The NFL already has media deals with every major traditional U.S. broadcaster and an e-commerce giant, but it would like to add another household name.

The league is hoping to sell its “Sunday Ticket” package to Apple, per The Athletic, creating a partnership with the leading phone maker and world’s largest company by market cap.

Amazon was reportedly in the lead for the out-of-market games package, for which the NFL is seeking $2 billion to $2.5 billion per season. Disney is interested as well.

The league is considering offering different versions of the package, allowing fans to purchase all the games of a single team, or even individual games.

• AT&T-owned DirecTV has offered “Sunday Ticket” since 1994, and currently pays $1.5 billion per season for it. AT&T is reportedly uninterested in renewing when its deal expires after next season.
• The next “Sunday Ticket” deal could include an equity stake in NFL Media.
• The NFL hired Goldman Sachs to find potential investors in its media properties, including the NFL Network and NFL RedZone.

On the heels of its breakout hit “Ted Lasso” — a sports-comedy series about a football-turned-soccer coach — Apple is ramping up its presence in the streaming wars.

The company invested $6 billion in AppleTV in 2019, and the media operation is a major component of the company’s $430 billion domestic spending plan over the next five years.

The U.K. government is getting closer to finalizing its gambling review, with multiple sources reporting this week that it will likely result in the ban of gambling sponsorships from sports jerseys.

The review is looking at reforming the Gambling Act of 2005 — there are reportedly 400,000 problem gamblers in the UK — as well as “white label deals,” which are considered a loophole as overseas betting companies can form sponsorships with U.K.-based soccer clubs by paying another firm to use their license, avoiding government check-ins.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson appointed a new gambling minister this week, “thought to be keen on reform,” according to the Daily Mail.

If the ban is finalized, it would have a huge impact on the sports market in Europe. Gambling logos appear up to 700 times per match.

• The English Football League, which oversees the three professional tiers under the top, said last year that revenue generated from the gambling industry could be “vital” in recovering from pandemic losses, and the ruling could cause some clubs “to go under.”
• This season, nine Premier League clubs, or 45% of the league, have front-of-shirt sponsorships with gambling companies, which are worth a combined $79.22 million.
• La Liga was told to drop betting deals by the end of the 2020-2021 season. The league’s president said that teams would lose a combined $105 million.

Gambling companies expect branding in venues could be affected, too.

The review is not expected to be published until this winter, and then would need a three-month consultation period before heading to Parliament. If the changes go through, they would likely not take effect until 2023.

Barstool Sports CEO Erika Nardini predicts the company will top $200 million in revenue by early 2022. 

Barstool’s revenue grew 57% to $150 million in 2020. If the company surpasses $200 million by the end of 2021, that would be a roughly 33% increase. That’s double the $100 million in annual revenue it had generated back when Penn National acquired a 36% stake in Barstool for $163 million in cash and stock in January 2020.

The media brand is being embraced by giants like Walmart. Advertisers are drawn to Barstool’s young audience (half under 30 years old) and 135 million social media followers. 

“The world is opening up for us,” CEO Erika Nardini told Front Office Sports.

Among Barstool’s new initiatives: 

• Barstool Bites: Barstool will launch its own Barstool Bites menu of “couch food” in October. Customers can have chicken wings, sandwiches, and chips delivered at home. 
• One Bite: Founder Dave Portnoy’s new frozen pizza will hit 3,600 Walmart stores at the end of September. 
• Branded sports bars: The company’s planning its first standalone bars in Chicago and Philadelphia this fall.
• New tourney: The brand will launch the “Barstool Hockey Cup,” a weeklong women’s hockey tournament, in April. 

Barstool also wants to own and operate more live events. 

“There isn’t a category that we haven’t disrupted,” Nardini said.