Bundesliga teams are showing that not all soccer clubs are looking to make a deal.

On Wednesday, Bundesliga and Bundesliga 2 squads voted to suspend talks with private investors for the leagues’ international media rights.

Firms including KKR, Bridgepoint, and CVC Capital were looking to purchase 25% of a new $2.4 billion media company that would hold the rights.

The rejection may indicate a general wariness toward private equity in some sports, due to its role in forwarding the disastrous Super League.

• Serie A president Paolo Dal Pino faced calls for his resignation from Juventus, Inter Milan, and five other league clubs over his initiative to sell 10% of the league’s media rights to private investors through a new company. 
• Silver Lake sparked backlash when it attempted to purchase 12.5% of future revenue generated by top New Zealand rugby team All Blacks for $288 million.
• Similar uproar has not reached the United States: The NBA, MLB, and MLS have all changed their rules in the last two years to allow for more private equity money.

As for the Bundesliga, it remains a defender of the status quo.

Its teams were among the most notable omissions from the dozen that attempted to start the Super League — a decision that quickly proved prescient.

Tencent Holdings is strengthening its position as the world’s largest video game vendor. 

The Chinese conglomerate kept up its momentum in Q1, reporting $20.6 billion in revenue, a 25% increase year-over-year. 

Tencent’s strong quarter was driven by its mobile gaming business, which made up 32% of the company’s total revenue.

Mobile titles like “Honour of Kings,” “PUBG Mobile,” and “Peacekeeper Elite” helped the division pull in $6.4 billion in revenue.

The broader gaming division, which includes everything from mobile to PC, generated $11.2 billion in the quarter, a 17% increase from the same period a year prior.

This favorable Q1 report arrives amid antitrust concerns stemming from the company’s failure to report details of several investments and other anticompetitive practices.

Despite the threat of a hefty penalty from the Chinese government, Tencent continues to expand its offerings.

• March: Invested $2.2 billion in Rakuten, a Tokyo-based e-commerce company.
• April: Signed a three-year broadcast deal with Major League Baseball, bringing games to Thailand, Indonesia, and Malaysia. Tencent has broadcast MLB in China since 2018. 
• May: Signed a multiyear digital distribution extension with Sony Music Entertainment. Tencent will now share digital music rights in China with NetEase Cloud Music. 

Tencent, which is reportedly negotiating with a U.S. national security panel in order to keep its ownership stakes in Riot Games and Epic, reached $73.8 billion in revenue for FY2020.

It’s the year of the no-hitter in baseball — and that’s fine with Topps, which has found a way to make a quick buck on the sport’s more notable moments.

Borrowing a concept similar to NFTs (which Topps also sells), the trading card company sells cards that commemorate individual moments, and are only available for 24 hours.

The six no-hitters this season — which is two shy of tying the full-season record set in 1884 — have made for standout moments amid the daily flow of Topps Now releases. The first four released garnered 19,528 total sales of the series’ base-level $9.99 cards.

Topps also sells more expensive autographed cards. Following Yankees pitcher Corey Kluber’s no-hitter on Wednesday, the company issued at least seven Kluber cards celebrating the feat, ranging from $9.99 to $999.99.

The company has been able to leverage what looks like a bounceback year for MLB.

• ESPN’s “Sunday Night Baseball” viewership was up 34% over the 2020 average through its first six telecasts.
• Opening Day set an all-time record for MLB.tv, the league’s streaming platform, with 121 million minutes watched.
• The season’s first 18 days racked up 1.3 billion minutes watched on the service, a 12% uptick from 2020 and 43% higher than 2019.

Topps went public last month through a SPAC merger at a $1.3 billion valuation. It reported $567 million in total sales in 2020.

The iconic American brand widely identifiable by its polo-player-on-horseback logo has stumbled upon some divots.

Ralph Lauren announced fourth-quarter and full-year earnings on Thursday and reported a 29% decrease in revenue, down to $4.4 billion for the year.

North American revenue decreased by 37% and European by 29%, but business in Asia stayed afloat with a 1% bump in annual revenue.

Founded by its namesake designer in 1967, the brand was created with sports in mind. Its first full line of clothing was dubbed “Polo” — and the rest is history.

More than five decades later, Ralph Lauren is still close to athletics. Earlier this month, the brand launched an apparel collection with MLB.

The collaboration is just the latest sports addition to Ralph Lauren’s sports portfolio.

• Polo Ralph Lauren is the official outfitter of the U.S. Open, Australian Open, and Wimbledon. (Lacoste sponsors the French Open.)
• The brand is currently selling official 2021 PGA Championship apparel.
• Most famously, Ralph Lauren has outfitted Team USA since the 2008 Olympics.

Revenue from the first three months of 2021 reached $1.29 billion — a modest 1% increase year-over-year but a sign that pandemic-related losses may be in the rearview.

Ralph Lauren stock closed at $121.87 on Thursday, down nearly $9 for the day, but still over $52 higher than time this time last year.