NBA Top Shot creator Dapper Labs has raised $250 million and secured a deal with soccer league La Liga to create NFTs.

The investment round values the company at $7.6 billion.

Led by Coatue, the funding comes just months after a $305 million round in March. It will be used for elevating the fan experience, developing new IP, and expanding the Flow blockchain, an engine for transactions created by Dapper.

Dapper got its start with CryptoKitties — a game with digital kittens you could breed and sell — in November 2017, but Top Shot’s explosive growth took the business to new heights.

• Top Shot users have bought and sold more than $780 million worth of “Moments” over the past year.
• The platform has more than 1.1 million users — 48% of them own at least one Moment. Active users visit the site 300 times per month.
• It has seen over 13 million transactions.

La Liga’s NFTs, which launch on Flow next summer, will be similar to those of NBA Top Shot. Flow has more than 600 projects on the platform and announced a partnership with Google Cloud last week.

The deal allows Dapper to more closely compete with soccer NFT-focused Sorare, which announced on Monday that it raised $680 million in a Series B funding round.

The Athletic has hired investment bank LionTree to help it find a buyer at a valuation of more than $750 million, according to The Information. 

The subscription-only sports media outlet has around 1.2 million subscribers and received a post-money valuation of $530 million following a funding round last year. LionTree hopes to have bids submitted for The Athletic by mid-October. 

• The Athletic is on track to pocket nearly $80 million in revenue in 2021, a 50% increase year-over-year. 
• The company expects revenue to reach $120 million in 2022.
• Since 2016, it has raised roughly $145 million in venture funding, according to PitchBook. 

The Wall Street Journal reported in March that The Athletic and Axios were in talks to merge and potentially go public, but the sports media outlet “halted” talks to shift its focus toward the New York Times.  

The Athletic engaged in negotiations with the New York Times, but a potential deal dissolved in June over money and a disagreement on how to compensate the sports site’s employees for their equity in the company, per The Information.

Fanatics reportedly held talks about acquiring the outlet in recent months, as well.

The Athletic laid off roughly 8% of its workforce in June 2020 and reshuffled its editorial structure in January. The company employs roughly 600 people.

With major cricket bidding rights on the horizon, Sony India and Zee Entertainment will combine into a media conglomerate in India if a proposed merger goes through — creating a formidable rival to Disney.

The proposed merger would see Sony purchase 53% of Zee with a $1.58 billion investment and control of a majority of board seats, while Zee CEO Punit Goenka would head the new company.

The new entity would likely be a competitive bidder for Indian Premier League rights, which will be up for grabs next year.

• Sony gained rights to the enormously popular cricket league with its 2016 purchase of Ten Sports from Zee for $385 million. Ten also held rights to WWE, the UEFA Champions League, and major events in tennis and golf. 
• Sony held the IPL rights until 2018, when Star India won them on a $2.22 billion contract that runs through 2022. 
• Disney bought Star, including its Hotstar network, in 2019 for $71 billion.

Zee funded the short-lived Indian Cricket League, which began in 2007 — one year before the IPL’s debut — and folded in 2009.

The merger still needs to be approved by Zee’s shareholders. Zee’s stock price spiked around 30% on Wednesday.