The Petcash Pod 🌐

With many years of experience in sportainment, Craig Winning is now taking on BatBox as they expand from Mexico to the United States. 

BatBox is an innovative experiential concept that caters to the underserved baseball fan market, offering a playful way for fans to engage with baseball and each other and offer corporate and private simulator sales to clients.

Craig was previously at TOCA Social, Shorty’s, Punch Bowl Social, and has spent most of his career at the intersection of hospitality and entertainment. 

Chapters:

(01:30) Hospitality background 

(05:50) BatBox concept 

(10:10) GTM from Mexico to the US

(11:55) Challenges with new concept 

(13:55) Food/Beverage vs. Gameplay 

(16:10) Blueprint to success

(19:00) Trends in eatertainment 

(21:40) Importance of technology 

(23:00) Concepts that could work 

.

Craig Winning:

An experienced veteran in sportainment, Ollie’s newest project is at the intersection of racing, socializing, and eating with F1 Arcade. 

F1 Arcade is a new simulation racing experience in the US, offering all the excitement, drama, and glamor of Formula 1.

Ollie Raison has provided creative input to social entertainment businesses for many years including Bounce Ping Pong, Puttshack Mini Golf, Hijingo, AceBounce, Wonderball, Games Gurus, and more. 

Chapters:

(01:15) From comedy to social entertainment 

(05:30) Bounce Ping Pong 

(07:45) Flight Club and Puttshack

(12:45) F1 Arcade Inception

(17:20) Mistakes made in social entertainment 

(20:35) Go-To-Market strategy 

(23:10) Investors they targeted 

(25:25) Future of social entertainment 

(29:45) New location F1 Arcade 

.

Ollie Raison:

Before launching his own agency, Jared was Head of Sports at Twitter/Vine helping establish deep ties within the social media world.  

Changing the way credit works for social content with Gondola and making creative content for sports leagues, teams, brands, and media companies with Fresh Tape Media.

Jared shares valuable insights into content creation, trends in social media, sports, highlighting the evolution of content, the impact of technology, and the future of content creation tools.

Chapters:

(01:20) Jared’s sports background 

(05:35) Vine walked so TikTok could run

(07:15) Gondola and Fresh Tape Media

(14:30) Trends in social media 

(17:30) Thoughts on AR/VR & content

(22:45) Future ideas 

.

Jared Kleinstein:

After the acquisition of The Athletic, Evan Parker joined Alexis Ohanian and Brett Montgomery to build Mantel. 

Mantel is a community for collectors (starting in sports). 

Before joining Mantel as the CEO, Evan Parker was the General Manager at The Athletic and Head of Content at NASCAR. 

Chapters:

(01:50) Career in Sports

(03:00) Importance of Building Relationships 

(05:05) How Leagues vs Media Brands View Content

(07:30) Collectibles and Mantel 

(12:30) Starting in Niches

(14:20) From Corporate to Entrepreneurship 

(17:50) Learnings from The Athletic acquisition 

(20:10) Fundraising Insights 

(21:50) Mantel Roadmap 

(35:35) Trends to Watch 

.

Evan Parker:

Recently raising their Series A round, we discuss the changing dynamic of digital sports activations and how they’ve been able to help organizations get closer to their fans. 

Vaidhy Murti has over a decade of experience developing production applications for high-growth, venture-backed startups, and Fortune 1000 companies

WIT Sports is a digital activation platform that helps professional sports teams in the NFL, NBA, NHL, and MLS elevate their marketing efforts while providing innovative, turnkey solutions designed to enhance brand partnerships.

Chapters:

(01:25) WIT overview + case studies 

(05:35) Entrance into sports 

(11:35) Leagues engaging fans 

(14:15) Metrics to measure success

(16:55) Series A round growth plans 

(19:15) Macro trends to watch 

(21:15) Learnings building companies 

(24:20) Dealing with rejection 

.

Vaidhy Murti:

“The Real Moneyball Guy”, the popular movie was partly based on Ari’s analytical and scouting experiences innovating Major League Baseball.

Ari Kaplan created and led the Chicago Cubs analytics department, head of evangelism at DataBricks, Caltech Alumni of the Decade, and Intel’s AI Board of Advisors. 

DataBricks is one of the largest private companies in the world with over $1.6 billion in 2023 revenue. 

Chapters:

(04:10) Exciting new sports tech

(07:35) Background in sports

(10:20) Evolution of analytics 

(15:00) Machine vs human decision making 

(20:00) Traditional AI vs Gen AI

(27:45) AGI 

(29:00) Advice for building in sports

.

Ari Kaplan:

We dive deep into fan engagement, creating immersive experiences, and MVP Interactive + James Giglio’s new book Beyond the Jumbotron. 

MVP Interactive is a creative technology company specializing in designing and producing immersive consumer experiences for the world’s largest brands.

Chapters:

(02:45) MVP Interactive background

(07:15) Defining a “fan”  

(11:05) Future of fan engagement/AI

(15:05) Immersive tech examples 

(21:30) Leveraging brand equity 

(25:10) Insights on building in sports

(27:50) Changing marketing trends

.

James Giglio:

Perfect Game is the world’s largest youth baseball/softball platform and scouting service, producing over 8,600+ events, 300,000+ games, and showcases annually across the United States. 

Rob Ponger became CEO in 2022, previously serving as a Senior Vice President at IMG. 

To date, more than 1,650 players who have played in a Perfect Game event have made it to Major League Baseball. 

Chapters:

(01:50) From IMG to Perfect Game

(04:15) Creating a flywheel of brands 

(09:30) Downstream professionalization 

(12:30) MLB players 

(13:50) Baseball innovation for GenZ

(16:30) Women’s sports and softball 

(18:00) Going younger & company size

(21:00) Future for Perfect Game

(23:35) NIL/Other trends

.

Rob Ponger:

Pro Skills Basketball is now in 20 cities across the United States with their innovative basketball training, coaching, and team membership model. 

Brendan Winters grew up the son of an NBA coach. He played college basketball at Davidson and then went on to play professionally overseas for 5 years before founding Pro Skills Basketball. 

PSB has since grown into a nationwide club team organization with the mission to change the culture of youth basketball in the US.

Chapters:

(02:40) Davidson and Steph Curry

(03:30) Pro Skills Basketball inspiration 

(08:40) Adding new markets

(10:45) From sports to entrepreneurship

(12:35) Building European-style clubs

(16:40) Pro Skills Basketball model

(18:20) Differences in markets

(22:10) Future initiatives

.

Brendan Winters:

Futsal is one of the fastest-growing sports in the world, and Senda Athletics is at the forefront of it. 

Senda Athletics is a head-to-toe soccer product line, including footwear, Fair Trade Certified balls, and custom team uniforms, focused on the rapidly growing 5-a-side and indoor soccer market. 

The initial 5-a-side market is an estimated $5B with the opportunity to expand into the $14B broader soccer market. Popular soccer stars like Lionel Messi have been known to enjoy futsal. 

Chapters:

(01:30) Senda Athletics overview

(04:15) Argentina & World Cup 

(06:15) Engaging athletes as owners

(08:30) From 1 product to many 

(12:30) Becoming Fair Trade Certified 

(14:40) Distribution channels 

(20:10) Soccer 3.0

(24:10) Trends to watch

.

Santiago Halty:

Coming off an $8M funding round, DUPR is going both downstream and horizontal in pickleball. 

DUPR is a rating algorithm and app to find other pickleball players at your skill level. The score ranges from 2 to 8. 

Tito Machado is the CEO and Scott Mendelssohn is the Head of Analytics. 

Chapters:

(01:10) Entrance into pickleball

(04:45) Company overview

(06:30) Understanding the DUPR score 

(09:50) Acquiring users 

(12:05) Plan coming off $8M funding 

(15:45) Building community & engagement

(20:00) DUPR collegiate championships

(24:20) International expansion 

(29:55) Trends to watch in pickleball 

.

DUPR:

We dive deep into Drake Star’s latest sports technology report which saw a total deal value of $37B in 2023. 

Mohit Pareek is a media and tech investment banker who oversees Drake Star’s sports technology, media, and gaming reports. 

We also cover investors to watch, significant strategic buyers, global investment trends, and the growing role of sovereign wealth funds and athlete investors in the sports industry.

Chapters:

(01:15) Drake Star and Mohit’s background

(07:25) Sports dealmaking in 2023

(09:50) M&A deals

(12:55) Outlook for 2024

(15:15) Investors to watch 

(19:20) Buyers to watch 

(24:00) Public companies

(26:45) Sovereign wealth & athlete investors

.

Mohit Pareek:

With over 60+ employees globally, the Aura platform is transforming traditional linear content experiences into an engaging, interactive, and immersive hyper-contextual environment by aggregating content, data, financial engagement, and communities. 

Before Aura, Antony Arena served as the Chief Executive at Unbound, a group of digital and communications businesses specializing in cutting-edge technologies including AI, VR, and AR.

Aura is headquartered in Australia, with an office in London and soon one in New York City. 

Chapters:

(01:45) Antony’s background

(04:30) Aura overview

(08:15) Why building in sports first

(10:50) Challenges for media/sports

(14:15) Scaling offices globally 

(18:15) Verticals beyond sports

(19:30) Hiring & finding the right talent

(22:30) Learnings from agency business 

(24:40) Keeping an eye on AI

.

Antony Arena:

WSC Sports is nearly a billion-dollar Israeli company, that enables sports media rights owners to automatically generate personalized sports videos in real-time

Prior to co-founding WSC Sports, Daniel Shichman attended Tel Aviv University and served in the Israeli military. 

We discuss the company's journey to success, trends in the sports media industry, the impact of artificial intelligence on content creation and distribution, and the rise of Israel as a tech powerhouse.  

Chapters:

(01:25) Background of WSC Sports

(07:30) Scaling a company globally

(11:40) Israel as a sports tech powerhouse

(15:05) Future of sports media

(22:00) Role of artificial intelligence

(25:20) Conclusion

.

Daniel Shichman:

GameChanger is a tech company (acquired by Dick’s Sporting Goods in 2016) whose mobile app and website provide scorekeeping, stats, video streaming, and recap stories to teams and connected fans at the local level.

Sameer Ahuja is a long-time entrepreneur with 20 years of experience as a Founder, CEO, or, COO of high-growth technology businesses from startup to late-stage in multiple industries. He co-founded an interactive sports attraction, founded a quant hedge fund, and built a fintech company. 

GameChanger’s app is used in all 50 states, has a partnership with Major League Baseball, and more games are covered in two months on GameChanger than in the history of all American professional sports combined.

Chapters:

(01:40) Sameer’s entrance into sports

(03:10) GameChanger overview

(06:10) MLB partnership 

(07:40) Adding new sports 

(10:50) State of youth sports

(15:15) Take on NIL / Private Equity

(20:15) Seasonality in amateur sports

(22:25) Advice for building 

.

Sameer Ahuja:

Comcast NBCUniversal SportsTech finds, funds, and fast-tracks innovative startups from around the world to invest in and develop the next generation of technology to change the way we experience sports. 

Jenna Kurath spent time in the PR and communications space before joining Comcast and helping to launch the sports accelerator. 

Comcast SportsTech features partnerships with NBC Sports, Sky Sports, Comcast Spectacor, and Golf – alongside NASCAR and three US Olympic sports organizations.

Chapters:

(01:30) Comcast SportsTech overview

(05:00) Evolution of the accelerator 

(08:25) Success stories 

(10:35) Accelerator model

(13:00) Criteria they look for 

(19:40) Challenges they commonly see

(24:00) Cohort #4

(27:45) Emerging areas

.

Jenna Kurath:

CrewLAB recently completed a pre-seed round for their sports team management system for high school and collegiate endurance sports. 

We dive deep into the rowing industry and talk about CrewLab’s journey and how they’re trying to expand into other niches within sports. 

Dominic Pardini is a former UCLA rower, innovation consultant at Accenture, and now sports technology entrepreneur. 

Chapters:

(02:20) Background

(04:00) CrewLab overview

(06:50) Fundraising process learnings 

(10:40) The rowing industry 

(15:40) Advice to jump into entrepreneurship

(19:00) Interesting areas in sports

(22:20) Expanding LTV in athletics 

.

Dominic Pardini:

SeventySix Capital is a VC firm that invests in innovative sports, media, and entertainment companies. 

Wayne Kimmel is the managing partner of SeventySix Capital who has also authored the book Six Degrees of Wayne Kimmel. 

This episode dives deep into the evolution of sports as an asset class, advice for entrepreneurs, and interesting areas to watch in the future. 

Chapters:

(01:40) Entrance to sports tech

(04:20) Defining sports

(07:00) Sports betting evolution

(11:25) Downstream movement

(13:10) What the best founders do 

(20:10) Using networks 

(25:20) Equity in early stages

(28:00) Emerging areas to watch

(33:35) Sports as an asset

.

Wayne Kimmel:

The United Basketball League (UBL) is a fan-owned league attempting to create a system similar to baseball (but in basketball) co-founded by former NBA player Ricky Davis and Chris Allison. 

Chris Allison, experienced in the minor sports league space, provides insight into the planned structure of the league and its community-centric approach. 

With a focus on encouraging continued involvement from retired players and fostering talent development, the UBL aims to fill a gap between the youth, college, and professional levels of basketball with Ricky Davis helping shape that. 

Chapters:

(01:17) United Basketball League Vision 

(01:51) Journey of Building the UBL 

(03:46) State of Basketball Today 

(06:26) UBL's Role in the Basketball Landscape 

(09:53) Impact of Emerging Leagues 

(13:51) First Season and Future Plans 

(18:40) UBL's Community Engagement Strategy 

(22:10) Personal Journey of Founders 

(28:02) Closing Remarks and Where to Find More About UBL

.

United Basketball League:

NBA Champion Giannis Antetokounmpo recently announced the launch of Improbable Media led by CEO Jonathan Stern and also ESPN personality Jay Williams. 

Improbable Media will 'incubate and accelerate' content creation for talent and brands on top of producing their own movies, shows, and documentaries. 

Jonathan Stern has spent most of his career in the media space after starting as an attorney. He has been involved in helping media arms pivot and has also produced many of your favorite shows and documentaries. 

Chapters:

(02:05) Trends in sports media

(06:10) Improbable Media

(12:30) Pillars of the company 

(16:40) Role as CEO

(19:00) From 0 to 1 in media

(24:35) What makes a good story?

(26:40) How to break into sports

.

Jonathan Stern:

Full Venue closed a €2M seed round to expand its AI marketing platform beyond Europe and into categories beyond sports. 

Full Venue uses artificial Intelligence to determine the exact likelihood of a customer purchasing a digital platform, helping the marketing teams to target their communication and increasing revenues around the B2C touchpoints.

Tiago Costa previously managed digital products for Portugal’s soccer federation and spent time as a business analyst. 

Chapters:

(01:50) Full Venue overview

(04:25) Artificial intelligence macro

(06:50) Case studies

(12:20) Learnings from fundraising 

(17:35) Challenges operating in sports

(22:10) Selling in sports vs entertainment

(23:25) Expansion plans

(25:15) Trends to watch in AI

.

Tiago Costa:

The Enhanced Games, backed by billionaire Peter Thiel, is on a mission to reimagine performance and provide an alternative to the Olympics. 

Dr. Aron Souza previously led litigation against Gawker Media involving the wrestler Hulk Hogan, which resulted in one of the largest invasion of privacy judgments in history. He also founded Sargon and OPEN. 

The first Enhanced Games tentpoles will take place across 2024. 

Chapters:

(01:20) The Enhanced Games

(02:55) Problem with Olympics

(05:30) Current athlete payment model

(07:10) The pitch to athletes

(09:10) No drug testing

(13:05) Breaking records

(15:30) Why billionaires invested 

.

Dr. Aron Souza:

FanClub Sports Capital is a syndication platform and registered investment advisor (RIA) that connects deals to private investors.

Before founding FanClub, Dave Mirynech spent several years across hockey analytics, venture capital, and blockchain technologies. 

We talk about sports as an asset class, team valuations, crowdfunding, multi-club structures, and trends to keep an eye on. 

Chapters:

(01:25) Background

(05:35) FanClub Sports Capital overview

(09:30) Liquidity in sports

(12:50) Sports as an asset class

(16:40) Crowdfunding 

(20:40) Jobs Act

(23:15) Trends in sports investing 

.

Dave Mirynech:

CoachTube is one of the largest marketplaces in the sports industry helping to connect athletes/parents with the top coaching instructional videos. 

Wade Floyd was previously one of the top bible salesmen in the world and a youth baseball coach who saw a need for a premier instructional marketplace. 

CoachTube houses thousands of videos, powers coaching clinics, and helps those in sports make extra money as they share their knowledge. 

Chapters:

(01:45) Inspiration behind CoachTube

(03:45) Overview of company

(06:40) Marketplace learnings 

(09:00) Acquiring customers

(12:25) B2B vs B2C

(16:50) Business model 

(19:20) Digital vs in-person training

(22:10) Trends to watch

.

Wade Floyd:

CEO Mike Shogren is the father of a young athlete who suffered a devastating concussion leading to years of symptoms that could’ve been easily diagnosed and treated with a better protocol in place. 

While researching concussion treatment, Mike Shogren was introduced to Prevent Biometrics. He left his job, joined Prevent as the CEO, and set out to bring this technology to athletes and parents at every level of sports. 

Prevent Biometrics has become an industry leader for head injury protocol in sports partnering with over 200 organizations, deploying 20,000+ impact-monitoring mouthguards, and leading the largest head impact study to date. 

Chapters:

(02:15) Background in athlete safety

(04:05) Son’s injury 

(06:15) Inception of Prevent Biometrics

(11:00) Understanding the product 

(16:00) Top of the pyramid down with World Rugby

(19:45) Understanding governance in sports

(21:50) Balancing product, data, & creating systems

(25:20) Concussions in the future

.

Mike Shogren:

Greenfly has been building in sports & media for ten years with 500+ major organizations as clients led by Daniel Kirschner.  

Greenfly's short-form media software platform captures, collects, organizes & distributes videos & photos to drive fan engagement.

Daniel Kirschner spent most of his career in the legal space before jumping into entrepreneurship at Greenfly with two-time MLB All-Star Shawn Green. 

Chapters:

(01:20) 10 years of building Greenfly

(03:45) Indications of PMF

(05:55) GenZ & Short-Form Content

(08:35) Expanding beyond sports & internationally 

(13:15) Growth engines to scale faster

(16:00) Benefits of starting a company in sports

(19:10) Selling to teams vs leagues vs brands

(21:20) Trends in sports to watch

.

Daniel Kirschner:

Reality is being redefined as immersive technology and sports are colliding at record rates. 

Tyler Gates leads the charge at Brightline Interactive and is the Chief Futurist for the parent company, Glimpse Group ($VRAR). 

In today’s episode, we dive deep into “fan engagement” and how Brightline Interactive is building the future to provide all stakeholders within sports with an amazing experience. 

Chapters:

(02:25) Brightline Interactive

(05:30) Cool tech they've built in sports

(10:15) Pose with the pros

(14:15) Defining fan engagement

(20:50) AI and LLM’s

(25:20) Defining reality 

(30:15) Social media and shopping

(34:00) Next horizon in sports tech

.

Tyler Gates:

RacquetX looks to build the homebase for the multi-billion-dollar racquet sports industry as we dive deep into the business of events.

Robyn Duda is the co-founder and managing director of RacquetX. She has had a successful career across events and technology. 

The first-ever RacquetX event will take place March 24-26 in Miami, Florida. 

Chapters:

(02:00) RacquetX inception

(04:40) Inaugural event 

(09:50) Elevating racquet sports

(11:20) Data & insights 

(13:40) Badminton is bigger than soccer

(17:10) Innovations to watch

(21:50) Business of events

.

Robyn Duda:

From grassroots to global impact, RugbyDAO is on a mission to reshape rugby for the next 200 years. It's a decentralized way to build community and operate across the ecosystem. 

Nick Riggall is the OG and one of the original co-founders at RugbyDAO.

As we explore the intersection of sports and Web3, you’ll also pick up on some incredible insights about rugby – which has over 850 million fans worldwide. 

Chapters:

00:01:47 - Building Community in Sports with DAOs

00:02:59 - The Founding of RugbyDAO

00:05:29 - Nick Riggall's Background and Entry into Web3

00:09:45 - Learning from Other Sports DAO Projects

00:11:45 - RugbyDAO's Mission

00:16:22 - The Future of Rugby

00:20:04 - Business Model

00:21:45 - Five-Year Vision

.

Nick Riggall:

In this episode, CJ Handron of Diamond Kinetics gives us a deep dive into the evolution of sports tech (since they were one of the first companies in the space over a decade ago).

Handron is an alumnus of the University of Pittsburgh entrepreneurship program and discusses the company's journey over the last decade, and its products aimed at the baseball and softball industry.

Reflecting on the trends and developments in sports business for the year 2023, the host speaks with Kirby Porter, the founder of New Game Labs. 

Porter discusses the intersection of athletes and technology, the evolution of athlete investing, the importance of sports creators, and advancements in the Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) rules. She also talks about trends in the women's sports industry, global trends in sports, and the rise of emerging sports leagues. 

Both express excitement for the continued growth and innovation in the sector as they move into 2024.

Chapters:

(00:00) Introduction and Recap of the Year 

(01:29) Deep Dive into New Game Labs 

(03:28) Discussion on Athlete Investors

(06:36) Exploring the Creator Economy

(10:47) Insights on Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL)

(14:50) The Rise of Women's Sports

(18:34) Globalization of Sports

(21:43) Emerging Leagues and Downstream Movement

.

Kirby Porter:

In this exclusive interview, we break down TeamSnap’s acquisition of MOJO Sports with their respective CEOs.

We cover the state of youth sports across the world, fragmentation across the space, and the commercialization of amateur athletics. 

Ben Sherwood was previously the President of ABC News & Walt Disney Company before building the youth sports app, MOJO Sports.

Pete Frintzilas is the operating CEO of TeamSnap, coming from the PE firm Waud Capital. 

Chapters:

(01:40) MOJO Sports & Ben Sherwood’s background

(03:10) TeamSnap acquires MOJO Sports

(05:00) Learnings from corporate to startup land

(07:10) State of youth sports

(12:40) Merging tech stacks and investors

(17:40) Fragmentation of amateur athletics 

(23:15) Balancing commercialization with impact

(27:10) Youth sports trends to watch

.

Ben Sherwood:

After 30 years at Accenture, Mike Sutcliff has jumped into the sports entrepreneurship world co-founding 3 different companies. 

We touch on advice from leaving the corporate world to be a startup entrepreneur and the nuance within sports, fitness, and media. 

Kyle Pfaffenbach is a high-end performance nutritionist, helping mostly athletes but also founders optimize their performance. 

Plaffenbach has a B.S. and M.S. in exercise science from Colorado State University, along with a Ph.D. in nutrition from CSU. 

LumosTech is an innovative sleep mask utilizing circadian rhythm studies to help improve sleep. They recently signed a deal with a WNBA team. 

Chapters:

(01:40) Background to sports

(09:15) All things sleep

(15:10) Social jet lag

(18:30) Circadian Rhythm 

(26:25) Daylight savings time

(28:15) Next big “performance” trends

(35:00) Focus on overall health

.

Kyle Pfaffenbach:

The Program is a business focused on restoring New York City basketball at the youth and grassroots level. 

This includes a focus on media, merchandise, camps, activations, and an eventual state-of-the-art facility that will open in the fall of 2024 to host its academy and membership training programs.

Griffin Taylor and Jared Effron grew up playing basketball together. 

Chapters:

(02:00) Backstory

(05:30) Decline of NYC basketball

(09:05) Prep school hoops

(11:45) The Program overview

(15:15) Business model

(19:10) Real estate

(23:40) Rise of women’s basketball

.

Jared Effron & Griffin Taylor:

With soccer growth ahead, Lega Serie A (Italy) launched a US division with Andy Mitchell leading the charge. 

The Serie A Championship is the premier soccer division in Italy and is one of the world's elite soccer leagues.

Prior to Serie A, Andy Mitchell worked at CNN, Facebook, and Meta as the Head of Global Media Accounts. 

Chapters:

(02:00) Media background

(04:45) CEO of Seria A USA

(08:15) 2026 World Cup

(10:25) Grassroots efforts

(12:00) US vs Italy soccer

(15:00) Relegation and promotion

(18:40) Media over the years

.

Andy Mitchell:

MediaKind is an end-to-end video delivery solution that serves some of the largest media properties in the world. 

After serving as the CTO for a few years, Allen Broome took over the CEO role at MediaKind in 2021. Previously he spent time as the VP of Cloud Engineering at Comcast. 

Chapters:

(01:45) MediaKind & Allen’s background

(05:15) Leveraging AI + mathematics 

(07:50) Streaming, RSNs, and D2C

(14:15) Cool video technologies

(20:10) Scaling into the future

(24:35) Sports trends

.

Allen Broome:

Grandstand raised $2.75M to build out its creator economy/fan engagement platform. 

Sandeep Rajan previously spent time as a product leader at both Dropbox and Patreon. 

Grandstand arose from Sandeep’s deep passion for sports and helping creators monetize with their biggest fans. 

Chapters:

(02:05) Consumer Tech background

(07:45) Grandstand overview

(10:15) Web3 paved the ground 

(12:00) Women’s sports

(16:10) NIL deepened fan engagement

(18:30) Challenges building in sports

(22:50) Business model

(26:30) Trends to watch in sports

.

Sandeep Rajan:

GODSENT is a world-famous, Swedish esports organization with its legacy in the game Counter-Strike. 

To create the team, Ludwig Sandgren left his job and sold his apartment to be able to pay player salaries and get GODSENT off the ground. 

Super interesting conversation covering esports, the future of the sport, and founding + operating a team in the space. 

Chapters:

(01:55) Journey to esports owner

(04:50) First steps to create a team

(06:50) Day to day operations

(08:40) Esports demographics/data

(13:15) Recruiting talented players

(17:00) Business model of esports club

(21:15) League structure 

(23:00) Future of esports + trends

.

Ludwig Sandgren:

All-American wrestler to founding what would become CBS Sports Network and now running a micro betting company in Simplebet.

Simplebet is a B2B product development company using machine learning and automation to make every moment of every sporting event a betting opportunity.

Exploring the eerily similar worlds of sports media 20 years ago and sports betting today. 

Chapters:

(02:20) Inspiration for Simplebet

(07:25) CBS Sports Network

(13:30) Favorite part of building a company

(16:15) Advice for young professionals 

(19:30) Betr and Simplebet  

(21:10) Merging of sports betting and media

.

Chris Bevilacqua:

Chris Paul, Zion Williamson, Jimmer Fredette, and a few other pro players are invested in Scout. Clients include Iowa, Texas A&M, G-League, Florida, Siena, Depaul, and others.

Scout is the first digital family office solution for athletes that combines financial education, wealth management, and tax preparation with a premium financial concierge service.

Michael Haddix Jr. previously spent time at Lazard, Goldman Sachs, and Wasserman. Scout has raised $4m to date.

Chapters:

(01:50) Inspiration behind Scout

(06:20) Digital financial app

(10:20) Business model

(13:50) Financial pitfalls of athletes

(16:50) Scout in the future

(20:10) Nugget of financial advice

.

Michael Haddix Jr:

Leading a team of 70+ artificial intelligence and computer vision experts, Luka Pataky has deep insights into where the space is headed. 

Sportradar Group AG (NASDAQ: SRAD), founded in 2001, is a leading global sports technology company creating immersive experiences for sports fans and bettors.

Today’s conversation centers around the evolution of computer vision, sports, artificial intelligence, and deep learning. 

Chapters:

(01:40) Journey in AI

(03:50) What is Sportradar?

(05:20) Evolution of computer vision

(09:40) AI vs CV vs ML vs DL

(12:30) What Luka gets goosebumps from

(17:25) Sports and artificial intelligence

(20:10) Challenges in computer vision

(22:25) Getting educated on AI

.

Luka Pataky:

DMG Ventures recently made two sports investments: F1 Arcade and a new Padel tournament called The Hexagon Cup. 

DMG Ventures is the investment arm of media company, Daily Mail, they have deployed over $200 million into consumer companies. 

Manuel Lopo de Carvalho co-founded DMG Ventures alongside Lord Rothermere in 2017, previously spending time consulting at McKinsey and banking at Goldman Sachs. 

Chapters:

(01:25) From banking to VC

(03:00) DMG Ventures

(07:45) Value proposition

(12:05) Corporate venture capital

(14:00) Sports investments

(21:30) IPL, fantasy, & experiential

.

Manuel Lopo de Carvalho:

The sport of padel has exploded across Europe! Today we break down the business behind it and its expansion west. 

Ryan Redondo is a former All-American tennis player who has spent his career in racquet sports. He is currently the CEO of Taktika Padel and also the San Diego Stingrays in the Pro Padel League. 

Padel is a cross between tennis and squash originating in Mexico. 

Chapters:

(03:25) What is padel? 

(04:30) Taktika & San Diego Stingrays

(06:40) Global landscape (stats)

(08:55) Padel Leagues

(10:40) Learnings from pickleball

(14:30) Opportunities in padel

(19:10) History of padel

(21:40) Trends in sports

.

Go-To Padel Newsletter: 

The Fan-Owned SailGP Team by FANVEST IO provides a unique opportunity to become a team owner for as little as $5,000. 

David Palmer is helping coordinate the new Bermuda-based SailGP team that is owned by 1,950 accredited investors. The team aims to be the 11th team in the league, projected to begin participating in races in 2024 during Season 5 of the Sail Grand Prix Series.

Through his various roles in a public hospitality company, David Palmer was instrumental in achieving a $2.85 billion go-private transaction with affiliates of Apollo Global Management. 

Chapters:

(01:30) Hospitality background

(04:20) Fan ownership in sports

(08:40) DAOs

(15:15) SailGP fan-owned team

(18:40) FANVEST IO

(20:20) Athletes as investors

(25:30) Connecting with sports fans

.

David Palmer:

Prior to founding Caffeine, Ben Keighran sold Chomp Inc to Apple where he led the design of Apple TV for several years. 

Caffeine TV has had several pivots over the years and the last one saw the platform go from 2 million to over 40 million active users. 

On Caffeine TV you can watch free live broadcasts, highlights, and replays of sports. 

Chapters:

(01:35) Original idea for Caffeine

(07:00) Driving millions of active users

(09:00) Sports media’s transitions 

(13:50) GenZ and short form

(16:00) AI’s impact across content

(18:40) Trends in sports to watch

(20:20) Caffeine TVs next steps

.

Ben Keighran:

Tom Webb is the Chief Marketing Officer of the Association of Pickleball Professionals (APP). 

APP is an organization elevating the sport of pickleball by providing elite platforms for the best players in the world, right through to those picking up a paddle for the first time.

Over his 30-year career, Tom Webb has worked with a number of world-famous brands including Red Bull, Emirates Airline, Polo Ralph Lauren, Formula 1, The Olympic Games, America's Cup, and Major League Soccer. 

Chapters:

(01:20) Journey into pickleball

(05:45) Olympic games

(08:30) Numbers behind the game

(14:30) History of pickleball

(17:25) Capturing audience

(20:45) Pickleball pro leagues

(23:00) Downstream initiatives  

(26:20) Opportunities in the space

(28:25) Trends to watch in sports

.

Tom Webb:

The Sporting News (TSN) was founded in 1886 as a weekly newspaper. They recently raised $15M to expand into commerce beyond just digital ads. LTV > CPM. 

Before TSN, Rich Routman was the President and CRO of Minute Media helping them raise millions of dollars and become a 10-figure company. 

The Sporting News acquired a sports betting company earlier this year and plans to continue building on top of their media. 

Chapters:

(01:55) Learnings from Minute Media

(05:50) Why he joined The Sporting News

(10:05) Digital media landscape

(14:40) Sports betting and AI’s impact

(20:45) Sports trends to watch

.

Rich Routman:

HEIR raised $10.6M from Thrive Capital for their consumer-facing community platform for athletes to connect with fans — as well as other lines of business, including an entertainment studio, AI tech, and consumer products.

Prior to co-founding HEIR alongside Jeffrey Jordan and Daniel George, Jeron Smith was the CMO for Steph Curry’s brand and co-founder of Unanimous Media. He also worked at Nike and the White House. 

HEIR recently released their newest AI product PersonaPro. 

Chapters:

(01:30) College athlete to sports executive

(06:30) Endorsement to enterprise

(9:00) Creating community

(11:50) PersonaPro

(14:25) Creating fan engagement

(16:45) Web3 is the future

(22:15) Trends to watch in sports

.

Jeron Smith:

Drive by DraftKings is a multi-stage venture capital firm investing in SportsTech and Entertainment.

Drive also has an all-star network consisting of notable athletes and executives to add value to their core themes of gaming, fandom, and human performance. 

Meredith McPherron is a former college athlete herself who has spent her professional career at the intersection of sports, entrepreneurship, and investing. 

Chapters:

(01:45) Mixing sports and entrepreneurship

(07:30) Building the All-Star Network

(11:00) Verticals within sports tech

(14:00) Fan engagement 

(18:20) Growth of women’s sports

(23:30) State of VC in sports

(28:30) Web1, Web2, Web3

.

Meredith McPherron: