The biggest sports league in the U.S. wants to get bigger, and it’s hiring Goldman Sachs to help.

The NFL is considering ways to grow its media reach, including partnering with major media and technology companies. Goldman Sachs has been tapped to advise the league on the matter.

“We are not selling. We are looking for investment partners,” Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones told The Wall Street Journal.

Goldman Sachs has been at the center of the media M&A market this year, acting as advisor on two of the sector’s largest transactions: Verizon selling its media arm to Apollo and AT&T merging their media assets with Discovery.

This latest move comes on the heels of the NFL securing $113 billion in broadcast rights deals over 11 seasons.

• Talks are reportedly focused on the league’s major subscription-based media properties, like the the NFL Network and RedZone, as well as NFL.com.
• NFL commissioner Roger Goodell told league staff in a memo that the league plans to leverage live games, major events like the NFL Draft, and “a myriad of opportunities around legalized sports betting.”

In April, Goldman Sachs estimated that the sports betting market will grow to $39 billion by 2033. The investment bank foresees up to 50 million sports bettors in the U.S. when the industry reaches maturity.

“We’re only going to do it if it’s the right fit,” New England Patriots’ owner Robert Kraft said about potential investments. “It has to be clear that it’s someone who can manage our resources better than we can.”

When Formula 1 returns to Florida for the Miami Grand Prix in 2022, it will have a new set of fans ignited by Netflix’s “Drive to Survive.”

The documentary series, now three seasons in, has done wonders for the popularity of F1, particularly in the United States, where racing is dominated by NASCAR.

• Last weekend’s French Grand Prix brought in the second-highest cable audience in F1 history, with just over 1 million viewers on ESPN.
• So far this year, F1 viewership on ESPN is up 53% compared to 2020, and 38% over 2019. 
• Fanatics renewed its deal to sell F1 merchandise after sales grew 40% from 2020 to 2019 — they’ve grown “in the triple digits” in the first half of 2021 compared to the same period last year, according to F1. That growth has largely come from the U.S.

Netflix also made waves with its documentary series on Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls dynasty, “The Last Dance,” co-produced by ESPN and Jordan’s production company Jump 23. Documentaries on Tom Brady (ESPN) and the Jordan-sponsored NASCAR driver Bubba Wallace (Netflix) are among the many sports docs in the works.

Formula 1 has held the U.S. Grand Prix in Austin, Texas since 2012. The race’s host venue, the Circuit of the Americas, says its sporting events have had an economic impact of $3.1 billion on the Austin area. Next year’s inaugural Miami race is expected to bring its own swarm of economic activity.

Netflix may keep the momentum going as well: The company is in talks with F1 about a fourth season.

A video game company known for mobile games is making a play to serve more gamers. 

Zynga CEO Frank Gibeau told Bloomberg the video game company could add more than $1 billion in revenue by stepping outside its comfort zone with mobile devices.

The 52-year-old former Electronic Arts executive told Bloomberg that the San Francisco-based company is “all in” on delivering blockbuster titles for consoles and PCs. 

Expansion gives Zynga a better chance of competing with titans like Electronic Arts, Activision Blizzard, and Take-Two — which have all made aggressive moves in the mobile category recently.

But after generating $2.3 billion in revenue in 2020, Zynga is making moves of its own. 

• Acquired Echtra Games — a cross-platform studio that specializes in action RPGs — in March. 
• Agreed in May to acquire Chartboost — a leading mobile advertising and monetization platform with more than 700 million monthly users — for $250 million. 
• Will make its console debut later this year with “Star Wars: Hunters,” which will be available for both mobile and the Nintendo Switch.

Zynga is coming off its best quarter to date, reporting 38 million daily active users across its mobile titles in May, an increase of 85% year-over-year. 

The company also reported record revenue of $680 million in Q1 2021, a 68% jump year-over-year. 

Gibeau wants to focus on international markets and developing “easier-to-play” games, too. He told Bloomberg that Zynga can make an additional $2 billion from those initiatives combined.

It’s a big week for the U.S. Women’s National Soccer Team.

On Thursday, a documentary about the team’s fight for equal pay — titled “Let’s F***ing Go,” the club’s unofficial slogan — premiered on HBO Max, just a day after the 2020 Olympic roster was announced.

Megan Rapinoe, Kelley O’Hara, and Christen Press were named to the team. Each is featured in the doc that follows the $66.7 million lawsuit against the U.S. Soccer Federation in 2019 for violating the Equal Pay Act.

The men’s and women’s teams have different bargaining agreements. The women are salaried with a base of $100,000, while the men are on a pay-for-play basis, according to ESPN.

• In 2019, USSF president Carlos Cordeiro released data showing women’s players were paid $34.1 million compared to the $26.4 million men were paid. USWNT representatives called it “utterly false.”
• Cordeiro resigned in March 2020 amid backlash over statements that the “skill” and “effort” necessary to compete on the women’s team was not equal to that of the men’s team.
• France, the men’s 2018 World Cup winner, was awarded $38 million by FIFA. The U.S. women were rewarded $4 million for their World Cup victory in 2019.
• Men receive $68,750 for making the World Cup team, while women make $37,500.

The U.S. District rejected the team’s claims of unequal pay in May 2020, but appeals are still in progress. 

“I know these women won’t stop fighting,” Abby Greensfelder, founder of Everywoman Studios, the production company behind the “LFG” documentary, told Front Office Sports. “They simply refuse to back down.”