Weekly Roundup: Business of Athletes, Sports, & NIL (Jan 30 - Feb 5)

<h4>(00:50) - <strong>Feel good stories</strong></h4> <ul> <li>College athlete donates $22,000 and Make-A-Wish is hosting an awesome Super Bowl event</li> </ul> <h4>(02:15) - Business of Athletes</h4> <ul> <li>The <strong>NFL</strong> salary cap is increasing from $208.2M to $224.8M for 2023.</li> <li><strong>Shinesty,</strong> a men's underwear company, signed a deal with Clemson basketball player Brevin Galloway after his “balls” <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/college-basketball/article-11684305/Clemson-guard-Brevin-Galloway-reveals-balls-EXPLODED-insists-week.html" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">video</a> went viral.</li> <li>Former NFL players <strong>Calvin Johnson Jr.</strong> and <strong>Rob Sims</strong> have launched their newest CBD product, <a href="https://profluence.com/primitiv-performance-cbd-launch-calvin-johnson-jr-and-rob-sims/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank"><strong>Primitiv Performance</strong></a>.</li> <li>Baseball star <strong>Shohei Ohtani </strong>has signed a massive endorsement deal with <strong>New Balance</strong>, other notable athletes include Kawhi Leonard, Zach Lavine, and Coco Gauff.</li> </ul> <h4>(05:45) - <strong>Name, Image, and Likeness</strong></h4> <ul> <li><strong>Boston College</strong> lacrosse midfielder Belle Smith signed a name, image, and likeness (NIL) deal with <strong>Senné</strong>, a Boston-based real estate advisory and investment firm</li> <li><strong>Nick Saban</strong> turned down two recruits asking for over $1.3M in combined NIL deals “I’m not paying a kid a bunch of NIL money before he earns it.”</li> <li><strong>LSU</strong> announced “<strong>Bayou Traditions</strong>” and also named it the official collective of LSU athletics.</li> </ul> <h4>(10:00) - Future of Sports</h4> <ul> <li>The <strong>Premier League</strong> has acquired an equity stake in fantasy sports NFT platform <a href="https://profluence.com/sorare-premier-league-partnership/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank"><strong>Sorare</strong></a> as part of a new four-year deal.</li> <li><strong>Venturerock</strong>, a $75 million sports tech fund that launched last fall, has made its first major investment in <strong>POGR</strong>, an esports/metaverse product.</li> <li>Generative AI text-to-video startup <strong>Recut</strong> has been accepted into Tennis Australia’s inaugural <strong>AO Startups</strong> incubator program.</li> <li><strong>Sports For All</strong>, a multi-sport tech-driven platform, has joined <strong>Khelo India Youth Games</strong> as a sponsor for the next five years investing Rs 12.5 crore ($3.5M).</li> <li><a href="https://profluence.com/ballislife-raises-series-a/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank"><strong>Ballislife</strong></a>, a basketball and lifestyle media company started in 2005, has raised $2.7M in Series A funding led by London-based <strong>Oakvale Sports Investco</strong>.</li> <li><a href="https://profluence.com/all-in-raises-155m/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank"><strong>All In</strong></a><strong> Team Sports</strong>, a sports SaaS for youth team management, has now raised $1.55 million to date.</li> </ul>