This past weekend’s Hungarian Grand Prix was filled with suspense and chaos after an early crash threw the race into disarray.

The rivalry between Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton and Red Bull driver Max Verstappen received the bulk of attention heading into the event, but it was Alpine’s Esteban Ocon who wound up taking first place for the first Formula 1 win of his career.

Viewership for this season’s first nine races has grown by 36% compared to the 2019 season. Revenue spiked to $180 million in Q1 2021, up from $39 million during the same period last year. 

Since acquiring F1 for $4.6 billion in 2017, Liberty Media’s shares are up more than 113%.

Ian Holmes, director of media rights and content creation for F1, credits Netflix’s “Drive to Survive” with the recent surge in interest.

In 2020, the league saw a 99% increase in engagements across Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube — the largest jump for any professional sports entity that year.

The past several months have been filled with massive reveals for Formula 1:

• June 29: announced a five-year, $100 million global partnership with crypto.com
• April 19: finalized a 10-year deal to race in Miami and the Hard Rock Stadium
• March 4: Aston Martin returned to the league after a 61-year absence

The season continues with the Belgian Grand Prix at the end of August. Lewis Hamilton leads all drivers with 192 points going into it.

World Rugby is exploring investment opportunities and has opened talks with private equity firms including CVC Capital Partners, per the Financial Times. 

The rugby union is looking to auction off a stake in its commercial arm to fund expansion efforts that include new women’s tournaments and television formats for events outside the Olympic Games. 

Talks between World Rugby and CVC are in the early stages with bankers from Jefferies Group and Rothschild advising the process. World Rugby is also in discussions with private equity firm KKR & Co. Inc. 

CVC’s list of sports investments runs deep:

• It purchased a 28% stake in the United Rugby Championship for $169 million in 2020. 
• In February, the firm invested $300 million in the International Volleyball Federation. 
• In March, it acquired a 14% stake in Six Nations Rugby for up to $509 million. 
• It’s currently in talks for a $600 million deal that would merge the ATP and WTA. 
• The firm is seeking a stake in the Currie Cup, South Africa’s premier rugby union. 

Despite CVC’s bevy of new ventures, some efforts have been subject to criticism.

Seven Serie A teams asked their president, Paolo Dal Pino, to step down following his proposed deal with a private consortium that included CVC. The deal would’ve given up a 10% stake in the soccer league’s media company for $2 billion.

Texas and Oklahoma officially joined the SEC on Friday in an attempt to reposition themselves for the future of college sports.

Meanwhile, ACC powerhouse Clemson quietly announced a major move of its own. 

The program decided to take its multimedia rights in-house, according to an SBJ report. The original seven-year, $68 million campus marketing agreement with JMI Sports was supposed to run through 2024.

Clemson isn’t alone: Nebraska, Arizona State, and Stanford have also opted to go in-house. 

Between relaxed transfer rules and the new name, image, and likeness policy, powerhouse programs need ways to convince young athletes why their programs are different — and possibly more lucrative — than others. 

Clemson’s move suggests the school feels it can generate enough profit using in-house resources to justify the initial revenue hit from restructuring the JMI Sports contract.

• The school boasts robust marketing and sales departments. 
• There are two teams dedicated to video and creative services. 
• The football team alone has at least two employees assigned to content creation.

That goes above and beyond what the average D-I department offers, but it remains to be seen if Clemson’s new strategy will fully pay off.

San Jose Sharks star forward Evander Kane is subject to an NHL investigation after his estranged wife alleged on social media over the weekend that Kane bet on his own games.

Kane took to Twitter on Sunday to deny the allegations.

“I have NEVER gambled/bet on hockey, NEVER gambled/bet on a Sharks game, NEVER gambled/bet on any of my games, and NEVER thrown a hockey game,” he wrote.

Anna Kane had written on Instagram Saturday that Kane is a “compulsive gambling addict” and “he’s obviously throwing games to win money.”

“The integrity of our game is paramount and the League takes these allegations very seriously,” the NHL said in a statement after Anna Kane’s posts. “We intend to conduct a full investigation.”

• Evander Kane, 30, listed $1.5 million in gambling debts when he sought bankruptcy protection in January.
• He was also sued by The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas for $500,000 for failing to pay back credit extended to him in 2019.

Popular sports handicapper Danny Sheridan told Front Office Sports that no evidence has yet surfaced to show unusual betting patterns for Sharks games, which happens when an “inordinate amount of money” is bet on a contest.

“You’re going to get caught because the bookmaker knows who made the bet,” Sheridan said.