🕵️♂️ Crypto Sports Site Hacked For $41 Million
Note from the editor: Dear TFM Readers, please meet my friend Malcolm Lemmons, author of weekly digest The Hype Report. We are featuring his words and thoughts on the web3, tech, and sports industry this month in the newsletter. Enjoy!
Welcome to another edition of The Hype Report where we curate & deliver the latest news, stories & insights around sports technology.
Welcome, welcome…
In case you didn’t know… It’s the first Sunday of the new NFL season!
As you prepare for the upcoming week (or chill out on the couch all day), we have a solid rundown of sports tech news and updates on the plate for you.
Feel free to shoot me an email with your prediction for the Super Bowl LVIII matchup as well.
Who knows, we might even do a Super Bowl ticket giveaway if you guess correctly
In the meantime, let’s get into the latest…
🗞️ Top News
• Apex Capital announced their €50 million ($53 million) fund with backing from athletes including Formula 1 drivers Carlos Sainz and Lando Norris to invest in sports technology and entertainment. Bloomberg has (more here).
• Stake.com, the world’s largest sports betting and cryptocurrency-oriented casino platform was reportedly hacked for as much as $41.3 million worth of digital assets. Reports are currently pointing to a potential key leak as the cause behind the security breach. Cointelegraph has (more here).
• Disney and Charter are at a standoff. More than 14 million Spectrum subscribers will be unable to watch Monday's NFL game between the Buffalo Bills and the New York Jets if an ongoing dispute between Charter and Disney drags on. Yahoo Sports has (more here).
💰Investments & Acquisitions
• Leading digital sports media group, Better Collective, announced the acquisition of Torcedores.com, a leading national Brazilian sports media platform (more here).
• FORA Capital acquired a new stake in shares of Academy Sports and Outdoors in the first quarter of this year, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (more here).
• Fenway Sports Group-owned Pittsburg Penguins have agreed to buy and rebrand the existing AT&T SportsNet Pittsburgh RSN from Warner Bros Discovery. SportsProMedia has (more here).
• Israeli startup Upwind, which develops a security platform that protects cloud infrastructure, announced last Tuesday that it has raised an additional $50 million, bringing its total funding to $80 million within only 11 months of founding. The company is backed by top investors including Greylock, Cyberstarts, Leaders Fund, Craft Ventures, Cerca Partners, Sheva, a VC fund founded by former Israeli NBA basketball player Omri Casspi, and Penny Jar, a VC fund backed by NBA superstar, Steph Curry (more here)
• New York Mets Owner Steve Cohen buys into New York Team In Tiger-Rory Golf League. Cohen's team (which has not yet been named) joins franchises in Los Angeles, Boston, and Atlanta (more here).
• Private equity sports investment is on the rise. As leagues have eased ownership rules, dealmakers spy on opportunities to gain outsized returns and cultural influence. Pitchbook has (more here).
• Takes, an all-encompassing sports experience app, recently announced its launch out of beta on the back of a $1.4 million (€1.3 million) pre-seed raise (more here).
🤝 Partnerships & Acquisitions
• Meta unveils AR and social features in partnership with Rugby World Cup 2023. Meta is rolling out a range of Rugby World Cup-themed features across its social media platforms as part of its role as the official social media and AR/VR supplier of the tournament, which began in France this week. SportsProMedia has (more here).
• Web3 basketball game, Rumble Kong League, and apparel brand Stance launched a collection of in-game NFT HyperSocks, alongside IRL counterparts. The partnership also includes a collab with NBA superstar Paul George. DeCrypt has (more here).
• UFC and ProhiBet, the sports betting industry’s only comprehensive solution that monitors prohibited bettor activity, announced a collaboration for the utilization of ProhiBet’s advanced notification platform. UFC has (more here).
• Virginia Tech and ProhiBet also announced a partnership for the utilization of ProhiBet's advanced fully encrypted decentralized cross-monitoring and notification platform. ProhiBet will play a pivotal role in preventing specific individuals such as athletes, coaches, league officials, and administration from engaging in prohibited sports wagering (more here).
• Tom Brady is staying busy in life after football. This week he joined Delta Air Lines as a strategic adviser in a first-of-its-kind multiyear partnership (more here).
• STN Video, a leading online video platform for publishers that care about user experience, content, and monetization, and the NFL have signed a multi-year partnership agreement extension that will help STN publishers deliver official highlights, game recaps, top plays, interviews, and more to their users (more here).
• Veritone, an enterprise AI software and services leader, announced a comprehensive multi-year partnership extension with U.S. Soccer. As the governing body of soccer in the United States, U.S. Soccer includes the U.S. Women’s and Men’s National Teams, Youth National Teams, and Extended National Teams (more here).
• Betr, the prominent online sports betting operator that recently launched its real money sportsbook offering in Virginia, announced a partnership with WagerWire, a marketplace technology and media company that caters to the betting sector (more here).
• The Cleveland Browns have teamed up with Lava.ai to power real-time fan engagement at the team's home, Cleveland Browns Stadium, and beyond (more here).
⚡ Other Hype
• Saudi Arabia Really Wants You to Think It’s Cool. The desert kingdom’s rebranding project goes way beyond sportswashing. But it’s all a little too contrived. Foreign Policy has (more here).
• IBM Mining Millions Of Data Points From U.S. Open Stadiums. IBM borrows from the video technology already in place at the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in New York, whether Arthur Ashe Stadium or any of the 17 tournament courts on site, to extract 56 unique in-play physical data points from every match. Forbes has (more here).
• Sorare Launches AR-Equipped 3D Digital Football Player Cards. Web3 fantasy sports platform Sorare announced the launch of 3D digital football player cards with integrated augmented reality (AR) capabilities. Decrypt has (more here).
• Artificial Intelligence Could Replace Referees Within 30 Years. Yahoo Sports has (more here).
• STWS Releases Esports & Gaming Market Report. Looking to understand the esports, gaming, and streaming markets? The annual STWS Esports & Gaming Market Report features an in-depth analysis of market data combined with insights from interviews with global industry experts and innovators (download here).
• A Record 73 million Americans plan to Bet on the NFL This Season. As legalized sports gambling expands across the U.S., a record 73.5 million Americans plan to wager on the NFL this season, according to the American Gaming Association’s latest survey on Americans’ betting plans released Wednesday (more here).
• The Rich are Competing with Private Equity to Buy Sports Teams. Here is how they are getting creative in a crowded field. Business Insider has (more here).
• Sports Stock Market app Mojo Launches a Daily Fantasy Sports Game. The Mojo Fantasy app envisions competitors building portfolios, rather than a lineup of players, that compete over the course of live game action (more here).
That’s all I got for you today. Thanks for reading.
Malcolm
This newsletter is for informational purposes only and is not financial or business advice in any capacity.
The information shared is my thoughts & opinions and does not represent the opinions of any other person, business, entity, or sponsor.
The contents of this newsletter also should not be used in any public or private domain without the author's express permission.
The contents of this newsletter should not be used for any commercial activity, for example, research report, consultancy activity, or paywalled article, without the author's express permission.
