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Shamrock Capital is leading the investment in the production company, which was founded by Gotham Chopra, Michael Strahan, and Tom Brady.
What's the deal?
Religion of Sports, the media production company founded by Gotham Chopra, Michael Strahan, and Tom Brady, has raised $50 million in a Series B funding round led by Shamrock Capital and joined by Elysian Park Ventures and Cerro Capital. Chopra tells The Hollywood Reporter that the raise will be used to help “grow the company from the production company model, which is what we have operated in for a long time, to really controlling our own destiny. To really bet on ourselves, bet on talent we believe in, bet on stories we believe in.”
Religion of Sports has leaned on its founder relationships with athletes to emphasize sports and sports-adjacent content, but the company says that with its new funding it will be entering new genres and formats, including non-sports content and music.“Obviously, we have been very sports-centric, a certain type of premium content, and all of that will stay but is also expanding a little bit outside of that, including some projects that are non-sports right now,” Chopra says.
The bottom line:
“Greatness isn’t just found in the world of sports, they have great talent they have been covering, but it is found in other verticals as well,” Shamrock Capital partner Andy Howard adds.
Read: Hollywood Reporter
P.S. - Religion of Sports is nominated for FIVE (5) Hashtag Sports Awards! View all the nominees by clicking here and find out whom the winners are at our live awards dinner on July 12 in Las Vegas hosted by WWE Superstars Kofi Kingston and Xavier Woods. Reserve your seats today!
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LSU is launching a subscription-based streaming service called "LSU Gold" that will feature "behind-the-scenes documentary series, in-depth interviews, premium podcasts, and more," per an announcement released by the university on Monday. The platform will include a series that follows head coach Brian Kelly's inaugural year in Baton Rouge, documenting his arrival in December through the 2022 season.
The Tigers aren't the only program to create a streaming service that offers fans exclusive content. Notre Dame, Maryland, Oklahoma State, Clemson, and Arkansas recently launched similar services. LSU's subscription runs $8.99 per month, the same price as Oklahoma State's "OSU Max," which launched in April. A clip previewing the content included on LSU's streaming service features interviews with athletes and coaches across multiple sports, including gymnast Olivia Dunne and women's basketball coach Kim Mulkey.
Read: The Athletic
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As the global auto sport explodes in popularity and U.S. media rights for Formula 1 are for the taking in 2023, Netflix, ESPN, and NBCUniversal have reportedly been eyeing the international auto racing circuit. Disney-owned ESPN is the only company so far that has confirmed. In a statement to Insider, John Suchenski, director, Programming & Acquisitions, ESPN, said, “We are aggressively pursuing a renewal — we feel that we have a distribution package and event presentation that can’t be matched in the industry … It has been a mutually beneficial relationship.”
ESPN is currently the rights-holder in the U.S. for F1 and has been since 2017. The rights expire at the end of this year, and F1 is targeting $100 million for the rights, according to the report. Reportedly, ESPN submitted an opening bid of about $70 million, well below the targeted figure. Comcast’s NBCUniversal held the rights for the previous five years. At the beginning of 2022, NBC shuttered NBCSN, its all-sports channel. Comcast’s satellite broadcaster, Sky, holds the U.K. and Ireland rights to Formula 1, a deal that ends in 2024.
Read: TechCrunch, Business Insider
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Imagen and Greenfly announced an integration partnership that will power the automated collection, storage, and distributed sharing of short-form digital media for global sports and entertainment organizations. Content available for instant sharing also includes archived interviews, programming, fan-generated content, and match day social media content, among others. Imagen and Greenfly’s integrated solution enables content stored on Imagen to be accessed directly from the Greenfly app for real-time use. The content exchange between the two platforms is seamless, offering users an extremely rich selection of social content to bring pre-game, in-game and post-game moments to life.
The partnership also brings speed and ease to managing, accessing, and distributing content for sports organizations and their partners, including brand sponsors and broadcasting rights holders. By curating a rich library of user-generated content and archived content, the integrated solution provides seamless short- and long-term visual asset strategies with end-to-end utility–from digitizing archival footage from the pre-internet sports era to instant login and collaboration for internal marketing teams.
Read: SVG
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The Braves’ campaign will cast players as stars in make-believe movies – such as first baseman and metro Atlanta native Matt Olson in “Coming Home,” right fielder Ronald Acuna in “Clutch,” third baseman Austin Riley in “The Bowman” and middle infielders Ozzie Albies and Dansby Swanson in “Turn 2″ – to try to catch the attention of the electorate.
A series of 30-second commercials supporting the Braves’ All-Star nominees will be shown before real movies at more than 100 theaters over the next month. A set of movie posters, ostensibly promoting the fake flicks but actually aimed at boosting All-Star candidacies, will be displayed in lobbies of theaters and elsewhere. The Braves said their get-out-the-vote campaign will extend to Bally Sports’ telecasts of games, billboards in Atlanta, and initiatives around Truist Park, including Hollywood Walk of Fame-like floor graphics and movie poster giveaways to the first 5,000 fans through the gates at each game of the Braves-Pirates series Thursday through Sunday.
Read: The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
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- PEOPLE: Dave Roberts is one of the most powerful executives at ESPN, and he’s pushing for more diversity at the network.
- MARKETING: NCAA partners are showing up in unique ways at the Women's College Softball World Series.
- CONTENT: Apple Studios has acquired Top Gun: Maverick director Joseph Kosinski’s Formula One racing film, starring Brad Pitt.
- ATHLETES: Patrick Beverley has become the say-anything star of the NBA playoffs while appearing on ESPN on and off the last month.
- GAMING: FaZe Clan a group of gamers, esports stars, and YouTube creators aim to change the entertainment industry.
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Premier Lacrosse League powered by Ticketmaster announces partnership with Cash App
The Details
The Premier Lacrosse League powered by Ticketmaster has named Cash App the Official Cryptocurrency Exchange, Peer-to-Peer Payment Technology, and Investment/Trading Platform of the PLL. As part of the partnership, players will have the option to get paid in Bitcoin by automatically investing a portion of their PLL paychecks into bitcoin through Cash App. Players have the ability to instantly turn on, off, and adjust at any time. And there are no fees to opt in. Cash App will be the presenting partner of Goals for Greatness, a 501(c)(3) organization created by PLL Co-Founder and President Paul Rabil. With the help of Cash App, Goals for Greatness is committed to resourcing lacrosse goals in all 50 states every year. Each weekend of the PLL season, Cash App will add money for every goal scored into a weekly pot. All contest entrants in Goals for Cash presented by Cash App will be eligible to win the pot on a weekly basis. Winners will receive their winnings via their Cash App account.
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Share today's edition with a friend who is having trouble keeping up with the PGA Tour players leaving for LIV Golf.
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Emily Black
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5 min read
