#191 🤝 IG Group's $2.15B Bet on Underdog

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This fantasy came true as IG Group agreed to acquire Underdog Fantasy for $2.15 billion, one of the biggest sports tech acquisitions ever. Meanwhile, FIFA's own fantasy deal got us thinking about the biggest (reported) investments in teams, leagues and sports organisations across 2026. There have been plenty, list below.

FIFA’s $20B Play and the New Sports Ownership Map

FIFA outlined one of the biggest capital moves ever proposed by a sports governing body this week. Its new FIFA Forward Enterprise would raise up to $4.2B at a $20B initial equity valuation, consolidating broadcast, sponsorship, ticketing, licensing and tournament operations into a single investable vehicle. Private investors would receive minority, non-controlling interests, while FIFA retained sole control. The structure required majority support from FIFA's 211 member associations.

That support hasn't materialised. In the last 24 hours UEFA and CONCACAF have already rejected the proposal. Whatever the merits of the proposal, good luck selling global football without Europe and North America in the room. But the ambition behind it is worth examining.

In 2026 alone, we've seen record franchise sales, institutional minority investments, private credit financings, owner recapitalisations and expansion bids reshape the business of sport. FIFA's proposal would take that evolution one step further, applying it to the commercial engine of global football itself.

We used this as an opportunity to map some of the largest reported-value investments in teams, leagues and sports organisations from that period. Given the sheer volume and value of transactions in the US market, we've split the list into US and Global (non-US).

United States

• Xiaomi co-founder Lin Bin bought 1% of the Miami Dolphins at a $12.5B implied valuation. The stake also covers Hard Rock Stadium, the Formula 1 Miami Grand Prix and the Miami Open, making this an investment in a wider sports enterprise.

• Ari Emanuel and Mark Shapiro acquired a combined 2% of the Las Vegas Raiders at a $9.9B implied valuation. The transaction deepens the franchise’s links with TKO, UFC and Silver Lake, while Mark Davis remains the controlling owner.

• The Seattle Seahawks agreed to a reported $9.612B sale to the Khosla family, which would set a new NFL transaction record. The deal requires league approval, while Vinod Khosla must divest his 3.1% stake in the San Francisco 49ers.

• The San Diego Padres agreed to a $3.9B control sale to a group led by Kwanza Jones and José E. Feliciano. The reported MLB-record transaction follows an ownership dispute after Peter Seidler’s death and remains subject to league approval.

• The New York Yankees entered advanced discussions with Apollo for nearly $3B in financing. The proposed package would comprise mostly debt with some equity, refinancing existing obligations and funding growth while the Steinbrenner family retains control.

• Blue Owl HomeCourt Partners acquired a Cleveland Cavaliers minority stake at a $5.5B valuation. Dan Gilbert retained majority ownership, while the deal became HomeCourt’s sixth investment in an NBA franchise.

• The Miami Marlins sold 15% to two South Florida families at a $1.55B valuation. Bruce Sherman remains the control owner, with the proceeds expected to reduce debt and strengthen the club’s available capital.

• Nationwide acquired 37% of the Columbus Crew at a $900M implied valuation. The insurer bought 30% from the Haslam family and 7% from the Edwards family, with the Haslams retaining control at 40%.

Global

• Rogers Communications agreed to pay C$4.35B, approximately $3.06B, for the remaining 25% of Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment. The deal would give Rogers full ownership of the Maple Leafs, Raptors, Toronto FC, Argonauts and Scotiabank Arena, subject to league approvals.

• Fenway Sports Group entered talks to sell 30% of Liverpool FC for £1.35B, approximately $1.821B, to an Amit Bhatia-led consortium. The proposal implies a $6B valuation, with FSG retaining control.

• An Aditya Birla-led consortium signed a $1.78B all-cash agreement to acquire 100% of Royal Challengers Bengaluru. The transaction covers both the IPL and WPL teams and has received CCI clearance, with BCCI approval still required.

• A Mittal family and Adar Poonawalla consortium agreed to acquire Rajasthan Royals for $1.65B. The valuation includes the IPL team, Paarl Royals and Barbados Royals, with completion expected after regulatory and league approvals.

• The proposed NBA Europe competition attracted bids ranging from $500M to $1B+ per permanent club slot. The NBA and FIBA are developing a structure with up to 12 permanent teams and four qualifying places, targeted for launch from 2027.

• Michele Kang acquired 87.78% of Olympique Lyonnais’ listed parent for $30M. The headline price formed part of a wider rescue package involving up to €71M in new capital and a significant debt restructuring.

Remember, this is just six to seven months of activity.

Even then, we've only captured a fraction of the transactions that took place. The direction of travel is clear: more capital, more institutional investors and increasingly sophisticated deal structures. FIFA's proposal wasn't an outlier, it was the logical extension of a trend already reshaping the sports industry.

Top News From The World Of Sports Tech & Biz

• ⛳ Topgolf announced its first World Series of Golf qualifying tournament across 30 venues in 11 U.S. states, with venue winners advancing to a national championship in Scottsdale for a chance to compete for a $250,000 prize.

• ⚾ The New York Mets partnered with Novig as their official prediction-market partner, becoming the first MLB team to sign a deal with a prediction market platform.

• 💸 Netflix reportedly paid $200 million for U.S. and Canada broadcast rights to the 2027 FIFA Women’s World Cup, strengthening its live sports portfolio around women’s football.

• 🎾 CazéTV acquired exclusive Brazilian broadcast rights to the full WTA Tour from 2027 through 2030, covering all WTA 250, WTA 500, and WTA 1000 tournaments.

• 🏈 Prime Video planned to bring Thursday Night Football production in-house after the 2026 NFL season, ending its NBC Sports production partnership after five years.

• 🏀 The WNBA All-Star Game averaged 3.16 million viewers on ABC, marking the fifth-largest audience of any kind in league history and increasing 44% from last year’s All-Star Game.

• 💸 FIFA proposed expanding football development funding to more than $10 billion, subject to approval by FIFA Member Associations, through FIFA Forward Enterprise, a new FIFA-owned commercial and event operations subsidiary that could raise up to $4.2 billion based on a $20 billion initial equity valuation. UEFA and CONCACAF have already rejected the proposal.

• ⚽ UEFA member associations voted to boycott FIFA tournaments amid opposition to FIFA’s proposed $20 billion commercial entity and possible private equity involvement in the World Cup.

• 💸 Premier League clubs unanimously approved a funded proposal for a new strategic partnership with the EFL starting in 2026/27, which would now be formally offered to EFL clubs while the league maintained record $2.1 billion (£1.6 billion) wider-game funding commitments every three years.

• ⚽ Real Madrid generated a record $1.4 billion in revenue during the 2025-26 season, excluding player transfers, becoming the first sports organization to surpass $1.4 billion in annual revenue and posting a profit for the 26th consecutive year.

• 🎾 The Six Kings Slam confirmed Carlos Alcaraz, Jannik Sinner, Novak Djokovic, Taylor Fritz, Alexander Zverev, and Alex de Minaur for its 2026 Saudi Arabia event from 21 to 24 October, with the six players competing for a $6 million prize pool.

• 🤝 Most Valuable Promotions and Professional Fighters League merged to create a new global combat sports company under the MVP banner, bringing together boxing, MMA, live events, athlete development, media, and worldwide content distribution under a fighter-first organization led by Jake Paul, Nakisa Bidarian, and CEO John Martin.

• 🏎️ Formula 1 and the FIA confirmed that Malaysia would host the 2026 Formula 1 Gulf Air Bahrain Grand Prix at Sepang International Circuit from 2–4 October, subject to final agreements and World Motor Sport Council approval.

• 💰 ProphetX, America’s first federally regulated sports-native prediction market, raised $35 million in a round led by Parlay Capital and Data Point Capital, with participation from more VCs..

• 💰 Onalabs, a Barcelona-based deep-tech company developing continuous non-invasive health monitoring solutions through sweat, raised $10.8 million (€9.3 million) from SETT, 1921 Ventures, nPrime, Reig Patrimonia, WA4STEAM, and other strategic investors.

• 💰 Marquee, an AI-native decision layer for professional sports organizations, raised $6.5 million in total funding from Axel Springer, Welltech Ventures, Apex Capital, AnD Ventures, 97212 Ventures, and JCP.

• 💰 Superstat, a Melbourne sports AI startup using computer vision to turn amateur match footage into structured performance data, raised $2.3 million (A$3.5 million) in pre-seed funding led by Blackbird.

• 💰 FutureSports, a Chicago-based independent index administrator transforming professional and college sports statistics into rules-based benchmark financial indexes, raised an undisclosed seed round co-led by Marquee Ventures.

• 🤝 IG Group agreed to acquire sports prediction platform Underdog in a deal worth up to $2.15 billion, giving the UK-based trading company a U.S. platform with more than 11 million registered users and over 5 million depositing customers.

• 🤝 ABC Fitness acquired Replify for an undisclosed amount, adding an agentic AI platform that automated member and prospect communications through virtual AI agents across voice, text, email, and chat to its Intelligent Operating System for gyms, studios, and health clubs.

• 💸 Nottingham Forest owner Evangelos Marinakis invested a reported $26 million (£20 million) per month to fund the club’s signing spree.

• 💸 The NFL distributed a record $14.5 billion to its teams last season, or $453.2 million per club, as the publicly owned Green Bay Packers reported $753 million in total revenue but warned that their nonprofit structure limited access to private equity capital available to rival franchises.