Whether or not you can name many Major League Soccer players, you’ve almost certainly heard of some team owners. 

Texas native Matthew McConaughey recently became a co-owner of Austin FC, making him the latest celebrity to own an MLS team.

As an expanding league with team values in the hundreds of millions of dollars — as opposed to the billions for most MLB, NBA, and NFL teams — MLS offers a viable entry point for celebrities and athletes interested in owning sports teams. 

• Will Ferrell, Magic Johnson, Mia Hamm, and Nomar Garciaparra are part of LAFC’s ownership group.
• David Beckham co-owns Inter Miami.
• Seattle Sounders owners include Drew Carey, Mariners legend Ken Griffey Jr., Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson, and his wife, singer Ciara. 
• Brooklyn Nets Kevin Durant, James Harden, and coach Steve Nash own stakes in the Philadelphia Union, Houston Dynamo, and Vancouver Whitecaps, respectively. 

MLS isn’t the only American soccer league to attract big names. NWSL owners include Naomi Osaka, Serena Williams, Natalie Portman, Eva Longoria, Jessica Chastain, and, again, Hamm.

While some owners are largely passive investors, McConaughey is lending his gravitas to Austin FC. He’s been named the club’s “Minister of Culture.”

“On any given night when you’re in that stadium, it should feel, smell, and taste like the best of Austin,” he said.

Austin FC lost its inaugural game against LAFC on Saturday, but McConaughey still got some good news: More Texans say they would vote for the actor, who’s teased a governor run in the state, than the incumbent Gov. Greg Abbott.

Tempo, an at-home fitness subscription system that says it had zero cancelations in the past year, raised $220 million in Series C funding led by Japanese holding company SoftBank. 

Tempo’s exact valuation after this round hasn’t been disclosed but more than tripled from the company’s $250 million valuation last June, per Bloomberg.  

Additional investors include previous VC partners DCM, General Catalyst, Bling Capital, and new investor Steadfast Capital. The investment exceeds reports from earlier this month that Tempo would raise just over $100 million. 

The connected fitness system retails between $2,500 and $4,000 and comes with weights, barbells, and a touchscreen display that offers instruction and live classes for a subscription fee of $39 per month. 

New funding will allow Tempo to better compete in a $16.4 billion at-home fitness market that includes Tonal, Mirror, and Peloton. Founder and CEO Moawia Eldeeb said Tempo sales increased tenfold in the past year. 

“SoftBank has strong relationships in Asia and we’re helping Moawia with approaches to lower the cost of manufacturing and exploring strategic ways to bring Tempo to the masses at a lower price point,” SoftBank Vision Fund managing partner Jeffrey Housenbold told Bloomberg.

A group of investors led by Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund agreed to buy popular soccer club Newcastle United last April, then withdrew from the process after human rights organizations objected to the country’s involvement and put pressure on the Premier League.

On the record, Saudi Arabia has only said that the $415 million deal collapsed because the process was long and full of challenges.

However, Daily Mail reported that Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman contacted Prime Minister Boris Johnson after the deal was blocked and said that U.K.-Saudi relations would be strained if Johnson did not intervene to “correct” the Premier League’s “wrong” decision. 

Last week, a representative for Johnson said the U.K. Prime Minister asked a senior aide to “check on the progress of the talks” but “did not ask him to intervene.”

“While we welcome overseas investment, this was a commercial matter for the parties concerned, and the government was not involved at any point,” the rep added.

In February, leaked documents revealed that Real Madrid has discussed a $182 million partnership with the Saudi-owned Qiddiya project. Formula One’s Saudi Arabian Grand Prix debuts this year, and the country has a three-year, $145 million deal with the Spanish Football Federation to host matches, among other sports initiatives.

Saudi Arabia’s $400 billion Public Investment Fund has been pouring money into international markets in general, including a $3.3 billion investment in major U.S. video game companies.

AppLovin, the California-based mobile tech company behind over 200 games, raised $2 billion in its IPO, giving the company a brief $28.6 billion valuation.

Then shares fell from a trading debut of $80 and closed at $61 on Friday, lowering the company’s value to $21.5 billion. More than 22.5 million AppLovin shares have been sold.

AppLovin was almost acquired by Chinese private equity firm Orient Hontai Capital for $1.4 billion in 2016, now it makes more than that in a year. 

Before going public, the company generated $1.45 billion in revenue in 2020, a 46% uptick from the year prior. Private equity group KKR purchased a $400 million stake in 2018.

Mobile gaming is on fire right now. In March, “Genshin Impact,” developed and published by Shanghai-based miHoYo, became the fastest mobile game to make $1 billion. Tencent, the Chinese conglomerate behind several top mobile titles, pulled in $73.8 billion last year. 

Now that AppLovin sits at the table of mobile gaming heavyweights, it’s looking to grow.

Earlier this month, the company agreed to acquire mobile measurement and fraud prevention company Adjust for $1 billion in cash and stock, expanding its mobile app ecosystem.