September 15, 2021

Read in Browser

Front Office Sports

POWERED BY

If you love our newsletters, you’ll love Front Office Sports Insights — a new membership product that gives business leaders timely, actionable insights on the most promising opportunities where sports meets industry. If you want an edge on what’s happening in the business of sports, sign up today!

Apple Expands Fitness Offerings, Unveils New Watch

Apple/Design: Alex Brooks

Apple presented a long list of new products Tuesday, and a number of its latest offerings focus on health and fitness.

The technology giant is expanding Fitness+ — currently priced at $9.99 per month — to more closely compete in an at-home fitness sector estimated to reach $11.5 billion by 2027.

  • Fitness+ will add six new languages and be available in a total of 21 countries.
  • Later this fall, the company will release a Group Workout feature where members can work out with up to 32 people and share real-time fitness data with friends.
  • New classes include Pilates and workouts for winter sports like skiing and snowboarding.
  • Fitness+ will add guided meditation, joining the mindfulness meditation apps market, which is expected to reach $4.2 billion by 2027.

Apple also revealed the Apple Watch Series 7, which is better tailored for outdoor workouts. Apple says the watch, which starts at $399, is “the most durable ever.” 

Apple announced that the Watch OS 8 now has better support for outdoor cycling — pausing at lights and during breaks — and a fall support system, allowing people to easily contact emergency services. The watch can track blood oxygen and includes an electrical heart sensor.

Three months of Fitness+ are included for customers who purchase a Series 3 Watch or later.

Peloton, Lululemon, and Xponential Fitness shares dropped shortly after the announcement, but so did Apple’s.

Aston Martin Building $200M+ Formula 1 Facility

Aston Martin Formula One/Design: Alex Brooks

Aston Martin returned to Formula 1 this season after a 61-year absence, and it’s investing hundreds of millions to gain a competitive edge.

With the backing of billionaire owner Lawrence Stroll, the team is building a new manufacturing and racing facility in Silverstone, England.

Billed as F1’s first “smart” facility, the complex is slated to finish late next year or early 2023 and will cost between $207 million and $276 million.

  • The 400,000-square-foot campus will house Aston Martin’s entire manufacturing system.
  • It will include a wind tunnel and an F1 simulator.
  • The company is partnering with Cognizant, NetApp, and Sentinel One to install software and monitoring systems throughout the facility.
  • Stroll is targeting a team valuation of $1.38 billion in the next five years. 

Stroll became executive chairman after leading a $235.6 million investment in April 2020. The company posted losses each year from 2018 to 2020 but had a positive EBITDA of $28.1 million in Q2 2021. 

On the consumer front, Aston Martin plans to make 90% of its vehicles electric or hybrid by 2030. The European Commission has proposed a rule banning new combustion engine cars in Europe starting in 2035. 

Stroll discussed investing in Formula E teams Venturi and DS Techeetah last year.

SPONSORED BY FEVO

The Future of Sports Ticketing Is Here

FEVO has been named a Social Ticketing Partner of NASCAR, highlighting a partnership focused on the future of sports ticketing and e-commerce. 

The partnership designates FEVO as a social ticketing platform of NASCAR and includes FEVO being the first-ever sponsor of the NASCAR Sales Academy team. 

Fans will be able to use FEVO to book tickets and experiences using the FEVO social cart throughout the 2021 NASCAR Playoffs. Unique content and experiences for FEVO users will also be offered at future NASCAR events and activations. 

Learn more about their innovative partnership.

Drone Racing League Lands $100M Crypto Deal

Algorand/Design: Alex Brooks

The Drone Racing League announced on Tuesday it has agreed to a five-year, $100 million sponsorship deal with cryptocurrency platform Algorand. 

DRL, which features drone pilots racing through courses to compete for prize money, is valued at $200 million, according to PitchBook. 

The league reaches roughly 75 million fans globally and continues to expand ahead of its sixth season, which starts on Sept. 29. 

  • It secured a partnership in October with Genius Sports to bring racing to licensed sportsbooks. 
  • The league released an official DRL simulator in May on Xbox, PlayStation, and Steam.
  • It teamed up with T-Mobile to launch their first 5G-enabled drone, which debuted in August during MLB’s Field of Dreams game. 

DRL’s deal with Algorand marks another crypto company establishing a footprint in sports. 

Crypto exchange FTX landed naming rights in June to the Miami Heat’s arena in a 19-year, $135 million deal. The exchange also holds rights to the field at California Memorial Stadium — home of the California Golden Bears — in a 10-year, $17.5 million deal.

Earlier this week, Crypto.com secured a three-year sponsorship deal valued between $29.5 million to $35.4 million with French soccer giants Paris Saint-Germain. The platform also has deals with Formula 1 and the Ultimate Fighting Championship. 

The NFL has barred teams from partnerships with crypto and NFT-related companies as it evaluates the industries, but players are free to seek sponsorships.

Meadowlark Looks to Sell Podcasts and Docuseries to Major Streamers

Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports/Design: Alex Brooks

Meadowlark Media CEO John Skipper sees a market among the major streaming companies for complementary sports content, and his company intends to fill it. 

Founded by former ESPN president Skipper and former ESPN personality Dan Le Batard, Meadowlark is launching five new podcasts and planning more audio and video content, namely docuseries and unscripted content. 

Skipper told Bloomberg that podcasts are relatively cheap to produce, but that the space is “very crowded” and video has a much larger market.

  • The podcast advertising market will roughly double this year, reaching $1.5 billion to $2 billion, from $850 million in 2020, Skipper said.
  • He predicted the podcast market would grow to between $10 billion and $15 billion, as the $20+ billion terrestrial radio industry shifts over to podcasts.
  • Skipper put the video content market at $200 billion to $300 billion, saying it “clearly is the bigger target.”

Skipper helped bring the ten-part docuseries “The Last Dance” to ESPN, which, with an average of 5.6 million viewers per episode, was ESPN’s most watched documentary of all time. 

Skipper was DAZN’s executive chairman from May 2018 through this January but said that the sports streaming company’s model of broadcasting niche sports is not viable.

“What works is top-of-the-pyramid rights that people have to see,” he said.

SPONSORED BY PARAMOUNT+

UEFA Champions League on Paramount+

The UEFA Champions League Matchday 1 continues today on Paramount+. 

Tune-in to watch all 8 matches live, including Real Madrid visiting Italian champions Inter Milan at the San Siro. Meanwhile, Messi is set to make his first Champions League appearance in a PSG shirt against Club Brugge in Belgium!

Coverage starts at Noon ET, Try it FREE!

Conversation Starters

Conversation Starters

  • Sports technology platform Aktivate announced its public launch and a $7 million seed funding round on Tuesday, which will fund the development of the sports administration platform and scholastic sports community.
  • Video game developer Team17 reported a pretax profit of $19.4 million in the six months that ended June 30.
  • Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont announced that the U.S. Department of the Interior has signed off on amendments to gaming agreements between the state and the Mashantucket Pequot and Mohegan tribes. Sports betting is expected to begin in the state in October.
  • Derek Carr came up clutch — again — and the Raiders won in front of their first home crowd in Las Vegas. He inked a five-year, $125 million contract in 2017 that at the time made him the highest-paid player in the NFL. Get more stories like this in Sports Section, a free daily newsletter. Click here to subscribe.

Question of the Day

Are you subscribed or do you plan to subscribe to Apple Fitness+?

 Yes   No 

Tuesday’s Answer
38% of respondents prepare their own tax filings; 45% don’t; 17% don’t but want to.

Today's Action

*All times are EST unless otherwise noted.
*Odds/lines subject to change. T&Cs apply. See draftkings.com/sportsbook for details.

Advertise Awards Learning Events Video Shows
Written by Abigail Gentrup, Owen Poindexter, Justin Byers

If this email was forwarded to you, you can subscribe here.

Update your preferences / Unsubscribe

Copyright © 2021 Front Office Sports. All rights reserved.
460 Park Avenue South, 7th Floor, New York NY, 10016

Subscribe To Our Daily Newsletters

  • This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.