The NFL helped lead the legal fight against sports betting in the U.S. Having lost, the league has now fully embraced having some skin in the game.

This season, sportsbooks will be allowed to advertise during games for the first time. While specifics have not been made public, the league will reportedly allow six television sportsbook spots per game, with broadcasters CBS, NBC, FOX, and ESPN free to negotiate with sponsors. 

Although legal sports betting is in its nascent stages in the U.S., the NFL is set up for success.

• The NFL struck sponsorship deals with FanDuel, Caesars Entertainment, and DraftKings in April, allowing those companies to display NFL content in their apps and integrate with media properties such as NFL.com. The five-year agreements are collectively worth around $1 billion, per the Wall Street Journal.
• The league is also permitting WynnBET, BetMGM, PointsBet, and Flutter’s Fox Bet to advertise during games.
• The American Gaming Association calculated in 2018 that sports betting could eventually add $2.3 billion to the NFL’s annual revenue.

The online gambling industry, which includes sports betting and casino-style games, could reach $40 billion in the U.S. in the next decade, according to analyst estimates.

The plot thickens for Epic Games v. Google.

Epic sued Google in August 2020 for removing “Fortnite” from Google Play after Epic circumvented Google’s in-app billing requirements. Google takes a 30% cut of revenue from apps launched in the Play Store. 

A fully unredacted version of Epic’s complaint was released on Thursday, revealing the lengths Google went to stop other developers from leaving Google Play. The tech giant estimated it was at risk of losing as much as $6 billion by 2022 if there was an exodus of developers.

• Under the initiative “Project Hug,” Google reportedly paid out hundreds of millions of dollars to game developers, incentivizing them to keep games on the Play Store rather than follow Epic’s lead.
• Google’s “Premier Device Program” also paid phone makers not to preinstall other app stores.

Google even considered acquiring Epic to neutralize the threat.

According to the unredacted complaint, a senior Google executive proposed buying shares from Tencent — which owns 40% of Epic — to “get more control over Epic,” or teaming up with Tencent to buy 100% of Epic.

HumanIPO allows users to literally invest in people with shares that traders can buy, sell, or redeem for personal access to creators.

The ability to meet those one invests in is a large part of the draw. “The first problem we solve is how to invest directly in people. The second thing we solve is the problem of access to successful people,” CEO Kirill Goryunov told The Information.

The startup helps facilitate investments in select entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, social media personalities, and athletes.

Pelé, the Brazilian soccer legend, is one of the hottest commodities on the platform. 

• Pelé went live on HumanIPO this month, selling 10 shares of $PELE at $10,000 per share. 
• In comparison, Mike Merrill, a crowdfunding pioneer and the world’s first publicly traded person, is selling shares of himself at $79.95 each.

Shares of $PELE increased by 1.5% in their first week on the market. Proceeds will be allocated to The Pelé Foundation, which provides children with access to education.

BeIN Sports announced it’s holding on to Serie A broadcast rights in seven existing markets — France, Hong Kong, and five other Asian territories — and adding three new ones: Singapore, Malaysia, and New Zealand.

This comes via a renewed three-year agreement with Infront, Serie A’s international media rights partner. The previous contract between BeIN and Serie A was worth a reported $500 million.

In June, BeIN struck a $600 million deal for broadcast rights to the Champions League and other UEFA tournaments in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA).

Discussions about BeIN broadcasting Serie A in the region have not gone as smoothly. 

• Serie A accepted a discounted BeIN deal last June after the broadcaster blacked out coverage for a week because the league did not protect the deal’s MENA exclusivity.
• A BeIN spokesperson said “if rights holders don’t tackle piracy, they’ll only receive non-exclusive fees.”

The relationship didn’t improve when the league agreed in May to play three Italian Super Cups in Saudi Arabia — a country with links to sports piracy, including illegal replications of BeIN’s broadcasts.

In turn, BeIN did not bid to extend its Serie A deal at the end of last season.