The idea of a midseason NBA tournament got new life when it was brought up on a league competition committee call on Monday.

The tournament would be a standalone event with prizes of $1 million per player for the winning team. 

The concept was floated in June as a way to create excitement in the middle of the season.

• At the time, the discussions centered around an eight-team contest featuring three single-elimination rounds. 
• League officials have also discussed incentivizing players with donations to player charities, particularly social justice-oriented ones. Draft picks could also be put at stake.
• The WNBA completed its first midseason tournament, the Commissioner’s Cup, in August. The Seattle Storm won $30,000 per player, and the runner-up Connecticut Sun earned $10,000 per player. The final game was broadcast by Amazon.

A midseason tournament could present new opportunities for media partnerships as the NBA negotiates its next broadcasting contracts.

The league is believed to be seeking $75 billion over nine years in new deals – more than triple its current deals with Disney and WarnerMedia which total $24 billion.

Ariel Investments, which previously held 5% of Manchester United, increased its stake in the team to 13.8%.

The fund is now the third-largest owner of the team’s Class A common stock. Baron Capital Group owns 32% and Lindsell Train owns 29%. As of April 2021, the team was valued at $4.2 billion.

ESPN reported that Ariel’s latest investment was acquired through the franchise’s listing on the New York Stock Exchange and not through the Glazer family, which controls the club through Class B voting stocks after taking it over for $1.47 billion in 2005.

• Ariel now owns 5.97 million shares of the team, worth a reported $103.2 million.
• The fund reportedly has $15 billion in assets under management.

In March, Avram Glazer put $97 million worth of his shares up for sale. Shortly after, fans protested the family’s role in the short-lived Super League, saying their “sole motivation is personal profit.”

Manchester United decided to offer ownership shares to fans in June to win back their trust. The program will offer a new class of shares that carry the same voting rights as those held by the owners.

New York Mets owner and hedge fund billionaire Steve Cohen has a new side hustle: He’s joining the board of Recur after his venture fund Digital led the NFT platform’s Series A funding round.

The $50 million round valued Recur at $333 million. The funding will go toward licensing deals, partnerships, and growing Recur’s staff.

The NFT company is making a big push into college sports.

• Recur has an exclusive partnership with the Pac-12 Conference to produce NFTs of video highlights. The first releases are expected in 2022. 
• The company said that it will announce additional collegiate partnerships and college athlete collaborations soon.
• Recur is launching NFTU, a marketplace for college sports highlights.

In March, Recur raised $5 million from the Winklevoss-owned Gemini, Ethereum co-founder Joe Lubin, JST Capital, and Defi Alliance.

In addition to the Mets, Cohen owns Point72 Asset Management, which has over $22 billion in holdings. Cohen’s net worth is currently $16 billion, per Forbes. He bought the Mets for $2.4 billion in September 2020.

Software and payments technology company SpotOn announced it has raised $300 million in Series E funding at a $3.15 billion valuation, a significant jump from its $1.88 billion valuation after a $125 million funding round in May. Both rounds were led by Andreesen Horowitz.

SpotOn will use the investment to acquire digital and mobile payments platform Appetize for $415 million in cash and stock.

Appetize is popular with entertainment venues and currently covers 65% of all major league sports stadiums, focusing on contactless payments and mobile ordering.

Live Nation, LSU, and Dodger Stadium are among key clients for the company.

Meanwhile, SpotOn has tripled its revenue over the past 18 months.

The acquisition bolsters its journey to become a “one-stop shop” for multiple services, from “building a brand to taking payments and everything in between.”

• August 2020: Acquired reservation management company Seatninja
• October 2018: Acquired EmaginePOS, a cloud-based, point-of-sale platform

SpotOn and Appetize say they should be able to quickly work together due to their “similar tech stacks” and “complementary products.”