Prince Mohammed of Saudi Arabia has described himself as part of the country’s first generation of gamers. He once mentioned the “Call of Duty” series as a favorite hobby. Now, he’s investing in the industry.

During the fourth quarter of 2020, the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia — headed by Prince Mohammed — acquired $3.3 billion worth of stock in three of the biggest video game companies in the world.

• 14.9 million Activision Blizzard shares worth $1.4 billion
• 7.4 million Electronic Arts shares worth $1.1 billion 
• 3.9 million Take-Two Interactive shares worth $826 million

Since the start of the fourth quarter, shares of Activision Blizzard, which publishes “Call of Duty,” are up about 27%. “Madden” publisher Electronic Arts’ shares have climbed nearly 12%, and shares of Take-Two — publisher of “NBA 2K” and “Grand Theft Auto” — have increased by around 18%.

The investment is part of a bigger plan to help alleviate Saudi Arabia’s reliance on oil.

In recent years, the Saudi kingdom has poured billions into American companies like Uber, Disney, Carnival, Live Nation, Citigroup, Facebook and more. The value of its fund’s U.S. holdings rose to $12.8 billion in the fourth quarter from $7 billion a quarter prior.

Yasir Al Rumayyan, governor of the sovereign wealth fund, has said that the nation missed out on investing in American stock at a bargain during the 2008 financial crisis, and doesn’t want to miss a similar opportunity during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“You don’t want to waste a crisis. So for us, definitely we are looking into any opportunities,” Al Rumayyan told finance professionals at a virtual conference last April.

The $400 billion sovereign wealth fund wants to increase the worth of all the assets it manages to over $1 trillion by the end of 2025.

Serie A could rule out the sale of 10% of its new media company to a private equity consortium including CVC Capital Partners, Advent International and Italian fund FSI.

The $2 billion deal needed approval from 14 of the 20 teams in the Italian soccer league to go through, and seven clubs banded together to block the sale.

“The term sheet submitted to the clubs belonging to the league has not reached a qualified consensus needed for the approval…as things stand, this development opportunity is not viable anymore,” the clubs wrote in a letter to Serie A president Paolo Dal Pino.

The deal had already been on tenuous ground, with the consortium reportedly threatening to pull out earlier this month. The clubs that blocked the sale said that they will still consider talks with “financial institutions” for presumably another private equity agreement.

As for media rights to broadcast the league’s matches, British sports streaming subscription service DAZN appears to lead that race after Amazon dropped out last month. DAZN shared rights with SKY — a unit of U.S.-based Comcast — for the last three years.

DAZN’s latest bid was worth roughly $1.02 billion, but Serie A could raise more by combining the bid with an additional offer from SKY to broadcast a handful of matches that wouldn’t be exclusive to DAZN.

Broadcast behemoth iHeartMedia is investing hundreds of millions in the podcast game.

The audio giant, which boasts 850 broadcast radio stations and a podcast network with a monthly audience of over 29 million, acquired ad and analytics platform Triton Digital from E.W. Scripps for $230 million. With the purchase, the company aims to cash in on content like its recently launched iHeartSports network.

The move is iHeartMedia’s latest push into the podcast space, where it competes primarily with Apple, which leverages the ubiquity of its iPhones, and Spotify, which uses its market penetration in music streaming. iHeartMedia leans on its presence as the biggest broadcast radio provider in the U.S. to carve out its place in the podcasting market.

The company is simultaneously beefing up its sports broadcast offerings through iHeartSports, which provides short-form local and national updates.

• Launched in September, iHeartSports provides sports updates to over 500 broadcast stations and their digital streams.
• The offering leans on nationally known analysts and personalities such as Colin Cowherd, Dan Patrick and Joy Taylor, who also have podcasts through iHeartMedia.
• In February, Spotify made its own major push into sports podcasting with its $196 million purchase of The Ringer and its 30+ sports and culture podcasts.

Triton provides ads and audience analysis to major audio providers, including Spotify, ESPN Radio, Pandora, CBS Radio, and even prior to the acquisition, iHeartMedia.