How Rupert Murdoch Changed Sports Media Forever
Drake’s sports portfolio is becoming as impressive as his discography.
At Sunday’s El Clásico against Real Madrid, FC Barcelona will sport the OVO owl — Drake’s logo — on its jerseys in place of Spotify’s logo, celebrating Drake’s milestone as the first artist to reach 50 billion collective streams on the platform.
Spotify has a reported $306 million deal with the club, which includes front-of-shirt branding for both the men’s and women’s teams.
- When the deal was announced, the pair revealed that similar logo exchanges are slated throughout the season to help reach new audiences.
- The platform also has naming rights to Barcelona’s Camp Nou stadium.
The club’s warmup jersey will also feature No. 50 on the back and Spotify’s logo on the front.
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Drake is the first artist to appear on FC Barcelona’s jersey, but it’s not the artist’s first foray into sports.
Earlier this year, Main Street Capital — which counts Drake and LeBron James as investors — and the New York Yankees joined RedBird Capital Partners’ reported $1.2 billion purchase of AC Milan.
Last year, sports media company Overtime raised $80 million in a Series C round that included Drake, Jeff Bezos, and Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian as investors.
The Canadian rapper has also invested in sports technology company StatusPro with LeBron James and Naomi Osaka.
