The 4th Quarter: Latest In Sports Tech This Week, May 31th

Sports Collectibles As An Asset Class, Pro Soccer M&A On Fire, New Job Board

Sid Balaga & Suraj Peramanu

May 31, 2024

Photo: Ken Goldin & Payton Manning on Netflix’s King of Collectibles: The Goldin Touch

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I. Sports Memorabilia: A Legit Alternative Asset Class

II. Weekly Startup Spotlight: cllct & Sweet Chameleon

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

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

Sports Memorabilia, A Legit Asset Class:

While Suraj is getting ready to move to San Francisco and I gear up for my move to New York City, we both started to look for ways to invest our money so we’re not crushed by the two cities with the highest standard of living in the U.S. In addition to our current portfolios of stocks, crypto, and venture capital, we came across another booming market that caught our eyes as an alternative investment class: old apparel and equipment, paper cards cased in plastic, and signed balls.

Catalyzed during the pandemic, the Sports Memorabilia and Collectibles Market has surged to 28% of US households actively collecting, and $32.4B in revenue in 2023 which is on pace to reach $227B by 2032. Since the early 2000s, historic sports artifacts have skyrocketed in value. Notable examples include the 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle Card, which was sold at auction for $12.6M; 1998 Michael Jordan Finals jersey, which sold at $10.1M; Diego Maradona’s “Hand of God” jersey, which sold at $9.3M; and a 1914 Babe Ruth rookie card, which sold at $7.2M, among many other multi, multi-million dollar pieces.

What was once a tight-knit community of hobbyists has now been entered by major institutional investors including hedge funds that are backing elite auction houses to offset the rising inflation. Notably, billionaire Steve Cohen’s Collectors Holdings has been extremely active in the space, recently selling its stake of Goldin Auctions to eBay for an undisclosed amount.

How does investing in Sports Memorabilia compare to the stock market? According to the Sports Memorabilia Index, the annual return for sports memorabilia from 2008 to 2021 was 14.5%. This beat the S&P 500, which returned 10.9% over the same period, but under-performed slightly compared to the 10-year US Treasury which yielded 15.1%. Additionally, we see very lucrative market activity in this vertical with Fanatics acquiring Topps Trading Cards for $500M in 2024. Big fish clearly are biting at the bait; is this something we should be diverting our attention to as well?

Weekly Startup Spotlight

For the 60M people actively in the sports memorabilia market, and those of you that want to get in to diversify your portfolio, here are two startups that you should be looking at right now:

cllct - Darren Rovell became an Emmy-Award Winning Sports Business Reporter at ESPN, The Action Network, and CNBC while creating a strong following around his love of covering the sports collectibles & memorabilia market. He found that despite the sports collectibles market being worth $32B, there was not a single 24/7 media platform for this vertical. After spending 20 years becoming the #1 storyteller in sports memorabilia, he garnered 2M X followers and 55K on IG. With this strong-community and years of industry connections, he started cllct, the first premium collectibles network. From a freemium weekly industry newsletter to two IRL Collecting Conferences to engaging collectibles-focused TV shows, cllct is set to disrupt this historically ‘pen-and-paper’ market with a membership business model for hobbyists and industry leaders.
- Founder(s): Darren Rovell
- Funding: Raised $4M from a world-class set of sports investors such as David Blitzer’s Bolt Venture, Gabe Plotkin’s Tallwoods Capital, Roger Ehrenberg’s Eberg Capital, Stephen Ross’s Amity Supply, Phoenix Capital Ventures, among other uber-prominent angels

Sweet Chameleon - Yes, sports collectibles make amazingly-unique, interior decorative pieces. With the younger generation of fans becoming more distant to historic artifacts such as the $1.4M Jordan 12 ‘Flu Game’ Shoes or the $12.6M 1952 Mickey Mantle baseball card, some might argue that innovation in this space is dead and that these collectibles just appreciate in value while taking up physical real estate. This was the case until a former Time Warner Licensing executive thought about bringing digital experiences that can be accessed exclusively through collectibles. With an innovative additive manufacturing approach and licenses secured with the NBA & MLB, Sweet Chameleon is creating a new product vertical of 1-of-1 ‘Phygital’ Collectibles. Users can scan a 3D printed QR code or NFC chip on the collectible that gives access to certain events or website experiences. Fans get utility out of their favorite collectibles, and brands get to engage with users in an evergreen fashion.
- Founder(s): Michael Dub
- Funding: Previously raised $500K in Pre-Seed with participation from XRC Ventures, currently raising a Seed Round with participation from leAD Sports & Health Tech Partners (Adidas Family Office), among others

Sports-Tech Market Activity: Investors & Deals

Venture Capital

Pro League Network, a sports content network that specializes in exclusively producing niche sports for sports wagering operators raised $2.2M in Seed round (May 28th)
- Focusing on building out CarJitsu, World Putting League (pro mini golf), SlapFight Championship, and Str33t (pro 3×3 basketball joint venture with Kevin Garnett's Big Ticket Sports)
- Investors include Eberg Capital, IA Sports Ventures, Chris Grove, and Kevin Garnett [Casino Org]

Stupa Sports Analytics, an Indian-based, AI sports analytics company specializing in paddle sports to raised $3.36M in Pre-Series A round (May 22nd)
- Developing AI/ML capabilities enhance athlete performance, fan engagement, and talent acquisition for expansion into US, UK, Australian, and Middle Eastern markets
- Investment was led by Centre Court Capital and PeerCapital [Entrackr]

Gerard Pique’s Kosmos Holding raises €60M ($65M) for 7v7 King League’s global expansion (May 15th)
- Expanding into major European markets, North America, and Brazil within the next two years alongside seeking English-language broadcasting for 2025
- Investment was led by Left Lane Capital and Fillip [Awful Announcing]

Unrivaled, a 3v3 pro women’s basketball league raised an undisclosed amount in Seed funding (May 30th)
- League will offer equity to players alongside offering historic average salaries of over $100,000
- Investment includes funding from Alex Morgan’s Trybe Ventures, Carmelo Anthony, Gary Vaynerchuk, and others [Sportico]

5thScape, a blockchain-powered platform that primarily builds hyper-realistic AR/VR experiences for the gaming sector, raised $6M in Seed funding (May 24th)
- Further expanding its ecosystem of gaming, movies, education, and VR device development
- VR Gaming experiences include MMA, Cricket, Soccer, Archery, and Racing [FinSMEs]

M&A and Investments

Union Sports and Entertainment, owner of MLS Philadelphia Union acquires a 10% stake in Danish first-division club Lyngby Boldklub (May 28th)
- Delving into multi-club ownership for the first time in the club’s history
- Has option to buy another 10% stake in the club in the future [Philadelphia Union]

Red Bull acquires minority stake in English football club Leeds United (May 30th)
- Will become the the principal shirt sponsor for the following season
- Adds team to existing football portfolio of six clubs: RB Leipzig, NY Redbulls, and Red Bull Salzburg, the club will not face a name change [ESPN ]

English football club Sheffield United is nearing a £100M takeover from Silicon Valley-based investors (May 28th)
- US consortium awaits approval from the EFL
- Negotiations with current owner, Saudi Prince Abdullah, seemingly progressing as Sheffield faces relegation, ending at the bottom of the league [Yahoo Sports]

Crystal Palace co-owner John Textor is reportedly seeking to sell his 45% stake in the English club (May 24th)
- Seeking to use proceeds from sale to fund possible investment in Everton amid uncertainty within 777 Partners’ acquisition
- Textor’s company, Eagle Football Holdings unable to purchase another football club until current stake is sold [BBC Sport]

NWSL’s Portland Thorns adds new investors following a $63M acquisition (May 24th)
- Sam Garvin - Co-owner of Phoenix Suns
- Tim Boyle - CEO of Columbia Sportswear
- Nehal Raj - Co-Managing Partner of TPG
- Josh Childress - Former NBA player
- Kunal Merchant - COO at Revitate, among others [Sportico]

Photo: John Textor, owner of four football clubs across Europe & Brazil looking to sell his stake

Strategic Ventures

Greenfly, a cloud-based SaaS platform that specializes in streamlining short-form digital media content partners with motorsport consultant Let’s Go Racing (May 24th)
- Tapping into Greenfly’s AI-powered platform to enhance client sponsor value and monetize short-form content [LinkedIn]

Chelsea FC renews partnership with sports data insight startup Infinite Athlete ahead of the 2024/25 season (May 29th)
- Partnership extension announcement followed a deleted social media post that suggested the ending of the £40M seven-year deal [Insider Sport]

Boxing Heavyweight Champ, Oleksandr Usyk, partners with AI + Robotics Venture Capital firm Thundermark Capital to leverage AI to make combat sports safer (May 28th)
- Initiatives include investing in real-time health monitoring via wearables, referee support,and post match analysis & recovery [Fox40]

Miami Marlins announces a three-year partnership extension with buyer-driven TicketRev (May 29th)
- ‘Make Your Pitch’ feature, allows fans to offer prices for their preferred tickets & launch of ‘Seat Upgrades’, allows upgrades for current home game seats [PR Newswire]