Audio Timeline:

0:25 - Feel good stories

* Philadelphia Phillies $50,000 donation and UNC student-athletes raising money for the Children’s Hospital.

2:00 - Business of Athletes

* Potential Hall of Fame baseball player Jimmy Rollins is launching ScoutUS Pro, an app connecting athletes and scouts in one place.

* Steph Curry filed the trademark “CURRYVERSE’ with an intent to use it in the metaverse.

* Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy’s venture TMRW Sports has announced an array of high-level athlete investors:

5:30 - Name, Image, and Likeness

* Campus Ink announced a $2 million funding round to grow its NIL merch platform.

* INFLCR says transactions from collectives account for more than one-third of total payment volume to college athletes with an average pay of $1,257.

* Carlos Fuentes of the Denver Pioneers basketball team serves as their own in-house agent since he’s from Spain and can’t legally make NIL money.

* Data Vault Holdings, a metaverse data tool, announced they have started minting branded NFT tokens for colleges across the US.

9:45 - Future of Sports

* DICK’s Sporting Goods launched a $50M in-house investment fund, DSG Ventures, to invest in the future of sport and retail.

* The NBA has launched NBA equity, a private equity division to invest in startups.

* Amazon Prime Video has signed a multi-year deal with amateur basketball league Overtime Elite (OTE) for exclusive global streaming rights.

* The first-ever network to focus on female athletes, the Women’s Sports Network, launched this past week.

* Knights of Degen, a sports gaming community in Web3, has entered into an agreement to acquire the blockchain-based fantasy sports platform, LeagueDAO.

* The Minnesota Twins along with TechStars announced 10 startups for their next accelerator.

Interesting Stat

Americans don’t understand the popularity and money behind cricket…

At more than $1 billion a year, India’s top cricket league (The IPL) — which only has 10 teams — now generates annual broadcast revenues on par with top leagues like the NFL ($10B), England’s Premier League ($6.9B) and the NBA ($2.7B).

On a per-match basis, the IPL now ranks behind only the NFL.

Via: NYTimes

Short Passage of The Week:

3 ideas as you end and start your year: • You don't rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems.• Every action you take is a vote for the type of person you wish to become.• Decide the type of person you want to be. Prove it to yourself with small wins.

Tiny Changes, Remarkable ResultsSource: James Clear, Atomic Habits 

Side Note:

People ‘steal’ my content all the time — and I usually let it slide as it’s flattering.

But this past weekend, I couldn’t hold my tongue.

This guy wrote a LinkedIn post bragging about how he got 700,000 impressions on a post he copied word for word from this newsletter.

I love that people think my work is good — but at least credit me.

And don’t people get kicked out of college for plagiarism? So why’s it fine on social media? Content can be a dirty game.

Business Jargon

It’s not always easy thinking long-term, but it’s required for the success you truly desire.

Build like the Romans 🏟️

The Colosseum in Rome is nearly 2000 years old. And for the most part, it’s still fairly intact.

The Romans designed things that were built to last and used concrete stronger than any we use today.

But when it co