Amazon’s Next Sports Bid

Amazon is reportedly vying for the rights to broadcast Italy’s Serie A on Prime Video. 

Comcast’s Sky Sports is the e-commerce giant’s competition for a three-year, $4.2 billion deal to air one of the world’s biggest football leagues. Serie A set a Jan. 26 deadline to sell the rights.

The potential bidding war comes as Serie A, like most major professional leagues, looks for new revenue streams. Its 2020 revenue was projected to be $2.4 billion, dropping from $2.9 billion in 2019, according to analysts at Deloitte.

Broadcast deals currently account for approximately half the league’s revenue.

Serie A recently created a new company to handle its media rights and sold 10% to American private equity firms CVC Capital Partners and Advent International, along with Italy’s FSI Fund, for over $2 billion.

It’s also gotten an influx of cash from a slew of new American owners last year, bringing the total number of American-owned European football teams to five.

Amazon recently acquired rights to select English Premier League matches. The company has started to make other moves internationally, acquiring the rights to cricket’s Indian Premier League and New Zealand Cricket matches in India. 

As for American football, Amazon has pushed further into NFL rights — airing its first exclusive game this season. 

As the nonalcoholic beer market continues its surge, one of its leading brands has been quietly backed by a group of athlete investors.

Athletic Brewing saw sales jump 500% last year, from $2.5 million to $15 million in revenue. The brand has a 61% market share of the nonalcoholic craft segment.

It recently unveiled a list of celebrity investors including J.J. Watt, Justin Tuck and Lance Armstrong — who’ve all been involved in the brand for up to three years. 

Other high-profile backers include Momofuku founder David Chang, Tom’s Shoes founder Blake Mycoskie and sports media personality Darren Rovell.

Athletic Brewing co-founder Bill Shufelt said making three times the company’s 2020 revenue in 2021 “is a reasonable expectation.”

In 2020, the nonalcoholic beer market grew 39% to $187 million. Beer sales as a whole, however, are projected to be flat in 2020, following a 2% dip to $116 billion in 2019.

Major sports sponsors AB InBev and Heineken also have stakes in the N/A market, including the Dwyane Wade-endorsed Budweiser Zero.

Beyond the N/A segment, the alcohol business has seen a recent wave of athlete investors. 

Last year, Peyton Manning — along with brother Eli and tennis star Andy Roddick — launched Sweetens Cove Tennessee Bourbon. Others have launched their own wine brands, like Wade’s Wade Cellars and Channing Fyre’s Chosen Family.

Disney-owned Lucasfilm entered a new non-exclusive era this week, unveiling Lucasfilm Games and announcing open-world Star Wars and Indiana Jones titles.

The move is a break from Lucasfilm’s previous exclusive pact with video game giant Electronic Arts. Lucasfilm is now free to work with other well-known video game developers.

Ubisoft, famous for the Assassin’s Creed franchise, is one of the first up.

Few details about the Ubisoft-developed Star Wars game have emerged. Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot did however say it will be “an original Star Wars adventure that is different from anything that has been done before.”

Since Disney purchased Lucasfilms for $4.05 billion in 2012, the studio has ramped up production of movies, TV shows, books and video games.

Star Wars games have been successful in the past:

1. Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga — 15.33 million copies sold (2007)
2. Star Wars Battlefront — 14 million copies (2015)
3. Star Wars Battlefront II — 10.53 million copies (2017)
4. Star Wars: Jedi Fallen Order — 10 million copies (2019)
5. Star Wars: The Force Unleashed — 9.41 million copies (2008)

Bethesda, developer of The Elder Scrolls and Fallout series, is taking on the Indiana Jones title. It will be the first non-Star Wars game released by Lucasfilm since 2010.

Which acclaimed developer will Lucasfilm Games work with next?

“We get no shortage of folks knocking on our door,” Lucasfilm Games Vice President Douglas Reilly told Wired.

A pair of leather Adidas sneakers adorned with porcelain overlays, specially created for a Sotheby’s online auction, sold for $126,000 in late December. 

They’re just one example of the high-end sneakers that have been popping up in auctions lately. 

Jordan Geller, founder of the sneaker museum Shoezeum, sold a pair of game-worn Jordan 1s for a then-record $560,000 through Sotheby’s when the “The Last Dance” craze was at its height. 

Online platforms like StockX and GOAT play a huge role in boosting the resale market, but traditional auction houses are taking it to the next level.

• July 2019: Sotheby’s auctioned one of the 12 existing pairs of  Nike “Moon Shoe,” the rare waffle-soled sneaker from 1972, for a then-record $437,500. 
• August 2020: Christie’s sold a pair of game-worn Nike Air Jordan 1s for $615,000.
• October 2020: A pair of 2018 Nike x Off-White Jordan 1 sneakers sold for about $2,750 at Bonhams in London, a 1,347% increase over their $190 retail price. 

There appears to be a limit, however. At Bonhams’ online “Pop x Culture” sale last October, 11 of the 13 Nikes on offer failed to meet their minimum sale price.