Damian Lillard has invested in PlayersTV, a predominantly Black-owned content distribution channel dedicated to sports lifestyle and culture. 

PlayersTV launched last March and is available on various streaming platforms. 

The network already has over 50 athlete-investors including Lillard’s teammates CJ McCollum and Carmelo Anthony, in addition to Kyrie Irving, Chris Paul, Ken Griffey Jr., Trevor Bauer, Travis Kelce and Vernon Davis.

Lillard’s investment comes with two new shows: “Dame” will chronicle his life, and “Sessions” will highlight other athletes and musicians. Baron Davis, Marshall Faulk, Rob Gronkowski and DeAndre Jordan feature in other shows on the network.

The Portland Trail Blazers guard has built up his profile off-the-court in the past year. 

• Joined Gatorade to help promote its new Bolt24 product
• Launched a four-month sports media and marketing internship program with Adidas
• Starred in Hulu commercials
• Opened Damian Lillard Toyota in Oregon

Beyond endorsements and business efforts, Lillard has also found success recording music under his “Dame D.O.L.L.A.” moniker.

Another game developer is ready to go public.

Poland-based Huuuge Inc. announced plans Monday to raise $150 million by offering new shares. The company mainly produces free-to-play casino games.

Huuuge currently touts 4.7 million monthly users and saw annual sales growth of 30% over the past three years. It plans to use the proceeds from the IPO to acquire other companies.

• In the last three years, seven of 21 Polish IPOs have been gaming companies.
• Huuuge will be the 14th gaming company to trade on the Warsaw Stock Exchange.

CD Projekt, which went public in 2018, is the largest gaming studio on the Warsaw bourse. Its shares have fallen 45% since stumbling through the release of the highly-anticipated “Cyberpunk 2077,” which was riddled with performance issues at launch.

A number of mobile gaming companies worldwide have recently had successful IPOs. Playtika, for example, raised $1.9 billion via an IPO last week and its shares jumped 17% in its first day of trading.

Global mobile game revenue is expected to hit $87.7 billion in 2020, up 24% year-over-year. The entire global video game industry is expected to generate $179.7 billion on the year, with the Polish market accounting for about $600 million.

The trend of mobile gaming companies going public is unlikely to slow down. Mobile data and analytics provider App Annie projects mobile game revenue to grow by as much as 20% in 2021, to $120 billion.

A former Oakland Athletics player is attempting to take the team’s real estate plans into his own hands. 

Dave Stewart submitted a $115 million bid to buy the city of Oakland’s share of the Coliseum site. The former pitcher previously said that he and a group of local and national business executives could place a 10% initial deposit.

The A’s — now the last professional team to use the site after the Golden State Warriors and Oakland Raiders left — purchased half of the Coliseum land stake from Alameda County last year for $85 million. 

Stewart’s plans for the site include redevelopment and even a potential new stadium if the team’s current plans to build a new ballpark near the Port of Oakland fall through. 

• The A’s have planned to open a new ballpark for the 2023 season, but that looks increasingly unlikely. 
• Stewart, an A’s analyst on their pre- and post-game broadcasts, wants to make the current site and surrounding area more appealing. 

The city is also considering a $92 million bid from a group looking to bring an NFL team back to Oakland — with the league’s first Black ownership group. The group includes NBA agent Bill Duffy and a former Oakland city manager.

Former ESPN host Jemele Hill is starting her own podcast network with Spotify, which will produce shows created by and for Black women. 

Spotify is already home to her “Jemele Hill Is Unbothered” podcast, which will be part of the new network. Hill also hosts a weekly radio show with Cari Champion, writes for The Atlantic and is in talks with former ESPN president John Skipper and media personality Dan Le Batard to join their new sports content company.

Podcasting has been on the rise for years — monthly listeners in the U.S. crossed 100 million in 2020 — and is primed for significant growth with Black listeners, according to Hill.

“When Black people hear stories they can relate to and hear from artists and entertainers and athletes they have cherished, they are going to respond,” Hill told Bloomberg. 

Companies have been betting big on podcasts lately. 

• Amazon acquired Wondery for a reported $300 million in December.
• Spotify acquired podcast ad tech company Megaphone for $235 million in November, adding to its earlier acquisitions of The Ringer, Gimlet, Parcast and Anchor.
• Sirius XM acquired Stitcher, a full-service podcast platform, for $325 million in October. 

Still, podcast platforms have a lot of room for growth when it comes to monetization. Ad revenue for traditional U.S. radio totaled $12 billion in 2020; ad revenue for podcasts was significantly lower at $1.1 billion.