The 4th Quarter: Latest In Sports Tech This Week, January 3rd, 2025

KSI & Speed’s 6v6 Soccer League, AI-Crypto Smart Fitness Rings, New Job Board

Sid Balaga & Suraj Peramanu

Jan 03, 2025

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I. Influencer-Founded Startups Won in 2024: Why KSI & Speed’s Baller League Will Win

II. Sports-Tech Market Activity: IPOs, VC, M&A, Deals, Strategic Ventures

III. Weekly Job Board: Sports, Media, Entertainment, Technology

Influencer-Founded Startups Won in 2024:

From Jake Paul’s daily fantasy sports betting company, Betr, being valued at $375M to Kim Kardashian’s SKIMS becoming the official underwear brand partner of the NBA, it’s impossible to deny that influencers can become legit unicorn founders in this space. Their secret sauce? Insanely organic distribution.

Why KSI & ISHOWSPEED’s NEW SOCCER LEAGUE WILL WORK:

After raising $25M in a Series A from Swedish-based investor, EQT Partners, the mega-influencer backed startup, Baller League, brings hyper-engaging & forward-thinking disruption to the soccer world. This fast-paced league features a 6v6, indoor street-ball-inspired tournament format with 12 teams. The 2025 Season kicks off in March with live streaming available on Twitch and YouTube.

How it’ll work:

Two 15-minute halves
11 matchday weeks with every team pitted against each other
Final three minutes of each half will be 3v3 with long distance goals counting 2x

Proved to be a smash hit in Germany last year, with a reported 3M viewers per matchday on Twitch, a legion of high-profile names are in charge of expanding into the UK and U.S.

JJ ‘KSI’ Olatunji – President of Baller League UK, boasting 25M subscribers and 10B views on YouTube
Darren ‘IShowSpeed’ Watkins Jr – President of the US version; 2024 Streamer of the Year, record-holder for most concurrent viewers in a single live stream (1M+), and the most influential soccer creator
Gary Lineker – Stepping down from Match of the Day to become a Baller League manager
Additional Influencer Managers – Including Chunkz (3.7M subscribers), Miniminter (10.4M subscribers), Sharky (1.4M subscribers), and more
Other soccer legends serving as team managers:
- Ronaldinho – Brazilian legend
- Luis Figo – 2000 Ballon d’Or winner
- John Terry – Former England and Chelsea defender
- Arsenal Invincibles – Jens Lehmann, Robert Pires, and Freddie Ljungberg
- Alan Shearer & Micah Richards – From Match of the Day and The Rest Is Football podcast

Gen Z Is Consuming Media Differently:

On YouTube alone, KSI and IShowSpeed have built a combined empire of 58M subscribers that Baller League will get direct exposure to.

According to the BBC, less than 48% of 16 - 24-year-olds are now watching traditional TV (compared to 76%, 5 years ago). In stark comparison, Twitch users racked up more than 1.3T video minutes watched in just 2023 alone. Simply put, Baller League is exactly where Gen Z is consuming content. In addition to the new soccer league being distributed on platforms with growing viewership, these influencers are also bringing installed bases of viewers.

Is $33M in total funding enough to launch an international soccer league? We’re not really sure, but it seems to have all the right ingredients. As the league thinks about increasing revenue streams, It’ll be interesting to see which brand deals they close next. MrBeast’s Feastables or Logan Paul’s & KSI’s PRIME seem like obvious choices.

We’re definitely keeping our eyes on this one.

Sports-Tech Market Activity: Investors & Deals

Venture Capital

Rembrand, a Palo Alto-based developer of In-Scene Media and Virtual Product Placement technology, raised $23M in Series A funding(Jan. 2nd)
- Investment led by super{set}; other investors include The Trade Desk, Naver D2SF, and existing investors such as BOLD (L’Oréal’s corporate venture capital fund) and Greycroft
- Utilizes AI to integrate brands seamlessly into video content, enhancing viewer engagement [FinSMEs]

Vitalic, a Boston-based mental health startup, raised $4M in seed funding (Dec. 27th)
- Investment led by Redesign Health and Medicare Advantage payor VNS Health.
- Launched a geriatric behavioral health care platform focusing on older populations, addressing critical care gaps [FinSMEs]

Winna.com, an online casino/sportsbook that focuses on online gaming experiences for crypto enthusiasts, received $15M in Seed funding (Dec. 23rd)
- Expanding its game portfolio, particularly in PvP games
- Launched in Summer 2024, the platform has garnered over 10K active users [FinSMEs]

M&A and Investments

Maximum Entertainment, announces divestment of subsidiary Merge Games’ assets to UK-based Silver Lining Interactive (Dec. 25th)
- Following Merge’s layoffs and office closures in 2024
- Maximum Entertainment received €1M in consideration
- Retaining rights to popular titles, divesting 90 titles, including Spirit of the North [VentureBeat]

KemperSports, a golf course management company seeks fundraising through potential sale (Dec. 27th)
- PE firm New Mountain Capital named in discussions
- Exploring new investments, through plans for other sports facilities
- Controlled by the Lesnik family, previous investors include LNC Partners among other remaining undisclosed [Sportico]

Diamond Baseball Holdings, investors explore MLS affiliate ‘Next Pro’ investments (Dec. 26th)
- DBH is considering acquiring MLS Next Pro teams following acquisition of over 34% of the MLB Minor League teams
- Unlike MLS, operating as a single entity, MLS Next Pro teams are individually owned — keeping locally generated sponsorships revenue and ticket sales [Sportico]

Denver lands NWSL franchise with groundbreaking $110M expansion fee (Jan. 2nd)
- Planning to build its own soccer-specific stadium
- Expansion fee at more than double the former NWSL record of $53M
- Ownership group led by Robert Cohen of IMA Financial Group alongside backing from Ben Hubbard, and Tom Dunmore among others [Sportico]

Photo: Kristin Jucszczyk and Emma Grede’s ‘Off Season’, a new NFL-licensed sports apparel brand

Strategic Ventures

Kristin Juszczyk, wife of San Francisco 49ers fullback Kyle Juszczyk, partners with entrepreneur Emma Grede to launch 'Off Season,' a sports apparel brand inspired by her DIY designs (Jan. 2nd)
- Debuting January 7 with NFLPA collaboration, featuring puffer jackets for five NFL teams
- Kristin began DIY designs due to limited options, gaining recognition from influencers like Taylor Swift and Simone Biles
- Partnered with Grede, co-founder of Good American, to secure NFL licenses and scale operations [Vogue]

Cudis partners with UCLA Athletics to introduce AI-powered crypto smart rings for student-athletes (Dec. 26th)
- Cudis smart rings track health metrics like heart rate, sleep, and stress, using AI and blockchain on the Solana network, enabling users to own their health data and earn rewards for being active
- Rings will be distributed to UCLA athletes and students through in-game promotions, with plans for NIL deals across various sports
- Sold 10,000 units and raised $5M in seed funding led by Draper Associates [Athletech]

Perfect Game, a leading youth baseball platform, partners with Equity Sports Partners to expand its reach and enhance athlete development (Jan. 2nd)
- Equity Sports Partners is a sports & entertainment marketing firm focused on growth opportunities for leagues, teams, etc.
- Perfect Game has a history of collaborations to support youth athletes, including partnerships with MaxU and True Mindsets for mental performance support [SBJ]

NFL Christmas Day games on Netflix set streaming record with 65 million U.S. viewers (Dec. 25th)
- Both games averaged over 24 million viewers, becoming the most-streamed NFL games in U.S. history
- Surpassed the prior streaming record held by the AFC Wild Card Round matchup between the Chiefs and Miami Dolphins, which had 22.8 million viewers
- Netflix is set to broadcast at least one NFL game on Christmas in both the 2025 and 2026 seasons [BR]

Pickleball Kingdom taps operating tech startup PodPlay Technologies for multi-year partnership (Dec. 20th)
- Integrating PodPlay's tech, including streamlined check-ins, video replays, digital scoreboards, and social media tools at nearly 400 locations
- Exclusive partner as the first franchise to implement PodPlay's hardware and software solutions [Athletech]

Dallas Mavericks, Endeavor Streaming partner to launch a fan streaming service (Dec. 23rd)
- ‘MavsTV’ offers a $14.99 monthly pass or a $99.99 season-long pass to watch all Mavs games not exclusively televised nationally, alongside exclusive footage
- Powered by NBA’s Next Gen integrated digital platform and Endeavor’s end-to-end streaming Vesper Platform [SportsVideoGroup]