Finlete, a new enterprise in which "fans can invest in players, in exchange for a percentage of their future earnings" but if a player never makes the majors, the player "keeps the money and owes nothing" while the fan has a "rooting interest and a financial interest in the player," according to Bill Shaikin of the L.A. TIMES. Shaikin notes Big League Advance, a company that also offers money to players now in exchange for a percentage of any MLB earnings. The company, now rebranded as Big League Advantage, “hit it big in terms of money and notoriety in 2021,” when the Padres signed BLA client Fernando Tatis Jr. to a $340M contract. Shaikin noted Finlete’s model is “designed to appeal to the common fan.” The company sells “shares” of a player as if he were a stock. You can buy shares in the first Finlete player, Rangers prospect Echedry Vargas, for a minimum investment of $96. Vargas signed for a $10,000 bonus. Finlete put shares of Vargas on sale Feb. 27 and had raised $21,112 as of Thursday morning, with a target minimum of $50,000 and maximum of $800,000. Connolly said that he is “targeting prospects within and just outside the top 100 in baseball,” not so much the ones who got million-dollar bonuses as much as the ones who got small bonuses and started to climb the prospect charts. He said that he “plans to unveil deals with several other prospects once the Vargas funding is largely complete” (L.A. TIMES, 4/5).
