Hopefully you got in on Doge as early as Mark Cuban did. 🤑
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Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports/Design: Alex Brooks
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Athletes don’t want to just play for teams, they want to own them.
Retired NBA star Dwyane Wade is the latest to make that clear — he bought an ownership stake in the Utah Jazz, ESPN reported on Friday.
The three-time NBA champion joins a growing list of athlete owners. Ex-New York Yankees slugger Alex Rodriguez is working on a deal to purchase the NBA’s Minnesota Timberwolves, his former teammate Derek Jeter is a minority owner of MLB’s Miami Marlins, and tennis superstars Serena Williams and Naomi Osaka each have stakes in NWSL teams.
Former NBA stars who’ve bought ownership stakes range from Michael Jordan (Charlotte Hornets) and Shaquille O’Neal (Sacramento Kings) to Grant Hill (Atlanta Hawks). Magic Johnson sold his stake in the Los Angeles Lakers, but he still owns stakes in the Los Angeles Sparks, Los Angeles Football Club, and the Los Angeles Dodgers.
“This goes way beyond the dream I had to just play basketball in the NBA,” Wade told ESPN.
Apparently Wade had his choice of clubs: Miami Heat owner Mickey Arison tweeted that he discussed having his former star join the Heat ownership group.
Famous athletes bring sizzle and capital to ownership groups, and many of them have money to spare. Wade amassed $196.4 million just in salary during his 16-year career, per Spotrac.
The next frontier: superstars owning teams while still playing. As part of his investment in Fenway Sports Group, LeBron James owns a stake in MLB’s Boston Red Sox. Kevin Durant controls a piece of MLS club Philadelphia Union.
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Derick E. Hingle-USA TODAY Sports/Design: Alex Brooks
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Dogecoin spiked as high as 500% in the past week to reach a market cap of over $50 billion, and billionaire Mark Cuban could be a part of the reason why.
The Cuban-owned Dallas Mavericks began accepting Dogecoin as payment for tickets and merchandise in March. This week, Cuban tweeted that the team’s sales in Dogecoin had increased 550% in the last month, totaling more than 122,000 Doge in merchandise.
The “Shark Tank” star went on to say that the Mavs will “never sell one single Doge ever.” Some say his statement one-upped Elon Musk’s investment in the cryptocurrency. Musk has called himself the “CEO of Dogecoin.”
Cuban’s interest in cryptocurrency isn’t new. This week, he made an investment in CryptoSlam, an NFT data aggregator, through his venture capital enterprise Radical Investments. The Mavericks began accepting Bitcoin in 2019.
While some worry that Dogecoin’s sudden spike is the sign of a bubble, Cuban compared the cryptocurrency’s rise to the dot-com boom that made him a billionaire.
The “meme” coin has risen more than 3,000% since the start of the year. “I have no idea what it means,” Cuban told CNBC. “But I do know that supply and demand is undefeated. So it will find its level.”
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Ferrari/Design: Alex Brooks
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Ferrari is getting into gear with the help of electric vehicles following a year of uncertainty.
On Thursday, the Italian luxury car manufacturer confirmed that its first all-electric vehicle will debut in 2025.
The iconic automaker previously produced two hybrid vehicles, the LaFerrari, which debuted in 2013, and the SF90 Stradale, which hit the streets in 2019. Now, Ferrari will bring EV to the racetrack.
“In over 70 years of racing, on tracks all over the world, we led our closed-wheel cars to victory by exploring cutting-edge technological solutions,” Ferrari president John Elkann said. “Ferrari once again asserts its sporting commitment and determination to be a protagonist in the major global motorsport events.”
Ferrari generated $4.1 billion in revenue in 2020 compared to $4.5 billion in 2019, but sales could make a comeback this year. In March, new car registrations in Europe increased 63%, totaling 1.39 million vehicles registered, the highest since June 2019. Car sales in Ferrari’s homebase of Italy increased 29% for Q1 2021.
The company is also the latest to integrate the LMDh (Le Mans Daytona hybrid) classification of sportscar racing. LMDh will be a new hypercar class with regulations that demand a clean-energy output.
Ferrari will join Acura, Toyota, Peugeot, Porsche, and Audi on the track with LMDh classified vehicles in 2023.
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- Richard Roeper is one of the world’s most renowned film critics. He was co-host of “At the Movies” alongside Roger Ebert from 2000-2008 and grew up in Chicago, where he developed a love of writing and sports, particularly the White Sox. Check out his full interview with Sports Section — a free, daily sports newsletter — then click here to subscribe for more stories like this every day.
- Sony’s PlayStation 5 is now the fastest-selling console in both unit and dollar sales in U.S. history. Video game software spending was up 18% year-over-year last month, hitting $5.6 billion, per The NPD Group. Hardware sales had a 47% uptick.
- ESPN saw MLB Sunday night viewership rise 33% during the first two weeks of the 2021 season, averaging 1.58 million viewers for primetime broadcasts.
- April Subscriber Giveaway: We’re giving away two tickets to watch a live conversation with former MLB star Wade Boggs on Thuzio on May 6. For every friend or colleague who subscribes to FOS with your custom referral link by the end of April, you get one entry into our giveaway.
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U.S. stocks experienced gains across all three major indexes during a record-setting session on Friday. Here’s a look at how sports-related stocks performed:
Up:
Scientific games Corporation (NASDAQ: SGMS) gained 5.59%
Hibbett Sports, Inc. (NASDAQ: HIBB) gained 4.37%
DICK’s Sporting Goods, Inc. (NYSE: DKS) gained 3.15%
Down:
Allied Esports Entertainment, Inc. (NASDAQ: AESE) dropped 7.87%
Peloton Interactive, Inc. (NASDAQ: PTON) dropped 3.08%
Gravity Co., Ltd. (NASDAQ: GRVY) dropped 2.81%
(Note: All as of market close on 4/16/21)
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Barcelona will go head-to-head with Athletic Bilbao tomorrow in the Copa del Rey final. The teams have played each other in three finals over the last 12 years. Barcelona will look to avenge their loss in January’s Spanish Supercup.
How to Watch:
2:30 p.m. on ESPN+*
*Sponsored Content
Betting Odds:
Barcelona -1 || ML -200 || O/U 2.5
Pick: Barcelona needs to put its best foot forward following a 2-1 loss to Real Madrid in El Clasico last weekend. Athletic has struggled against Barcelona, with only 13 wins in the last 58 matches, including a narrow defeat in January. Expect Barcelona’s dominance against Athletic on the pitch to continue Saturday. Take the Barcelona moneyline and lean over.
Who ya got? Reply to this newsletter with your prediction for the Barcelona-Athletic winner, final score, and first goal scorer. Nail it, and you get a mention in Monday’s FOS PM. Don’t forget to include your Twitter handle.
Shoutout: On Thursday, we asked FOS readers to pick the winner, final score, and top scorer of the Bucks-Hawks tilt. The Bucks handed the Hawks a 120-109 loss despite Bogdan Bogdanović’s game-high 28 points. No readers predicted a Bucks win and Bogdanović as the high scorer. Better luck with Saturday’s Copa Del Rey!
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