Nationwide Insurance Buys Into $900M MLS Team

Insurance giant Nationwide is purchasing the shares from the Haslam and Edwards families, who will retain majority control of the soccer team.

The transaction values the professional soccer club at $900M, a massive jump from the $150M fee the current owners paid in 2018.

The franchise generates roughly $93M in annual revenue, driven by a new stadium, strong ticket sales, and two recent championship titles.

Houston Rockets owner Tilman Fertitta will merge his existing restaurant and casino businesses with casino giant Caesars.

The massive $5.7B deal strictly involves his hospitality ventures, leaving his professional basketball franchise completely separate.

Fertitta faces the major challenge of reviving Caesars amid declining Las Vegas visitors and tough online betting competition.

Consulting giant Deloitte forecasts the global women's elite sports market will reach $3B this year, more than quadrupling in four years.

Sponsorship and commercial deals remain the biggest money driver at $1.4B, while TV broadcast revenue jumps to $765M from $551M last year.

North America leads with $1.6B (54% of the global total), as investors chase a younger, highly engaged fan base that brands struggle to reach elsewhere.

Sacramento Pitch, a local business coalition, assembled $800M in private backing and $1B in public money to build a new stadium.

The coalition needs a wealthy lead investor to pay the massive Major League Baseball expansion fee, which could easily top $2.2B.

Landing a permanent franchise would legitimize the growing California capital against rival expansion targets like Portland and Salt Lake City.

The race averaged 6.6M viewers on major TV network FOX, marking a slight 6% drop from last year's peak audience.

Viewership peaked at 8.3M fans during the final moments of the broadcast to watch winning driver Felix Rosenqvist secure a close victory.

The event easily beat rival racing series NASCAR, drawing double the 3.1M viewers who watched the Coca-Cola 600 on streaming platform Prime Video.

Canadian broadcaster Bell Media will air 60 regular season games and the championship Grey Cup on its TSN network.

Sports streaming service DAZN will broadcast all games live and on-demand to fans in over 200 countries outside North America.

The record-breaking agreements begin in 2027 and include an expanded partnership with video platform YouTube to reach new digital audiences.

The league's pitch to players includes a $245.3M spending limit and a $171.2M minimum per team to force equal financial footing.

MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred claims this fixes a $446M payroll gap between the richest and poorest teams, eliminating unfair advantages for wealthy clubs.

The players' labor union strongly rejects the cap, viewing it as a tactic to boost owner profits and warning of a potential labor strike.

The Big 12, a major college sports conference, wants to expand the current 12-team playoff to 24 teams by the 2027 season.

This larger format would heavily benefit the conference, potentially allowing five of its teams to compete instead of just one like last year.

Playoff leaders face a December 1 deadline to decide, while the SEC, a rival sports conference, prefers a smaller 16-team model.

The American Gaming Association, a casino advocacy group, argues these unregulated betting platforms cost local governments $1B in lost tax funding.

The federal commodities regulator, the CFTC, claims oversight of these markets, while states argue they should be regulated as local sports gambling.

Prediction platform Kalshi called the $1B estimate false math from a casino industry trying to protect its record $78.7B revenue monopoly.