In this week’s SportsMoney Playbook: media companies’ pivot to sports gambling, blockchain tech in betting and our NBA season preview. Plus: how the Rockets’ owner is getting billions of dollars richer during the pandemic.

Sports Betting

Forget pivoting to video; media brands like Sports Illustrated and Maxim have hit a jackpot by partnering with gambling companies.

While a handful of large companies currently control the online sports betting industry, blockchain technology has created an opportunity for smaller, self-regulated operators to emerge.

A recent report sees the sports gambling industry growing to $40 billion in revenue by 2033, and one venture capital fund wants in on the gold rush. It just raised $10 million to invest in early-stage tech companies focused on sports betting and online gambling.

Hockey

The Seattle Kraken, the NHL‘s newest franchise, want to do things differently, and that extends to their partnership with PepsiCo, which will see the brand commit to the sustainability goals of the Kraken’s new home, Climate Pledge Arena. Another new venue—the state-of-the-art UBS Arena—starts a new era for the Islanders after the deterioration of Nassau Coliseum and the failed Barclays Center experiment.

Auto Racing

Josh Berry was a relatively unknown driver in Nascar‘s Xfinity Series, with only seven races under his belt from 2014 to 2017. But after an unexpected opportunity from Dale Earnhardt Jr. and JR Motorsports, Berry nabbed two wins in 2021 and has his sights set on a championship in 2022.

College Sports

An AI-based digital advertising platform specializing in product placement is creating new opportunities for busy athletes with little time to devote to their sponsors. LSU basketball player Shareef O’Neal is among the first to take advantage.

Three decades ago, Notre Dame football star Raghib “Rocket” Ismail was in a different category when it came to national popularity and marketability. How would that have translated to the name, image and likeness market that exists for college players today? “I believe it would have been fun, for sure,” he tells us.

New Fordham basketball coach Kyle Neptune is building team chemistry, but not in the most traditional way. “He didn’t tell me he was going to take me to the opera,” says one Fordham player.

Soccer

In the wake of a sexual misconduct scandal across the NWSL, a group of long-marginalized players are speaking with one voice and taking control of their league, including stopping a game to protest last week.

Tennis

Maria Sharapova‘s tennis career may be over, but she’s charting a new—and hopefully lucrative—personal journey as an entrepreneur.

Featured Story

How Clever Deals Made Rockets Owner Tilman Fertitta Billions Richer During The Pandemic

You can describe Rockets owner Tilman Fertitta in many ways: as a showman, a risk taker, a college dropout, a reality-show star or the fellow who bought Donald Trump’s Atlantic City casino out of bankruptcy in 2011 and made a success of it. But the one identity that has arguably made the biggest impact on his wealth is that of a sharp financial engineer with a history of cutting the public into and out of his ventures and taking on and offloading debt at opportune moments. Now, he’s getting richer by making use of the era’s hottest financial trend.

Hot Reads:

Upon Further Review

Cricket’s bid to get into the Los Angeles Olympics is in crisis after the sudden departure of England and Wales Cricket Board chairman Ian Watmore. One strong option to replace him is former PepsiCo CEO Indra Nooyi, an important trumpeter of cricket in the American market and one of America’s richest self-made women. See Nooyi’s net worth.

The Last Word

“The cool stuff is what’s going to be done with basketball that’s not playing basketball.” – Andy Borman

Basketball Hall of Famer Earl Monroe has partnered with an award-winning filmmaker to launch the first speciality high school for basketball, but it’s not what you think. The newly opened New York City school, where ​​Andy Borman is the athletic director, plans to use the study of basketball as a vehicle to educate kids in business, science, journalism, math and language. “This was kind of a dream of mine,” Monroe tells us, more than 40 years after he launched a similar summer program in Harlem. Learn more about the historic school.

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