• 4/17: Innovation in Golf Workshop

• 4/20-4/22: PEAK SportsTech event in Vegas

• 4/28: Office Hours w/ Profluence team

• 5/8: Founder’s Fundraising Session

• 5/15: Guest Speaker Benjamin Grubbs, Creator Sports Capital

🔗 Members can RSVP for events here

🎙 Podcasts

• Christian Muche - CEO, POSSIBLE

• Tom Porricelli - Partner, Citrin Cooperman

Hear from Tom about how they're entering sports and from Christian on their marketing event that has attracted top sports CMOs.

🔗 Listen to the podcasts here

💬 New Members

• Ben Chehebar - Eleven

• Barry Sohl - iStat Sports

• Brian Koenig - NEXXTUP

• William Smith - Suave sports

• Kevin McReynolds - Overnght

• Season Skuro - Bubble Agency

• Brent Kocher - Komo Technologies

🔗 Connect directly with new members here.

🛠️ New Member Resources Added

We just added a list of 2,500 angel investors.

Get it Inside Profluence

Now to today’s market briefing 👇

The Sideline Economy in Sports

I haven’t been able to stop thinking about this concept.

In a recent Profluence Office Hours session, member Adam Halpern of WaveOn began discussing the “Sideline Economy” and how he’s weaving it into his positioning.

Everyone focuses on what happens on the field.

But one of the fastest-growing opportunities in sports is happening just off it (on the sidelines and in the infrastructure around them).

It’s worth a deeper dive, looking at some companies building in this arena, and more.

The Thesis

Here’s how I would define this massive, underbuilt layer of sports we’re calling the “Sideline Economy”:

The systems, services, and technology that support athletes before, during, and after competition.

This could include:

• Athletic trainers

• Performance tracking

• Equipment + logistics

• Medical infrastructure

• Injury prevention & rehab

• Data + coordination platforms

And it’s scaling fast (especially as professionalization continues to flow downstream from the largest pro leagues to emerging IP, to college, to youth, and even to club).

I was on a call recently with a large asset manager who is very sophisticated in sports.

She said something that resonated with me:

I will always pay for my kids’ youth sports, because it’s just as much about getting them out of the house as it is about their development. It’s a form of babysitting; people just don’t like to think about it that way.

And that leads us to the key point.

Why Now

Three macro shifts are driving this:

1. More Athletes Than Ever

While participation dipped for a few years post-2020 (we all know why).

Youth, amateur, and recreational sports are exploding.

• More participation = more injuries = more need for care

• Athletic trainer demand is growing ~11% (faster than average)

Most of us can agree that participation will only increase as Gen Z and millennials are super active (and will pass it on to their kids as well).

They very much value sports/health activities, especially when they intertwine with community & social aspects.

2. Sports Is Becoming Healthcare

Athletic training is now a recognized healthcare profession focused on:

• diagnosis

• rehab

• injury prevention

• performance optimization

This is the key shift:

Sports has become a health + performance system.

Two examples that shed light on this:

• A study found that Pickleball injuries, particularly among players over 50, are rising sharply, with roughly 87% to 90% of emergency room visits involving this demographic.

• Enhanced Games (steroid version of the Olympics) is using sports as a Trojan Horse to develop, market, and ultimately sell performance enhancing supplements.

3. Technology Is Unlocking Scale

The sports tech market is exploding, with many studies projecting it to exceed $100B this decade.

What’s driving it:

• Wearables

• Injury tracking

• Data platforms

• Real-time analytics

Look at the recent announcement of WHOOP raising at a $10B valuation.

If you lump sports + health tech together, the market is massive.

This is enabling the “sideline economy” to move from manual/fragmented to a scalable digital solution.

Let’s take a look at one sub-example:

The Athletic-Health Sideline Economy

I think of this as…

The infrastructure connecting schools, trainers, and technology into a scalable model for athlete care.

• Schools need coverage

• Athletes need consistent care

• Trainers need placement + tools

• Data needs to flow across all of it

Right now?

It’s fragmented/broken, and for a few reasons:

• Schools struggle to hire trainers

• Trainers are underpaid/overworked

• Data is siloed

• Care is inconsistent

There isn’t a coherent operating system for athlete health (especially not spanning from youth to pro to recreational).

That’s the opportunity.

Companies Around This Space

A new wave of companies is starting to define this category:

• Kitman Labs: Performance intelligence + injury risk analytics

• Fusionetics: Movement assessment + injury prevention systems

• Healthy Roster: Athlete medical records + communication platform

• The Player’s Health: Insurance + safety + risk management infrastructure

• Insurance providers like Xinsurance: Injury, liability, and participation risk

Around them, new categories are emerging, and market sizes are increasing, enabling participation by new entrants.

Where Opportunities Lie

If I’m looking to build a company in this space (or already am), I think these are categories to dig deeper into:

Read more

• 4/10 - Q/A session with Mitch Heath, co-founder of Teamworks, which is now valued at $1B+

• 4/15 - Community Networking session

• 4/17 - Innovation in Golf Workshop

• 4/20 - PEAK SportsTech event

🔗 Members can RSVP for events here

🎙 Podcasts

• Kevin McReynolds - CEO, Overnight

• Chad Wilton - Co-Founder, PEAK sports conference

Hear from Chad about their upcoming PEAK conference and from Kevin on where sports media is headed.

🔗 Listen to the podcasts here

💬 New Members

• Eric Fransen - Rallie

• Craig Winning - Batbox

• Richmond Taylor - Bishop AI

• Dziugas Staniulis - Confluence Investment

🔗 Connect directly with new members here.

🛠️ New Member Resources Added

We also added good intel on:

• traps when raising money

• early-stage fundraising playbook

• 3 Seed round patterns and funnel formation

Now to today’s featured deep dive 👇

We go deep on an interesting trend that will impact everyone building across the sports industry.

The Death of the Middle in Sports (And Who Wins Next)

Over the last decade, we’ve seen that people like content that caters to their specific interests and tastes.

That’s YouTube Shorts, IG reels, and TikTok.

But what people really want… is a shared cultural experience.

This segment is thriving:

• Something to bond over with friends & family. Example: Hollywood movies are increasingly high-budget and focused on stories and characters everyone already knows.

• Paris hosted the highest-rated Olympics ever. The NFL had 83 of the top 100 broadcasts last year.

• Some people want to feel smart, intellectually stimulated, and high status. Example: Prestige TV (Succession, The White Lotus) pushes the boundaries of production quality and subject matter to meet that need.

Now we’re really starting to see this trend take hold in the sports industry.

Particularly in the IP sector.

Sports Properties

• UFC won on violence.

• Formula 1 won on storytelling.

• College football won on tradition.

Newer leagues like DLL (drone racing), PLL (lacrosse), and DGPT (disc golf) are winning by being optimized for a single variable.

And slowly but surely, they’ve siphoned attention, capital, and talent away from traditional “generalist” leagues.

Why Is This Happening?

Some like to call this the “barbell effect”…

Which is the idea that massive incumbents (like the NFL) and micro-niches (like Spikeball tournaments) will thrive, and everything in the middle dies.

But that doesn’t tell the full story.

To succeed, a sports organization needs three main things:

Read more

• 4/3 - Founders Foundraising Session

• 4/10 - Mitch Heath Q&A on building $1B Teamworks

• 4/20 - PEAK SportsTech event

🔗 Members can RSVP for events here

🎙 Podcasts

• Steve Bellamy - Founder, TYPTI

• Henrik Teisbæk - CEO & Co-Founder, VEO

Super interesting conversations

🔗 Listen to the podcasts here

💬 New Members

• Mark Covington - SNAP

• Trevor Elmitt - OpenLoop

• Peter Anselmo - Caldwell

• Moiz Asif - Visualize Design

• Sandeep Hingorani - Baller.tv

• Sebastien de Cabrol - Getsyp

• Jared K Miller - Edward Jones

• Nicolás Borrero - Sports Crowd

• Jacob Spotswood - Lumeandco

• Josh Johnson - Media Payments Group

• Abdullah Majed Alkassabi - Saudi Musheera Company

🔗 Connect directly with new members here.

AI & Sports

I’ve seen a lot of debate on X about artificial intelligence lately…

This account proposed a super interesting question:

And the common answer seemed to be this…

Professional athletes/sports.

Given enough time, AI + robotics will be able to do EVERYTHING better, so the only jobs that will be immune are those that people will still want humans to perform, even if AI is better.

Some examples…

• Cars — horse races are still popular.

• Chess — we don’t care about perfect play, we care about human competition.

• Robots — just as we have esports with video gamers playing NBA 2K in leagues and such, it’s still cool to watch real sports.

Waves of Technology and Behavior

In the startup world, there are two primary forces of change:

1. technological innovation

2. behavioral shifts

On the technology front, AI is the clearest wave right now…

It’s revolutionizing production, from tools that make high-quality content creation accessible to platforms that unlock smarter, faster decision-making.

The internet unlocked distribution, which allowed people to express themselves more broadly; now, AI arms them with the tools to express themselves more deeply.

Behavioral waves, on the other hand, reflect fundamental changes in how people think, act, and consume.

These shifts are particularly visible in younger generations (especially Gen Z, the first digitally native cohort).

To put things into perspective:

• Today’s college freshmen were born the same year as AWS.

• Today’s high school seniors were born the same year as the iPhone.

When technology and behavior intersect, the biggest opportunities emerge.

Setting the AI Stage

Before going too deep, I think it’s wise to lay the groundwork with some definitions and a basic understanding of the underlying technologies.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) - the capability of a machine to imitate intelligent human behavior

Generative AI - a branch of AI capable of generating new and original content, such as images, videos, music, or text

Machine Learning (ML) - development of algorithms that can access data, analyze patterns, and make predictions or take actions based on the analysis, allowing computers to learn and adapt w/o explicit instructions

Large Language Model (LLM) - AI systems that learn from massive amounts of text data and can produce meaningful responses, answer questions, and have natural conversations with people, ex. ChatGPT

Computer Vision - a field of AI that enables computers to analyze, interpret, and understand visual data to perform tasks like object detection, image recognition, and facial recognition

There is a lot more to learn to truly grasp this field, but in simple terms…

AI helps computers act intelligently and perform tasks that typically require human intelligence.

Such as:

• analyze data

• perform tasks

• solve problems

• make decisions

• recognize patterns

• learn from experiences

• understand information

You can see why these are so powerful…

AI Sports Landscape

A handful of sports companies have been using AI for years…but it’s only become popularized this past year.

This has caused a major problem…

Many companies now label themselves as “AI-powered”, which is often not the full truth.

Here’s a market map of what I believe are the “true” AI sports companies:

Read more

PEAK (The Global Home of SportsTech & Innovation) is taking place in Las Vegas from April 20-22.

Tickets and booths are nearly sold out!

I secured 50% off for Profluence Members through the end of this week:

50% Off PEAK Tickets

*The value of Profluence i…

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1. Public markets are assigning valuations to franchises.

2. Private equity is building portfolios of sports infrastructure.

3. Pension funds and sovereign wealth are finally allocating to sports.

4. Venture capital is funding the next generation of sports & media companies.

For the first time in history, sports is developing a full capital stack.

And the implications are enormous.

Across two recent Profluence conversations, one with the portfolio managers behind the Gabelli Sports ETF and another with the managing partner of Bluestone Equity, a $300M sports private equity fund, a clear picture emerged:

Sports are no longer just an industry. It’s becoming a financial ecosystem.

Let’s Dive In 👇

Sports Is Becoming a Multi-Layered Asset Class

Institutional investors typically allocate to categories like:

• Real estate

• Infrastructure

• Private equity

• Venture capital

Sports are increasingly joining that list.

Why?

Three structural characteristics make sports unusually attractive to institutional capital.

1. Low Correlation to Traditional Markets

Sports assets historically move differently than public equities.

Investors increasingly view sports media and entertainment as uncorrelated exposure, helping diversify portfolios during volatile market cycles.

2. Recession Resistance

Across multiple economic downturns:

• dot-com crash

• 2008 financial crisis

• COVID

Sports consumption has remained remarkably resilient.

Fans keep watching + spending & media rights continue growing.

3. Structural Compounding Growth

Sports franchise valuations have compounded dramatically.

Over the past decade, major league teams have appreciated roughly 15% annually, driven by media rights, global fandom, and asset scarcity.

For institutional investors searching for long-duration assets, that combination is powerful.

Put together, the result is clear: Institutional investors increasingly view sports as a durable, long-term asset class.

Public Markets Are Finally Pricing Sports

Historically, sports investing required billions.

If you wanted exposure to sports assets, you had to buy a team.

Public markets are beginning to change that.

Today investors can gain exposure to sports through companies that operate across the ecosystem:

• publicly traded teams

• stadium operators

• ticketing platforms

• sports data providers

• apparel companies

• sports media companies

Gabelli described the strategy as “viewing sports through a broad ecosystem lens rather than just teams”.

But perhaps the most interesting opportunity lies in valuation inefficiencies.

Many public companies that own sports assets trade well below the implied value of those assets.

A good example discussed on the podcast:

Read more

• 3/13 - RacquetX event

• 3/19 - Meetup before Yankees Game (Tampa)

• 3/20 - Chicago Cubs exec Bobby Basham coming to speak with founders about what they look for when working with companies

• 4/10 - Mitch Heath Q&A on building $1B Teamworks

• 4/20 - PEAK SportsTech event

🔗 Members can RSVP for events here

🎙 Podcasts

• Joe Hollywood - Top WhatNot Collectibles Influencer

• Miles Chamley-Watson & Leo Rifkind - Co-Founders, World Fencing League

Super interesting conversations covering an emerging sport and doing live-stream card breaks that turned into a 40+ employee business.

🔗 Listen to the podcasts here

💬 New Members

• Abhishek Jain - Kotofit

• David Hodge - Green Side

• Ghislain de Noue - Getsyp

• Jason Aldridge - Turf Tank

• Blamah Sarnor - Cultureriff

• Leila Tanneche - HerSport Fund

🔗 Connect directly with new members here.

Fencing Ecosystem Breakdown

Fencing is one of the oldest Olympic sports in the world (since 1896 to be exact).

But despite its history and global participation…fencing is just NOW starting to be built for the modern sports economy.

Sensors, smart scoring systems, digital training platforms, and streaming are beginning to reshape how fencing is practiced, coached, and consumed.

The numbers may surprise you…

• 10+ million fencers worldwide

• 150+ national federations under the International Fencing Federation (FIE), which did ~$17m in revenue leading up to the Paris Olympics

• 6 Olympic medal events

• Global fencing equipment market worth hundreds of millions annually

• The U.S. has ~40,000 competitive fencers & youth fencing participation has grown significantly in the last decade

Despite its Olympic prestige, fencing remains a fragmented ecosystem.

That’s exactly where technology and innovation come in.

Let’s break it down 👇

The Fencing Economy

Fencing is a niche sport compared to soccer or basketball, but it punches above its weight in certain demographics.

Participation is strong globally in:

• Europe

• East Asia

• United States collegiate athletics

In the U.S., fencing has become increasingly popular among private schools and universities, where it’s seen as both an Olympic pathway and a recruiting advantage.

The NCAA currently sponsors fencing with programs at schools like:

• Notre Dame

• Columbia

• Princeton

• Harvard

• Penn State

Because the sport requires specialized gear and coaching, the economic layer around fencing is significant.

Equipment alone can cost…

Read more

• 3/6 - Founder’s Fundraising

• 3/11 - Community Digital Networking

• 3/13 - RacquetX event

• 3/19 - Meetup before Yankees Game (Tampa)

• 4/10 - Mitch Heath Q&A on Building Teamworks

• 4/20 - PEAK SportsTech event

🔗 Members can RSVP for events here

🎙 Podcasts

• Andrew Spalter - CEO, East Goes Global

• Barrick Prince - Founder, Creator Sports Network

Great conversations on two different topics: taking sports worldwide and how creators are redefining the industry.

🔗 Listen to the podcasts here

💬 New Members

• Darcy Young - Contested

• Michael Cummings -MakoRock

• Kyla Jo Williams - Apple Golf Club

• Valentina Müller - Triple B International

• Paul Connors - Creative Strategy Leader

• Ed Strachar - Advanced Performance Recovery System

🔗 Connect directly with new members here.

🛠️ New Resources Added

• Startup Hiring Kit

• 25 epic startup pivots

• Excel template for M&A deals

• Lean Revenue Model for Startups

• 4 AI Model-Types Being Used in Sports

🔗 Members Can View Them On The Platform.

The Sports Media Shift

For 40+ years, sports media was simply a few networks, a few commentators, and a few dominant feeds.

That era is nearly over.

The future of sports media won’t be controlled by JUST broadcast networks.

Instead, a new ecosystem is forming across five layers of distribution:

1. Traditional Broadcast

2. Alternative Casts

3. Creator Leagues

4. Creator Distribution

5. Community Platforms

Change is occurring because of how the younger generations like to consume their media:

After sitting down with the President of Whistle Sports and the CEO of Creator Sports Network, one thing became clear:

We’re watching the infrastructure of sports media change in real time.

Here’s what that means 👇

Monoculture to 1 Million Channels

Every fan can choose their own version of the game.

Creator Sports Network calls this the future of “1 million ESPNs.”

Instead of one centralized voice, you get:

• NFL with a gamer commentary

• Soccer through a lifestyle influencer

• Rodeo explained by someone watching it for the first time

The thing is…

It’s not about replacing linear, but about adding new rights windows.

You can already see this with broadcasts like the Manning Cast.

Instead of polished suits and stiff scripts, Peyton and Eli Manning gave fans what they really wanted…authenticity. It feels like you’re hanging out with them, not watching a broadcast.

In a bit, we’ll get to a market map matrix that shows how this new landscape looks via creator leagues, alternative casts, etc.

The Live Social Creator Window

The lifetime value of a 15-year-old fan is exponentially greater than that of a 60-year-old viewer.

And that stat goes one layer deeper:

Read more

• 3/6 - Founder’s Fundraising

• 3/11 - Community Digital Networking

• 3/13 - RacquetX event

• 4/10 - Mitch Heath Q&A on Building Teamworks

• 4/20 - PEAK SportsTech event

🔗 Members can RSVP for events here

🎙 Podcasts

• Joe Caporoso - President, Whistle Sports

• Ricardo Marques - SVP Marketing, Michelob ULTRA

Two incredible conversations at the intersections of sports, media, & sponsorships.

🔗 Listen to the podcasts here

💬 New Members

• Will Crall - On 3

• Dr. Jen Fry - Coordle

• Parker Graham - Vestible

• Blake Godlove - Contested

• Lindsay Linhart - Lindolozi

• Josh Fromm - Tee Tender Golf

• Brittany Steffen - Cambernorth

• Nadia Susanto - Entrepreneurs First

• Jane O’Sullivan - Enterprise Ireland

🔗 Connect directly with new members here.

The Math Behind College Revenue

A few weeks ago, I posted this on LinkedIn:

If you split the income 50/50 between the players and the school:
🏈 Football players = $353,700/each
🏀 Men's basketball players = $381,400/each

That post blew up. And it sent me down a rabbit hole.

So I decided to play around with some math/models (and explore some of the topics we’re all wondering about).

College Sports Right Now

College athletics is professional in everything but name; a Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) is inevitable at this point.

A CBA defines a few main things:

1. How revenue is split (media rights have exploded in college)

2. Salary structures and caps (NIL has become pay for play)

3. Free agency rules (transfer market is bonkers in college)

4. Benefits and healthcare

5. Dispute resolution

6. Length of contracts

If the NCAA doesn’t structure it, the market will structure it for them.

The History of CBAs in Football and Basketball

The NFL and NBA didn’t wake up one day with clean 50/50 revenue splits…

So before we talk about what a college CBA could look like, it’s worth understanding how professional leagues got here.

NFL Timeline

• 1920: Founded

• 1956: NFLPA formed (36 years later)

• 1982: first revenue-linked compensation system strike

• 1993: True free agency + modern salary cap formed

• 2000s: Modern ~48% revenue share structure solidified

Franchise valuations exploded once revenue definitions were standardized and player share was negotiated; because the NFL was financially modelable.

NBA Timeline

• 1946: Founded

• 1954: NBPA formed (8 years later)

• 1998–99 and 2011: Major lockouts

Interestingly, before 2011, players received roughly 57% of basketball-related income (after the 2011 lockout, that number reset to roughly 50%).

College

• 1869: Football began

• 1891: Basketball began

• 1906: NCAA formed

• 2021: NIL arrives

For over 100 years, the model was amateurism (no revenue sharing, no labor frameworks, no collective bargaining).

If we map it to the pro league evolution phases:

College sports are currently in Phases 3 and 4, effectively skipping 50 years of gradual evolution because the revenue infrastructure is already in place (and they’re now figuring out the labor structure).

Who Is Trying to Become the College Players’ Association?

If college sports moves toward a CBA structure, one obvious question follows:

Who sits across the table?

• In the NBA, it’s the NBPA.

• In the NFL, it’s the NFLPA.

In college sports?

There is no officially recognized union (with many positioning for the role):

1. Athletes (.org)
Has released a draft college CBA framework and engaged thousands of athletes. Most explicit attempt so far at building a structured bargaining model.

2. NCPA (National College Players Association)
Longstanding advocacy group pushing athlete rights, health protections, and compensation reform for over two decades.

3. CAPA (College Athletes Players Association)
Focused on labor classification and unionization efforts, testing the employee argument legally.

4. Sport-specific advocacy groups
Football- and basketball-focused organizations that could consolidate into formal bargaining entities if legal recognition shifts.

Once revenue sharing formalizes, the question won’t be “if” there’s a players’ association.

It will be “which one.”

The Core Economics Driving the Conversation

The economic pressure is that if you share profits, the money comes from football and men’s basketball (as most Olympic sports operate at a deficit).

Ways to Split the Pool

There are many ways to distribute a player pool besides an equal split or pure participation.

Here are the most relevant categories, and what they optimize for:

1. Hybrid split
   A blend such as 50% equal share and 50% participation.
   This is the most stable because everyone gets meaningful pay, while performance is still rewarded.

2. Position-based market value
   Allocate by position groups first, then distribute within groups.
   This mirrors real sports labor markets, especially in football.

3. Team performance multipliers
   Hold back a portion for championships, playoffs, bowls, and tournament advancement.

4. Revenue driver allocation
   Use viewership, jersey sales, social engagement, and star power proxies.

5. Seniority and retention weighting
   Rewards continuity and staying in the program.

6. Scholarship cost offset first
   Guarantee scholarship equivalent plus a stipend, then split the profit above that.

In practice, hybrid distribution is the default because it balances stability, fairness, and incentives.

A workable model looks like this:

Private Equity Entering

We’re now also seeing private equity firms enter the space.

Which makes sense, but is interesting timing considering it just recently entered the NBA and NFL.

Without getting too specific, there are two main models:

1. school/athlete monetization platforms (Utah x Otro Capital)

2. conference-level structured capital/financing vehicles (Big12 x CAS)

Both are essentially:

Professionalization infrastructure as they’re buying cash flow participation, media revenue slices, monetization rails, and distribution leverage.

What Happens to Olympic Sports?

Football and men’s basketball produce most of the surplus. If you share surplus only from those sports, you are concentrating new cash compensation in men’s programs.

That creates pressure in three areas:

1. political and reputational risk for universities

2. legal and compliance risk under gender equity frameworks

3. internal budget pressure that may lead to Olympic sport cuts

How Olympic sports get squeezed

When new mandatory spending enters a budget, athletic departments look for flex:

• travel cuts

• staff consolidation

• roster size reduction

• facility and ops tightening

• in worst cases, sport elimination

Historically, Olympic sports are more exposed because they tend to have high travel costs, large rosters, and low direct revenue.

So even if the intent is “pay football players,” the knock-on effect can be “trim non-revenue sports to fund payroll.”

What schools will do to protect women’s sports and Olympic sports

If the NCAA wants a system that lasts, it needs an explicit design for non-revenue sports.

I believe there are three viable structures:

Where Are The Opportunities?

College sports are still messy, but the chaos is starting to highlight where some of the opportunities will be, especially as legislation and structure get sorted out.

For founders, operators, and investors, I think these are some of the opportunities:

1. NIL Agencies (this will eventually standardize and the 20% cuts will be reduced to 3-5%, handful of folks playing in this space, but if you win a niche it’s a massive opportunity, larger agencies will acquire smaller players here).

Read more

• 2/24 - Office Hours

• 3/6 - Founders Fundraising session

• 3/13 - RacquetX event

• 4/20 - PEAK SportsTech event

🔗 Members can RSVP for events here

🎙 Podcast

• Rufus Huck - CEO, Sony Sports

As Sony expands beyond PlayStation and entertainment, Rufus gives great insight into their sports vertical and recent acquisitions.

🔗 Listen to the podcast here

💬 New Members

• Sandesh Naik - DAZN

• Donnie Dotson - Carry

• Kyle Haener - Tunnl Labs

• Fergus Wallace - Vital Sports

• Thomas Coiner - Sport Feeds

• Gregory Kuhfeldt - ​​Edward Jones

• Rocco Alberto Baldassarre - Human Data Intelligence

🔗 Connect directly with new members here.

*This is a preview of Volume Three of Youth Sports Mapping 2026.

Inside the full Volume Three report, we break down:

• The complete rights holder market map

• What this means for founders, investors, operators, and startups

• Key quotes from leaders at Varsity Brands, RCX Sports, Pop Warner, Prep Network, and more

👉 Volume Three is now available exclusively inside the Profluence Community.

Not yet a member?

Subscribe now

Private Equity Is Consolidating a Fragmented Market

There is no NFL-style central league office in youth sports… so private equity is building one through roll-ups.

Between 2023 and 2025, PE firms aggressively consolidated youth sports rights holders, event operators, and technology platforms.

The largest deal?

KKR’s $4.75B acquisition of Varsity Brands in August 2024, purchasing the company from Bain Capital and Charlesbank.

Varsity reportedly generates:

• $3B in annual revenue

• 7,500 employees

• 600+ championships annually

• 8M athletes and students served

Key Players

A great place to start in this space is to look at the most notable organizations in each major sport:

Subscribe now

Read more

• 2/11 - Virtual networking

• 2/24 - Office Hours

• 3/13 - RacquetX event

• 4/20 - PEAK SportsTech event

🔗 Members can RSVP for events here

🎙 Podcast

• Rem De Rohan - COO, Aggregate Sports

Convo breaking down the Winter Olympics and Rem’s insights on the sports + sponsorship landscape.

🔗 Listen to the podcast here

💬 New Members

• Vicki Raimey - Credenza

• Adae Fonseca - Mana Qi

• Vicki Raimey - Credenza

• Adae Fonseca - Mana Qi

• Alex Rockoff - SportsTech

• Ben Jochem - Sports Index

• Allen Hamilton - Teamplayr

• Ben Jochem - Sports Index

• Marcia Caporn- Aerocanvas

• Jessica Miller - Squid Socks

• Peter Arch - Us Sports Camps

• Mira Ruder-Hook - Launchbreak

• Zack Luttrell - Sports Fans Travel

• Kurt Haller - Let’s Go Sports Group

• Max Needle - Diamond Arc Legacy

• Martin Fox - 63X30 & Aspen Institute

• Ben Rickord - Franchise Frameworks

• Antonio Stephenson - Next Level Sports

• Nicole iloanya - Strategic Business Attorney

🔗 Connect directly with new members here.

The Winter Olympics Ecosystem

If you’re like me…

You likely think of the Winter Olympics as two weeks of competition, national pride, and sports you watch once every four years.

What we don’t see is the fragile ecosystem underneath it all:

• A fragmented funding system

• Massive attention spikes every four years

• Underdeveloped commercial infrastructure

• Sports that live or die based on viewership, not performance

Milan 2026 is an important Winter Games.

Today, we’ll cover the Olympic infrastructure, how to sell into NGBs, opportunities for founder/builders, and the platformization of sports.

Let’s Dive In 👇

The Olympic Ecosystem

An easy-to-understand Olympic ecosystem breakdown:

• IOC: controls inclusion, formats, and long-term survival

• USOPC / NOCs: focus on marquee Games (LA 2028, Milan 2026)

• NGBs: actually train athletes, build youth pipelines, run events

• Athletes: short monetization windows, massive pressure

• Brands & Media: follow attention, not tradition

This chart shows the breakdown well:

NGBs are the “middle layer” doing the hardest work with the least funding.

It’s why technology, media, and storytelling now matter more than ever.

Here’s a more sophisticated view:

Read more

• 2/6 - Founders Foundraising session

• 2/11 - Virtual community networking

• 3/13 - RacquetX event

🔗 Members can RSVP for events here

🎙 Podcasts

• Mitch Heath - Co-Founder, Teamworks

• Jose Diaz - EVP, SMAC Entertainment

🔗 Listen to the podcasts here

🛠️ PEAK SportsTech Event in April

The Profluence Community is heading to Las Vegas to attend PEAK SportsTech & Innovation - they just announced their first 50 speakers.

Join us and the 1,000+ founders, sports executives, and investors for three days of intensive learning and networking.

Book your tickets now to save $500 off the full ticket price before prices increase by 25% on February 6th - peakconf.com/profluence

Insights on Building a Billion-Dollar Sports Tech Company

For years, founders have heard the same thing:

“Sports tech is too small.”
“You can’t build a billion-dollar company here.”

That was the feedback Mitch Heath and his team received while building Teamworks.

Today, Teamworks is a sports tech company valued at over $1 billion (and the operating system behind elite teams across the world).

Here are the 7 lessons most founders (and investors) still miss👇

*via our sit-down conversation with Mitch Heath

1. Sports Didn’t Become Big. It Was Always Big.

Early on, investors couldn’t see sports as an asset class. What changed wasn’t the market; it was perception.

Today, everyone wants exposure to:

• Teams

• Media

• Youth sports

• College athletics

• Infrastructure

• Technology

Sports didn’t suddenly grow, but capital finally caught up (along with other macro conditions that made it more appealing).

If people tell you your market is “too small,” ask whether they’re confusing visibility with value.

2. The Counterintuitive Move That Built Teamworks ($1B company)

Read more

• 1/29 - Tax Workshop for Founders (going through LLC vs S-corp vs C-corp and how to make your startup tax efficient)

• 2/6 - Founders Foundraising session

• 2/11 - Virtual networking

• 3/13 - RacquetX event

• 4/20 - PEAK SportsTech event (discounts inside)

🔗 Members can RSVP for events here

🎙 Podcast

• Jill Brabec - President, Nordic Combined USA

Fascinating convo ahead of the 2026 Winter Olympics about the only sport that doesn’t have both genders competing…and what the IOC is looking for to renew the sport in 2030.

🔗 Listen to the podcast here

💬 New Members

• Arpan Bhattacharya

• David Hicks - Eyeball

• DJ Johnson - Sherpa Sports AI

• Dylan Plater - RE/NU Recovery

• Saumil Majmudar - Sportz Village

• Amyli McDaniel - NILContracts IQ

• Tracy Deforge - The Players Impact

• Benjamin Grubbs - Creator Sports Capital

• Devynn Cromwell - Former Student-Athlete

🔗 Connect directly with new members here.

🛠️ New Resources Added

• Startup Hiring Kit

• 7 Investor Pet-peeves

• Excel template for M&A deals

• Profluence Super Bowl meetup spots

• 4-step framework to get a term sheet via email

🔗 Members Can View Them On The Platform.

The Mixing of Tech with Recreational Sports

Most recreational sports businesses think they’re selling court time.

They’re not.

They’re selling repeat behavior (and the ones that win over the next decade will be those with the best systems).

A stat that backs this up…

Over 70% of adults who exercise prefer social or group-based activity over solo workouts.

This became very clear during our recent Profluence Sports podcast with Dov Penzik and Michael Madding, two operators quietly building at the intersection of recreational sports, hospitality, and technology.

Let’s Dive In 👇

The 3 Phases of Recreational Sports

To understand where this is going, you need to understand where it’s been.

Phase 1: Pure Play (Pre-2000s)

Recreational sports were simple: Show up, Pay, Play, Leave.

Facilities lived and died by location and foot traffic. They didn’t collect good data or have robust retention strategies.

Phase 2: Experience-Led Venues (2005–2020)

This is when hospitality entered sports.

Think:

• Corporate events

• Food and beverage

• “Competitive socializing,” or what I call “sportainment.”

During this time period…spend per head went up, group sizes increased, but frequency remained low.

Read more

• 1/23 - Thomas de Buhr - Guest speaker (founded the Baller League and is coming to talk & answer questions on how to build a sports league from scratch)

• 1/27 - Office Hours w/ Profluence Team

• 1/29 - Tax workshop (for founders)

• 2/6 - Founders Foundraising session

🔗 Members can RSVP for events here

🎙 Podcast

• Doz Penzik - Co-founder, No Strings

Dov Penzik is a sportainment wizard, having built Bounce, Puttshack, and FlightClub…we did this podcast to talk about his newest concept.

🔗 Listen to the podcast here

💬 New Members

• Ari Posner - Stealth

• Sanket Yadav - RSM US LLP

• Max Palmer - Nutmeg Soccer

• Jacques Ungerer -Twisted Sports

• Shani Raviv Cohen - Sports predict

• Mark Neifeld - Sport Fishing Championship (SFC)

🔗 Connect directly with new members here.

🛠️ New Resources We Recently Added

• 8 VC Clauses to Watch out for

• SaaS Cohort Analysis Template

• Cash Runway Model: Excel Template

• Return Analysis VC-Approved Template

🔗 Members Can View Them On The Platform.

The Problems (and Solutions) of Emerging Sports Leagues

The next decade in sports won’t be defined by what’s played… but by how it’s experienced.

We’re shifting from “watching a game” to “living inside a story.”

And the formula that keeps showing up across the most interesting new leagues is simple:

• Competition + Spectacle + Community = The Modern Sports Experience

Let’s Dive In 👇

The Core Problem With Most Emerging Sports Leagues

They don’t have distribution.

If no one sees it, it doesn’t matter:

• Talent is no longer enough.

• Rules are no longer enough.

• Even good gameplay is no longer enough.

That’s why leagues like LOVB, a new professional women’s volleyball league, are prioritizing athletes with large social followings over purely technical talent.

Do you understand what that means??

SPORTS ARE INCREASINGLY ABOUT ENTERTAINMENT FIRST, then competition/talent second.

Other common problems emerging leagues face:

• Trying to look “major league” too early

• High production costs before demand is proven

• Overbuilding infrastructure instead of audience

• Selling media rights before anyone actually cares

• Copying legacy league structures in a non-legacy world

Most leagues fail not because the sport isn’t interesting, but because of distribution (or some offshoot of it).

Why Emerging Sports Keep Hitting the Market

Despite the hurdles, new leagues keep launching.

And there are four good reasons why:

1. Lower Barriers to Entry

Technology has flattened the playing field.

You no longer need massive broadcast deals, permanent stadiums, or national distribution to start a league.

Capital is also more willing to experiment. Sports are now viewed as an asset class, not just entertainment.

That means more shots on goal.

2. Consumer Behavior Has Fundamentally Shifted

Modern fans consume sports differently.

Read more

• 1/23 - Thomas De Buhr - Guest speaker (founded the Baller League and is coming to talk & answer questions on how to build a sports league from scratch)

• 1/27 - Office Hours w/ Profluence Team

• 2/6 - Founders Foundraising session

🔗 Members can RSVP for events here

🎙 Podcasts

• Steve Kuhn - SportsPredict

Steve Kuhn is the billionaire who founded Major League Pickleball, now building a new company in the industry.

🔗 Listen to the podcast here

💬 New Members

• Joe Monahan - gearUP

• Jeff Sloan - StartupNation

• Jared Bochner - Asymmetrix

• Jalal Shaik - GAMEFACE.AI

• Johnny McMahon - FanCard

• Graeme Scott - Culmen Capital

• Efthymios Vafeiadis - Workearly

• Joe Summers - Onbase Consulting

• Danielle Durante - Graham Partners

• Ian Rapport - Golden Slam Marketing

• Matthew J. Cacciato - LA Sports Council

• Andrew W. Naugher - SportsBiz Builders

• Jean-Michel Arseneau - Agentic AI Startup

• Greg Bobolo - SEVN Sports & Entertainment

• Tony Asghar - Revolution Sports Inevstment and SPORTAAS

🔗 Connect directly with new members here.

How To Quietly Take Over Sports

You don’t hear Josh Harris talk much.

• No viral interviews.

• No loud predictions.

• No chest-thumping about “the future of sports.”

And yet, if you map where real power is accumulating in sports, his fingerprints are everywhere.

Let’s break it down 👇

Who is Josh Harris?

Josh Harris is a financial engineer by training:

• Co-founded Apollo Global Management in 1990

• Helped build it into a ~$600B AUM alternative-asset behemoth

• Became a billionaire by buying boring, complex, cash-flowing assets and scaling them with leverage and structure

This matters because sports is no longer a passion asset.

It’s becoming a wedge across many different industries:

1. Data

2. Media

3. Real estate

4. Infrastructure

5. Long-duration cash flow

Josh Harris saw that shift early (at least his moves signal that he did).

Team Ownership

Most people know Josh Harris through headline deals.

• Philadelphia 76ers (acquired in 2011 for ~$280M, now valued ~$4.5B+)

• New Jersey Devils (acquired in 2013 for ~$320M)

• Washington Commanders (led 2023 acquisition at ~$6.05B, largest sports sale ever at the time)

Most billionaires are doing what I like to call “team collecting.”

But it looks like Josh Harris…

Read more

How awesome it is to be building in sports during such a transformative time.

I’m especially grateful for the 1000+ Profluence Members, who are a pleasure to innovate alongside every day.

As opportunities continue to unfold across sports, I want to look back at 2025 (and give a sneak peek at where 2026 is headed).

Let…

Read more

Inside the full Volume Two report, we break down:

• The complete Media, Stats & Analysis market map

• How AI is collapsing costs across the ecosystem

• What this means for founders, investors, operators, and venues

• Key quotes and insights from leaders at Hudl, SportsEngine, Perfect Game, EventConnect, and PlayOn

If you’re building, investing, or operating in sports, this is required intel.

👉 Volume Two is now available exclusively inside the Profluence Community.

Not yet a member?

Subscribe Here

Media Is Becoming Infrastructure

Youth sports media platforms used to revolve solely around recruiting.

Now, they’re focused on building ecosystems:

1. Leagues and operators are investing in media-first event models.

2. High school and club athletes are growing real audiences on TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube.

3. Platforms like MaxPreps, Overtime, Perfect Game, On3, Rivals, and 247Sports are becoming discovery engines.

This mirrors the broader creator economy, but youth sports is moving faster.

Why?

• Rapid athlete turnover

• Constant content generation

• Built-in emotional storytelling

• Increasing NIL awareness at younger ages

Youth sports are creating their “unique” media angles.

Key Stakeholder Quotes

Instead of just dropping insights ourselves…

We also spoke with industry giants to learn how they view the space.

Really interesting what Rob Ponger, CEO of Perfect Game, said regarding media:

Read more

• 12/11 - Tampa, FL event at Golfology

• 12/11 - Startup Pitch Competition w/ PEAK

• 12/16 - Office Hours w/ Andrew & Scott

• 12/17 - EoY Community Networking

🔗 Members can RSVP for events here

🎙 Podcasts

• Ryan Petkoff - Family Office/Sports Insights

Ryan ran the Hunt family office for 17 years - they’re the owners of the Kansas City Chiefs.

🔗 Listen to the podcast here

💬 New Members

• Geoff McQueen

• Lior Koll - EasyCoach

• Spencer Dennis - CoachNow

• Caleb Eefting - Rolling Insights

• Philip DiLandro - Tyton Partners

• Angel Fernandez - EDGE Hydration

• Lincoln Gunn - Straight Arrow News

• Sebastian Lancestremere - Sport Thinkers

🔗 Connect directly with new members here.

🛠️ Fundraising Resources We’ve Added

✅ 300+ VCs That Accept Cold Pitches

✅ Ultimate Investor List of Lists (+5k VCs)

✅ 40 Pitch Decks That Raised Over $460M

✅ 144 Family Offices That Cut Pre-Seed Checks

✅ 400+ Seed VCs Backing Startups in the US & Europe

✅ Cap Table Mastery: How to Manage Startup Equity from Seed to Series C

✅ The Ultimate Startup Data Room Template (VC-Ready & Founder-Proven)

🔗 Members Can View Them On The Platform.

Inside the Smart Court Revolution

For decades, the only “digital tech” on a sports court was a scoreboard (and maybe a camera).

Today, the surface itself is turning into a data engine/computer.

Smart courts are one of the fastest-moving trends in sports (and are going to reshape many verticals of the industry).

Here is what you need to know 👇

What is a Smart Court?

A smart court is any playing surface upgraded with sensors, cameras, software, or tracking systems that:

• Generate video content

• Provide coaching insights

• Capture performance data

• Automate refereeing and scoring

• Create new ways to monetize participation

The easiest way to put it…

Smart Courts DIGITIZE a physical sport.

History of Smart Courts

Smart courts feel new, but after digging deeper, it’s pretty clear that the idea has been developing for almost two decades.

What started with tennis is now spreading to pickleball, padel, basketball, volleyball, and even multi-purpose gyms.

I’d say there have been three clear waves:

1. Broadcast Era (~2000 to 2015)

The earliest version of a smart court started with professional tennis.

Hawkeye introduced multi-camera systems that could triangulate a ball's flight and determine whether it was in or out.

Hawkeye did two critical things:

• It proved that technology could outperform humans in officiating

• It conditioned fans and players to accept digital decision-making

At this stage, smart courts were expensive, heavy, and limited to pro environments.

2. Club & Academy Era (~2015 to 2020)

This is when cameras became cheaper, and cloud computing became accessible.

Companies like Playsight began installing multi-camera systems in tennis academies, padel clubs, and basketball gyms.

For the first time, clubs could offer:

• Basic analytics

• Instant replay and coaching tools

• Automated video from fixed installations

This was the moment smart courts became a product rather than a novelty (expanding beyond just the pros to amateurs).

3. Computer Vision Era (2020 to Today)

The real breakthrough came when computer vision models could understand movement in real time without sensors or chips.

This unlocked:

• Player development analytics

• Automated highlight creation

• Real-time shot and player tracking

• Automated line calling for amateurs

• Scalable installations across thousands of courts

Companies like SportsVisio and others began building consumer-ready versions that cost a fraction of the early systems.

This wave turned smart courts from “nice technology” into the future operating system of sports.

I’ll touch on where this space is going next at the end…

Why is All This Happening Now?

Three major forces are colliding…

In what I call “the 3 C’s” of smart courts:

Read more

• 12/9 - LA event at SoFi Stadium

• 12/11 - Tampa event at Golfology

• 12/11 - Startup Pitch Competition w/ PEAK

• 12/17 - EoY Community Networking

🔗 Members can RSVP for events here

🎙 Podcasts

• Phil Wallin - Founder, Diesel Optimization

• Ben Von Willer & Alberto Chaia - Partners, McKinsey

🔗 Listen to the podcasts here

💬 New Members (from Thanksgiving week)

• Jenn McClaren

• Billy Rojack - Scoreboardz

• Jordan Thompson - Raicruited

🔗 Connect directly with new members here.

🛠️ Resources We’ve Added

✅ 300+ VCs That Accept Cold Pitches

✅ Ultimate Investor List of Lists (+5k VCs)

✅ 40 Pitch Decks That Raised Over $460M

✅ 144 Family Offices That Cut Pre-Seed Checks

✅ The SaaS Financial Model that Raised Millions

✅ 400+ Seed VCs Backing Startups in the US & Europe

✅ How VCs Value Startups: The VC Method + Excel Template

✅ The Go-To Pricing Guide for Early-Stage Founders + Toolkit

✅ Cap Table Mastery: How to Manage Startup Equity from Seed to Series C

✅ The Ultimate Startup Data Room Template (VC-Ready & Founder-Proven)

✅ SAFE Note Dilution: How to Calculate & Protect Your Equity (+ Cap Table Template)

🔗 Members Can View Them On The Platform.

Sports’ Institutional Exit: The 6 Big Shifts

Many folks are starting to notice that power is shifting from institutions to individuals.

Here are some examples of legacy systems being transformed:

• Bitcoin = exit from the Fed.

• DeFi = exit from Wall Street.

• Remote work = exit from 9-5.

• Social media = exit from mass media.

• Homeschooling = exit from industrial education.

• The creator economy = exit from traditional employment.

And this shift isn’t just happening in finance, education, and media (it’s reshaping sports as we know them).

Sports will no longer be solely gatekept by monopoly-like leagues, networks, universities, and corporate sponsors.

Let’s Dive In 👇

1. Youth Athletes Are Exiting Traditional High Schools

The path used to be clear: play high school sports, get recruited, and go to college.

Now?

Elite young athletes are skipping traditional high schools altogether.

• Prep schools and private academies are booming:

  • IMG Academy (FL) has become a factory for Division I and pro athletes.

  • Sierra Canyon (CA) became a media phenomenon, home to top basketball recruits like Bronny James.

  • Montverde Academy (FL) has produced multiple No. 1 overall picks in the NBA Draft in recent years.

• Online education is enabling flexibility.

  • Many young athletes are opting for online coursework to train full-time.

  • Programs like Overtime Elite (OTE) let basketball prospects skip high school entirely, offering salaries, pro coaching, and NIL deals.

Youth sports are becoming more professionalized than ever before.

This shift raises big questions:

Read more

We’re offering 20% off a Profluence yearly membership right now (through Black Friday).

Get 20% off for 1 year

Something else cool we’re doing for members…

Startup Competition ($10,000 Cash Prize)

We’re partnering with PEAK to launch the inaugural Startup World Cup (and Profluence is hosting the Americas qualifier).

This is your chance to pitch in f…

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📅 Upcoming Member Events

• 11/20 - Founder Workshop on staying compliant

• 12/9 - LA event at SoFi Stadium

• 12/11 - Tampa event at Golfology

• 12/12 - Startup Pitch Competition w/ PEAK

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🔗 Members can RSVP for events here

🎙 Podcasts

• Raphael Eder - Founder, No Limits Tour

• Erik Anderson & Eddie Lewis - C-suite, TOCA Social

🔗 Listen to the podcasts here

💬 New Members

• Michael Fiore - GAGE

• Owen McBride - Play4Life

• Steve Goldberg - Markball

• Joshua Crandall - AthesAI

• Juraj Mihalik - Sportsdeck.io

• Thomas James Ngai - Blitz AI

• Sanjay Malhotra - Rafter Sports

• Jayis Jaxson Holm - Jaynoaglobal

• Bruce Hofert - Los Angeles Xtreme

🔗 Connect directly with new members here.

The 2002 Report That Predicted The Future Of Sports

While flying to New York, I dug into a 2002 sports industry report (this is pre-iPhone, pre-YouTube, before NIL, streaming, private equity minority stakes, or even most of sports tech).

What surprised me?

Is how many of the trends we see today were already forming back then.

Let’s dive into that report, where we are now, and where the next decade is taking us.

Sports Themes in 2002 vs. Now

Looking back 23 years later… the patterns from 2002 have become many of the foundations of today’s landscape.

*The full report is posted in the Profluence platform (view here)

Pickup Play Was Dying

In 2000, 2.5× more kids played organized team sports than pickup sports.

And 12.3 million kids played no sports at all.

This graph does a nice job of visualizing sports participation from age 6-17 in 2000:

Read more