Sports & Entertainment Beat

Endorsement Deals, Sponsorships & Investments

Kevin Hart Signs $100 Million Investment Agreement To Create HARTBEAT, Which Will Be Led By An All Black Leadership Team
April 27, 2022 via Forbes (subscription may be required)
Kevin Hart, trailblazing entrepreneur, executive, and entertainer, has now combined Laugh Out Loud and HartBeat Productions to create the #1 source of comedic storytelling and experiences with HARTBEAT, after more than a decade of leveraging his individual success to build the two high-growth companies.

TiiCKER, the world's first verified investor and shareholder rewards platform, has announced an endorsement deal
April 27, 2022 via PR Newswire
TiiCKER, the world's first verified investor and shareholder rewards platform, has announced an endorsement deal and influencer sponsorship of high-rising and fast-climbing Association of Volleyball Professionals (AVP) athlete, Logan Webber. Seain Cook, left, and Logan Webber after winning Panama City: AVP America.

New Us Weekly e-commerce site features products from the stars
April 26, 2022 via Biz Journal
Celebrity magazine Us Weekly has launched an e-commerce site where fans can shop for products endorsed by the stars. UsNow.com features 35 brands led by celebrities, including exclusive bundles from singer, songwriter and television personality Toni Braxton's Nude Sugar and reality TV star Lala Kent's Give Them Lala Beauty.

Summer Water named official wine of the Hollywood Bowl and the Governors Ball Music Festival; continues to scale nationally
April 26, 2022 via WILX-TV (Lansing, Michigan)
Winc, Inc. ("Winc" or the "Company"), a differentiated platform for growing alcoholic beverage brands, announced Summer Water as the official wine of the Hollywood Bowl.

Samuel L. Jackson's Chicken Restaurant Opening Soon
April 23, 2022 via News Break
Celebrities are known to endorse a product or two. Just about every commercial on television has some kind of celebrity hawking one item or another. However, these celebs are not putting their own money behind the products.

New Shill Leak Reveals Prices for Celebrity-Endorsed Social Media Posts; Many Fail to Provide FTC Disclosures
April 22, 2022 via Crypto News Australia
A recent shill leak revealed the cost that celebrities such as Zuby and Lindsay Lohan offer for promotional social media posts for marketing cryptocurrency projects.

Sports

Football Coach Supreme Court Case Pits Religious Freedom vs. Coercion
April 26, 2022 via Sportico (subscription may be required)
On Monday, April 25, the U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments for Kennedy v. Bremerton School District. The case centers on whether a public high school football coach has a First Amendment right to pray with his players after games.

Why Brittney Griner was in Russia, and what it says about women's sports in the U.S.
April 26, 2022 via Los Angeles Times
Brittney Griner, who had spent several WNBA off-seasons starring for UMMC Ekaterinburg, an elite Russian basketball club team, had been traveling back to Ekaterinburg from the U.S., connecting in Moscow when she was detained. She was now in the custody of Russian officials at the airport.

Indian Premier League Valuations: Cricket Now Has A Place Among World’s Most Valuable Sports Teams
April 26, 2022 via Forbes (subscription may be required)
Franchise values in the world’s top cricket league are surging, outpacing the growth in even the NFL and the NBA. The Indian Premier League has been a gold mine for investors.

NFL Draft in Las Vegas to Eclipse the Event’s $132 Million Spending Record
April 26, 2022 via Sportico (subscription may be required)
Tracie Rodburg remembers looking out at the masses attending the 2019 NFL Draft in Nashville. The NFL’s SVP for sponsor management, Rodburg stood alongside her counterparts from Caesars Entertainment, who were at the time preparing to host the 2020 draft.

US Supreme Court hears case about praying Washington state football coach
April 25, 2022 via WFAA Dallas - Fort Worth News
Six years after losing his job and repeatedly losing in court, a former Washington state coach took his arguments before the U.S. Supreme Court Monday.

Yankees Lose Appeal to Suppress Manfred Letter to Cashman on Cheating
April 25, 2022 via Sportico (subscription may be required)
The New York Yankees have failed to convince the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit to reconsider an order that will force the team to unseal a sensitive letter on electronic sign stealing.

F1 trying to keep up with demand as popularity soars
April 22, 2022 via Sports Business Journal
F1's popularity has "now soared to such an extent" that there is "more interest from new venues than there are available dates on the calendar," according to Ian Parkes of the N.Y. TIMES.

NFL Argues Flores Claims of ‘Tanking’ Derail Civil Rights Suit
April 22, 2022 via Sportico (subscription may be required)
Attorneys for Brian Flores and the NFL revealed key legal arguments in a scheduling briefing sent to the presiding judge, Valerie Caproni, on Thursday. It marked the first time the NFL has explained its defenses.

MLB’s marriage with analytics ruining baseball for the extreme worse
April 22, 2022 via New York Post - NYPD Blotter
Remember a 1966 hit by the Statler Brothers, “Flowers on the Wall”? It was a clever, sarcastic song about tedium: “Countin’ flowers on the wall, that don’t bother me at all. 

Music Biz

Report: Kanye West’s King Crimson Sample In ‘Power’ Sparks Lawsuit Against Universal Music
April 26, 2022 via AllAccess
"Variety" is reporting that Kanye West’s 2010 track “Power” has sparked a lawsuit against Universal Music Group over its sampling of prog rock band King Crimson’s “21st Century Schizoid Man.”

Warner Music Group Launches In-House Podcast Network, Interval Presents
April 26, 2022 via WILX-TV (Lansing, Michigan)
Company will produce multi-format audio content at the intersection of music, pop culture, and social impact First slate of shows includes celebrity headliners such as Lupita Nyong'o and Jason Derulo as well as productions from Snap.

SiriusXM and Audio Up Inc. Announce Launch of Two New Original Scripted Podcasts Under Creative and Strategic Agreement
April 26, 2022 via WILX-TV (Lansing, Michigan)
SiriusXMand innovative podcast content studio Audio Up announced the forthcoming launches of two new original scripted musical podcasts, the first co-branded productions under the creative and strategic agreement between the two companies.

"Do the royalties go on?" asks judge in Sonny & Cher copyright case
April 26, 2022 via News Break
A judge said the result of a dispute between Cher and Sonny Bono's estate over Sonny & Cher royalties likely hinges on interpreting a narrow provision of federal copyright law, and asked the parties for more information on the issue following a hearing in California federal court.

Jimi Hendrix's personally owned and played guitar is headlining Iconic Auctions' Amazing Music Auction, closing April 30
April 25, 2022 via MENAFN
Guitar legend Jimi Hendrix's personally owned and played 1967 Fender Sunburst Stratocaster guitar. Hendrix played the guitar on the song Devil's Children, recorded in 1967.

Taylor Swift Celebrates Record Store Day 2022, Shouts Out ‘Taylor's Version' Mural at Nashville Retailer
April 23, 2022 via Billboard
The 32-year-old pop superstar, who was announced earlier this year as the first-ever global ambassador for Record Store Day, took to social media on Saturday, April 23, to acknowledge the annual event and give a special shout-out to Nashville-based indie music retailer Grimey's New and Pre-Loved Music.

Film & TV

RIL, Lupa Systems prepare for IPL rights auction with new joint venture
April 27, 2022 via Business Standard Key Stories
Lupa Systems, promoted by media veterans Uday Shankar and James Murdoch, and Reliance Industries (RIL) have announced a new partnership for investment in sports and entertainment broadcasting four months after the two began exploring options for the same.

ONE Championship, Amazon Prime Video link up for MMA fights
April 27, 2022 via Sports Business Journal
Singapore-based MMA series ONE Championship today will announce a new U.S. media-rights deal with Prime Video, as the fighting property again attempts to make inroads in America.

ESPN Digs In on Softball, Lacrosse via 2-Year Athletes Unlimited Deal
April 27, 2022 via Sportico (subscription may be required)
ESPN is deepening its lacrosse and softball coverage and expanding its summer broadcast slate through a two-year deal with Athletes Unlimited— the league’s first multi-year media rights agreement and one that gives fans a single destination for two of its flagship sports.

The Netflix Bubble Is Finally Bursting
April 26, 2022 via The Atlantic
Ten years ago, Netflix started offering its subscribers exclusive TV shows (we all, of course, remember the hit series Lilyhammer).

NAB President Curtis LeGeyt On Why Congress Needs To Help Save Local Media And How Stations Plan To Ensure Free TV's Future – QA
April 26, 2022 via News Break
The National Association of Broadcasters has returned its annual show to Las Vegas after a two-year absence due to Covid, again bringing together tens of thousands of station and technology executives to the sprawling convention center.

Fremantle Strikes TV Deal With James & Elisabeth Murdoch-Backed Graphic Fiction Company AWA
April 25, 2022 via Deadline - Hollywood Breaking News
American Gods producer Fremantle has struck a strategic development deal with the film and TV arm of graphic fiction company AWA, whose backers include James Murdoch’s Lupa Systems and his sibling Elisabeth’s production firm Sister. AWA (Artists, Writers & Artisans) launched its content division last year with Hollywood veteran Zach.

Netflix Mulls Ad-Supported Tier as Sports TV Execs Cheer
April 22, 2022 via Sportico (subscription may be required)
As Netflix shares continue to get hammered in the wake of the company’s first reported subscriber losses since 2011, investors looking to grab a piece of the streaming giant on the cheap should be encouraged by Ted Sarandos’ disinterest in live sports.

Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs)

Music artists are making what they'd earn from 1 million streams in ‘2 minutes' with NFTs. Now they're turning toward Web3 — right alongside Snoop Dogg
April 27, 2022 via Yahoo Finance
Snopp Dogg said he was bringing his music to the metaverse. He wasn't lying. On 4/20, the rapper, songwriter and entrepreneur dropped Death Row Session: Vol. 2 as an NFT, on platform Sound.xyz. All 1,000 copies quickly sold out for a total of 100 Ether.

Fellaz, a Web3 Entertainment NFT Solution Platform, Signed a Strategic Partnership With Hype Labs as an Investor, Accelerator, and Core Partner in the Fellaz Ecosystem
April 27, 2022 via GlobeNewswire
Fellaz, a web3 NFT solution platform for the entertainment industry, announced a strategic partnership with Hype Labs on the 27th of April.

Pop Culture Kids Featured on Several NFT Calendars And Endorsed By Famous Actor, Writer, and Activist – Tommy Chong
April 25, 2022 via AB Newswire
Tommy Chong sent us his reaction on his NFT card called Tommy Bong. Thomas B. Kin Chong is a Canadian-American actor, comedian, musician, and activist.

Are NFTs and celebrities a match made in heaven?
April 22, 2022 via E27 News
Celebrities, from Hollywood actors to top musicians are embracing NFTs right now as the next big thing to connect with fans and take back control from industry moguls.

Hoskinsea Aims to Revolutionize The Music Industry and Pioneer NFT Music Sales on Cardano
April 21, 2022 via Cryptopolitan
The music industry may have finally started taking NFTs more seriously. A number of artists have launched music NFT projects that have increased fans' attention and generated millions of dollars in revenue.

CIRKAY announces the UK's first ever chart compliant album to include an NFT for Fiction Records' act 'The Amazons' on Eluvio
April 21, 2022 via WILX-TV (Lansing, Michigan)
CIRKAY, the social commerce platform used by creators and brands to deliver content and experiences to their followers and fans, today announced in conjunction with Virgin Records the release of its chart compliant album to include an NFT.