Mike Repole is adding the UFL to his growing sports investment portfolio. 

The billionaire cofounder of Vitaminwater and Body Armor has made a major investment in the spring football league, making him a co-owner. 

Impact Capital, Repole’s private-equity firm, will now “lead the league’s business operations,” according to a statement from the league.

“I think today is the first day of the United Football League,” Repole said on Front Office Sports Today. “It probably took a couple of years for them to get comfortable and have the right conferences and leagues. I think they learned a lot.”

Before Repole’s investment, Fox owned half the league, with the other half co-owned by Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, Dany Garcia, and RedBird Capital Partners. A league spokesperson declined to comment on how the league will be structured after Repole’s investment, but said he will not be the league’s majority owner.

ESPN and Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund also have previously undisclosed stakes in the league. Qatar’s investment authority did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Repole has a net worth of $1.6 billion, according to Forbes. He was credited for helping revive St. John’s men’s basketball by injecting his alma mater with millions to spend on players; the Red Storm won their first Big East title since 1992 in March. Now the UFL is hoping he can have a similar impact. 

“He’s obviously a force of nature in so many ways,” UFL chief executive officer Russ Brandon told Front Office Sports. “His vision, strategy, marketing, brand-building, has a long track record of success.” Brandon will remain president and CEO of the league.

He joins the league after a disappointing second season that saw dips in ratings and attendance. Television viewership dropped 20% with an average of 645,000 viewers per game across Fox and ESPN-affiliated networks. Attendance dropped everywhere around the league except for Detroit, where the Panthers drew well in-state despite playing in an NFL market. Despite that, the league is also reportedly moving half of its franchises, including the Panthers, to new cities.

“We’re not looking to compete with the NFL,” Repole told FOS. “We’re complementing the NFL and riding off their momentum.”

The reported new destinations are Boise, Idaho; Columbus, Ohio; Orlando; and Kentucky. None of the new cities previously had USFL teams before the merger, though the Orlando Renegades played one season in the previous iteration of the USFL in 1985.

It’s not clear which team will move where. Repole told FOS one of his first moves will be to look at where the games are being played and possibly move them, including out of football stadiums. 

“I think that partnering up with some of these MLS teams is going to be very, very exciting,” Repole said. “When we have 12,000 fans in a 60,000 [capacity] stadium, it looks like a COVID game. When you have 12,000 fans in a 15,000 [capacity] stadium, you’re basically sold out.”

Brandon said Repole’s investment isn’t a bailout for the league. 

“I look at it completely differently,” Brandon said. “We’re going into Year Three of the UFL. When you look at our ratings and see over a million people touching our games and watching our games and a peak of two million, those are pretty powerful numbers. We’ve got a lot of work to do in local markets and the infusion of Mike and his team’s expertise that’s going to be one of our main efforts. We’re very pleased on what we have to build upon.”

Editors’ note: RedBird IMI, in which RedBird Capital Partners is a joint venture partner, is the primary investor in Front Office Sports.

—Ryan Glasspiegel contributed reporting.

Fox is buying a 33% stake in the parent company of the IndyCar Series and the two are extending their media-rights agreement, marking the latest in a growing trend of media partners taking equity stakes in the leagues they televise and cover.

The deal between Fox and Penske Entertainment Corp., which owns IndyCar and the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, where the Indianapolis 500 takes place, was announced Thursday. Financial terms were not disclosed, although The Wall Street Journal reported the stake is valued at between $125 million and $135 million.

In addition to the acquisition of a one-third stake in Penske Entertainment, the deal includes a “multi-year extension” for the duo’s media-rights agreement between. The number of years the media-rights agreement is being extended by was not disclosed. 

Penske Entertainment is a subsidiary of Penske Corporation, which is the parent to several businesses, including Penske Automotive Group, Penske Truck Rental, and Team Penske, which has seen success in an array of races over its 59-year history, including 20 Indy 500 wins, three Daytona 500 championships, and one Formula One victory.

Fox first acquired IndyCar’s media rights earlier this year, taking over from NBC Sports, and got off to a hot start with 1.4 million viewers for its season opener, the Grand Prix of St. Petersburg, according to Nielsen. In Thursday’s statement, Fox boasts that this year’s Indianapolis 500—held in May and won by Álex Palou for team Chip Ganassi Racing—averaged 7.01 million viewers, a 41% increase over last year and a 17-year high.

Under the original media-rights deal between Fox and IndyCar, it was believed the former was paying roughly $25 million annually for the latter’s rights.

Fox Sports CEO Eric Shanks said in Thursday’s statement that IndyCar represents “everything we value in live sports — passionate fans, iconic venues, elite competition, and year-round storytelling potential.”

It is becoming more common for media companies to buy equity stakes in the companies they televise and cover. Last month, Disney-owned ESPN and the Premier Lacrosse League announced a five-year extension of their current rights deal starting with the 2026 season, and under the agreement, ESPN is making a “minority equity investment” in the PLL.

Last October, Warner Bros. Discovery’s TNT reached a deal that included both an undisclosed equity stake in, and media rights for, upstart 3-on-3 women’s basketball league Unrivaled. Elsewhere, Fox both broadcasts games for and owns a major stake in the UFL.

Meanwhile, in what could be the most significant of all network-to-league equity deals, Disney is closing in on a deal to acquire NFL Media from the NFL in exchange for the league taking an equity stake in ESPN. Less than two weeks ago, Front Office Sports reported NFL owners had been informally told to be ready for a potential vote in August on that deal.

Representatives for Fox and Penske did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Investors in Emmanuel Clase’s career earnings through start-up investment platform Finlete aren’t losing money over the star closer being placed on paid leave in light of a gambling investigation. 

Yet.

The Guardians pitcher, on leave amid a gambling probe, has a deal with start-up investment platform Finlete. 

Finlete is a company that allows fans to acquire a stake in a player’s potential future earnings, which it pitches as a way for fans to enjoy their success financially and personally. Finlete uses Regulation Crowdfunding for investors to receive a percentage of a player’s team-related income, which includes salaries and performance bonuses. 

The company says investors aren’t losing any money, at least for now, but that could change with Clase’s status.

Clase, a three-time All-Star, is among the pro athletes people can invest in through Finlete. The window for fans to invest in Clase’s future earnings closed July 7, after more than $315,000 was raised.

A company spokesperson told Front Office Sports in an email that investors are still able to profit off Clase’s career despite the decision to sideline him because, for the moment, he is still being paid. 

“While he’s on non-disciplinary paid leave, Clase continues to receive his MLB salary,” the Finlete spokesperson told FOS. “As long as he is being paid at the Major League level, Finlete will continue to receive its entitled percentage, and dividends will be distributed to investors as scheduled.”

Clase is the face of Finlete, which has six other baseball players on its roster. The others are all minor leaguers. After Clase, Finlete’s biggest clients are Jhostynxon Garcia and Leonardo Bernal, who are top-five prospects for the Red Sox and Cardinals, respectively, according to MLB.com. 

Clase is by far the biggest player for Finlete, as he led the American League in saves the past three seasons. In 2024, Clase had one of the greatest seasons in recent history for a reliever, going 4–2 with an earned run average of just 0.61 with 47 saves. Clase is making $4.9 million this season, but he signed a five-year, $20 million deal with the Guardians in 2022. The contract has a pair of $10 million team options for 2027 and 2028; Clase is scheduled to become an unrestricted free agent in 2028, when the big earnings for investors could kick in.

Finlete is trying to do something few athletes have succeeded in: having fans profit off their earnings. The attempts have come over the years in a number of ways. In 2012, a company called Fantex allowed investors to trade securities tied to professional athletes and their brands. Former 49ers tight end Vernon Davis and Bills quarterback EJ Manuel were among the biggest names tied to Fantex. In 2014, Manuel offered a 10% share of his future earnings to investors and wound up selling 523,700 shares for $10 each. The company folded in 2016. 

In 2019, then-Nets guard Spencer Dinwiddie tried to capitalize on the bitcoin craze and attempted to turn his contract into a digital investment vehicle, which the NBA said was in violation of the league’s collective bargaining agreement. Dinwiddie planned to launch the platform in early 2020, but the COVID-19 pandemic ultimately halted those plans.