with La Liga, NASCAR, and the Cleveland Cavaliers among others [Big12]
USL expands partnerships with automated video recording startup, Spiideo, and youth/amateur streaming service, SportsEngine Play (Mar. 5th)
- All USL League 2 & W League matches to stream exclusively on SportsEngine
- Pro USL clubs gain direct access to scouting video for talent identification
- Spiideo’s ‘League Exchange’ to centralize video analysis, box scores, & player data [USL]

Lawsuits

DraftKings settles 2023 NFT Marketplace lawsuit for $10M (Feb. 28th)
- Agreed to settle over claims it sold unregistered securities via NFT Marketplace
- Funds to compensate impacted users, investors, and cover legal fees
- Lawsuit, filed in 2023, targeted company and key execs, citing SEC registration violations [InsiderSport]