Apple is setting its sights on changing how people experience sports and gaming.

On Monday, the tech giant unveiled its long-awaited mixed-reality headset, Apple Vision Pro, which will be available next year and retail for $3,499.

The device promises numerous features, including multiview broadcasts, immersive replays, and gaming displays. The company has been developing a multiview feature for Apple TV+ that allows users to watch multiple streams at once.

Apple will offer a growing library of sports content for the headset. It holds exclusive streaming rights to Major League Soccer and select Major League Baseball games — and more could be on the way with possible bids for Premier League and Pac-12 rights. 

The company has also emerged as a contender for NBA broadcasts, the bidding for which could reach $75 billion over nine years between linear and streaming rights. 

Apple is expected to feature sports-watching and fitness on the headset, according to Bloomberg. Its Fitness+ subscription is heavily integrated into the Apple Watch, which collects heart rate and other biometric data from its wearers.

The device will have a dial that allows users to switch between virtual reality, in which one is fully immersed in the Vision Pro’s displays, and augmented reality, which allows one to see displays overlaid on the world around them. 

Nike’s co-founder wants to buy the Portland Trail Blazers, and the franchise legally must be sold — but it’s unclear when that will happen.

The Blazers and Seattle Seahawks were put in the hands of an estate after their previous owner, Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, died in 2018, with instructions to sell the teams and donate the proceeds to charity. The estate is controlled by Allen’s sister, Jody Allen.

NBA bylaws require that teams held by estates be sold in a timeframe determined by the league.

Those dynamics have attracted a high-profile suitor: Nike co-founder Phil Knight. Knight and Dodgers part-owner Alan Smolinisky have approached Jody Allen multiple times, but she has referred them to other officials and maintained that the Blazers aren’t for sale, according to the Wall Street Journal.

A spokesperson for Vulcan, an umbrella company founded by the Allen siblings in 1986, said the estate could take 10 to 20 years to fully unwind.

The Blazers were valued at $2.1 billion by Forbes last year, 16th of 30 NBA teams. The Seahawks ranked 14th of 32 NFL teams with an estimated value of $4.5 billion.

Don’t Sleep on Seattle

Jeff Bezos, who founded Amazon in Seattle, looms as a potential bidder for the Seahawks after he passed on a bid for the Washington Commanders.

A Seattle referendum from 1997 requires that 10% of the team’s sale price go to Washington State if the team is sold within 25 years of the bonds being issued. That period runs until May 21, 2024.

Everton FC barely avoided relegation from the Premier League, finishing the 2022-23 season just two points above safety. Now, brighter days could be ahead thanks to a jolt of American money.

New York-based MSP Sports Capital — which owns stakes in several other European clubs and majority control of the X Games — is closing in on a deal with Everton owner Farhad Moshiri to provide between $124 million and $187 million in loans that can be converted to equity, according to The Athletic.

The deal underlines the firm’s long-running interest in Everton and would aid Moshiri’s ongoing effort to finish a new stadium for the club. The project has been under construction since 2021, but costs have risen more than 50% to $945 million.

The proposed agreement would additionally give MSP Sports Capital a 25% stake in the club — potentially even more if additional funding is needed — and two seats on the club’s board. Everton was recently valued at $744 million, according to Forbes. 

Led by Phoenix Suns vice-chair and minority owner Jahm Najafi and former MLB player agent and club owner Jeff Moorad, MSP Sports Capital boasts a long pedigree of sports industry success — but Everton may prove to be its biggest challenge, even with its loyal fanbase.

With no top-five finishes since 2014, the club has reportedly lost roughly $500 million over the last five years. Meanwhile, Moshiri is reportedly a “person of interest” for U.K. authorities due to his ties to sanctioned Russian-Uzbek billionaire Alisher Usmanov.

Major League Baseball is turning to future Hall of Famer Albert Pujols to help in one of its most important — and problematic — international territories.

League commissioner Rob Manfred named Pujols, who completed a legendary 22-season playing career in 2022, as a special assistant focusing primarily on player relations and other issues in the slugger’s native Dominican Republic.

The Caribbean country is by far MLB’s largest source of non-U.S. player talent, with 104 Dominicans earning spots on 2023 Opening Day rosters, a figure 68% larger than second-place Venezuela. Those Dominican players will collectively be paid more than a half-billion dollars this season, led by San Diego outfielder Juan Soto’s $23 million salary.

But the country has long been a hotbed of corruption within its amateur player development, fueled in part by the strong lure of MLB as a ticket out of local poverty. Pujols’ presence could also revive MLB’s long-running efforts to implement an international draft.

Power Consultants

In addition to the consultant role, Pujols will work as an on-air analyst for the league-owned MLB Network starting Tuesday. Pujols joins a growing list of former MLB players holding consultant or staff roles with the league, including Ken Griffey Jr., Cal Ripken Jr., Joe Torre, CC Sabathia, and Raul Ibanez.

“He cares greatly about making a difference in our communities,” Manfred said of Pujols. “We are excited for Albert to join other former players who are doing important work for our sport.”