Chris Smith

Dodgers owner Mark Walter has been blown away by the response of brands wanting to be involved with the Dodgers in the wake of signing Shohei Ohtani in the offseason. “It’s really been unbelievable, the sponsorships that have come in and the companies that are reaching out to...

LOS ANGELES -- Yesterday, prolific sports investors Michele Kang and Marc Lasry headlined a panel conversation that drew a crowd of industry heavyweights to Beverly Hills’ Waldorf Astoria hotel. Kang is behind a women’s soccer team roll-up strategy that began with her acquisition of the NWSL’s...

David Beckham was always a sports marketing icon, but after starring in and co-producing a breakout Netflix documentary last year, his next role may be as a media titan. Speaking at the Milken Institute Global Conference on Monday afternoon, Beckham shared his perspectives on brand building alongside Authentic...

Arthur M. Blank was nobody’s idea of a future billionaire when he graduated with an accounting degree from Babson College in 1963. He spent five years at an accounting firm before joining his family’s pharmacy business, which his mother sold to the Daylin Corporation in 1968. Two years later,...

Back in March, Southern California’s Mission Viejo welcomed a star-studded lineup of current and former NFL quarterbacks including Aaron Rodgers, Josh Allen and Bryce Young, among others. They’d come together to participate in the third annual charity flag football tournament organized by RX3 Growth Partners,...

Athlete lending business Sure Sports has partnered with Keller Williams Sports + Entertainment to launch a new pilot program to better enable athlete clients to sell their homes. The Real Estate Transition for Athletes Program, or RETAP, will typically work with athletes moving to new cities, oftentimes...

A newly launched women’s sports networking event drew a crowd of some 200 last week to L.A.'s Santa Monica Proper Hotel. The event, hosted by the Women Abundance Collective, a members-only network of high-net-worth female investors, served the dual purpose of introducing attendees to the sports asset...

Newsletter platform beehiiv has raised a $33M Series B funding round led by NEA with participation from Lightspeed Venture Partners and Sapphire Sport. Why would a sports-specific VC firm deploy capital against a newsletter and email marketing company? According to Sapphire Sport founding partner Michael Spirito, beehiiv represents a...

Unrivaled Sports, the youth sports holding company launched earlier this year by Josh Harris , David Blitzer and The Chernin Group, has acquired youth flag football business Under the Lights Powered by Under Armour. Under the Lights, founded in 2015, is the nation’s second-largest...