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Welcome to Sportico’s transactions wire, a weekly rundown of personnel, partnerships, products and purchases across the sports business industry.
PERSONNEL
Arctos Makes Three Key Hires, Including Barry Griffiths as Senior Advisor
Arctos has expanded its Insights team with three hires. Barry E. Griffiths, Ph.D., CFA, joins as senior advisor, alongside the addition of Om Kanwar as senior data scientist and Deep Patel as software engineer. Griffiths’ experience includes roles at Ares Management, Landmark Partner and Goldman Sachs, coupled with an active involvement in the Private Equity Research Consortium (PERC). In his new role, Griffiths will support the firm’s research, data science and risk management initiatives across Arctos Insights, further improving the platform’s ability to deliver data-driven insights for the markets that it serves. Prior to Arctos, Kanwar was a part of the financial services technology team at Palantir Technologies, leading projects between Palantir and its financial services clients. Patel also joins from Palantir where he was an engineering lead developing solutions for operations across the government sector.
Big 12 Hires Brian Thornton as Vice President of Men’s Basketball
The Big 12 Conference announced the hiring of Brian Thornton as vice president of men’s basketball. Thornton most recently served as commissioner of the Western Athletic Conference. Thornton will oversee all operations of Big 12 men’s basketball. In addition to managing officiating, sportsmanship and scheduling, Thornton will partner with commissioner Brett Yormark to ensure the league cultivates relationships with athletes, coaches and administrators, as well as third parties such as media partners and commercial partners. A standout basketball player at Xavier, Thornton was a first-team all-conference selection in 2006 and a two-time Atlantic 10 Student-Athlete of the Year. Following his collegiate career, Thornton played oversees in Germany, later returning to collegiate athletics in the coaching ranks with stints at Furman, Winthrop, Ball State and his alma mater. In addition to being WAC commissioner since 2021, Thornton had prior administrative positions at the American Athletic Conference and the NCAA.
Nick Clessuras Joins EverPass Media as Chief Sales Officer
Nick Clessuras has joined EverPass Media, a media platform dedicated to commercial businesses, as chief sales officer. In this role, he will lead the company’s sales efforts while overseeing business development, new enterprise customer acquisitions and sales partnerships. Clessuras brings over 30 years of sales and distribution experience to EverPass. He most recently served as the senior vice president of sales at SONIFI Solutions Inc., which provides technology and entertainment solutions within the hospitality and healthcare industries.
ESPN Signs Former NFL MVP Cam Newton
ESPN has agreed to a contract with former NFL MVP Cam Newton. Under this deal, he will primarily be a commentator on First Take, ESPN’s signature morning debate show featuring Stephen A. Smith and host Molly Qerim. Newton will make his show debut Friday, Oct. 11, during a live show at Tennessee State University for First Take’s HBCU roadshow this fall. The former NFL MVP joins a list of personalities on First Take that also includes the Pro Football Hall of Famer Shannon Sharpe, Sirius XM’s Chris “Mad Dog” Russo and others.
Markel Zubizarreta Joins Kynisca as Global Sporting Director
Markel Zubizarreta has been named the first global sporting director of Kynisca, a multi-team organization dedicated to women’s sports led by Michele Kang. Zubizarreta will lead all group sporting projects at Olympique Lyonnais Féminin and London City Lionesses, and he will assist Kynisca-sister club Washington Spirit. Zubizarreta brings to Kynisca over a decade of experience in the women’s game, most recently serving as the head of women’s football at the Spanish Football Federation.
Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame Names Board of Governors
The Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame announced its newly elected Board of Governors, a group that includes basketball legend Julius “Dr. J” Erving, who will serve as vice chairman of the board. In addition to Erving, the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame elected the following officers: Jerry Colangelo, chairman, partner, JDM Partners, Inc.; Hall of Fame Class of 2004; James Vinick, treasurer, managing director-investments, Moors & Cabot Inc.; Kathy Behrens, secretary, president, social responsibility & player programs, NBA. Other Board members include Bob Beaudine, president & CEO of Eastman & Beaudine; Greg Butler, executive vice president & general counsel of Eversource Energy; Alvin Chun, president of Counterpointe Solutions, Inc.; Frank Colaccino, founder & CEO of The Colvest Group, Ltd.; Cathy Engelbert, commissioner of the WNBA; Dan Gavitt, senior vice president of basketball for the NCAA; Rick Kelleher, chairman and former president & CEO of Pyramid Global Hospitality; and Bill Koenig, president of global content & media distribution for the NBA. Also serving on the Board are Jim Puhala, head of product solutions & regulatory compliance at MassMutual; Byron Spruell, president of league operations for the NBA; Mark Tatum, deputy commissioner & chief operating officer for the NBA; Jim Taubenfeld, president of Me Salve, Inc.; Thomas Tull, managing partner of TWG Global; and Rick Welts, principal at 7Rings Consulting and private equity advisor at Sixth Street Group, as well as a Hall of Fame Class of 2018 inductee.
PARTNERSHIPS
Excel Sports Management Named Partnerships Agency of Record for NWSL Boston
Boston Unity Soccer Partners (BUSP) has named Excel Sports Management as the partnerships agency of record for NWSL Boston, the National Women’s Soccer League’s 15th team that begins play in 2026. Excel will be responsible for the development and oversight of the club’s commercial strategy, focusing initially on identifying partners for the club’s most prominent positions, including naming rights, front-of-shirt branding and the sleeve patch. Excel will also oversee the process of identifying an entitlement partner for the club’s training and performance center, as well as founding partners in key categories.
Novavax Named Presenting Sponsor of 2024 Maui Invitational
The Maui Invitational, an early season college basketball tournament, will celebrate its 40th anniversary in partnership with Novavax, a global company advancing protein-based vaccines with its Matrix-M adjuvant. Novavax is the presenting sponsor, making it the “Maui Invitational presented by Novavax.” The Maui Invitational will return to the historic Lahaina Civic Center Nov. 25-27. This year’s field includes back-to-back national champion UConn, North Carolina, Auburn, Iowa State, Michigan State, Dayton, Colorado and Memphis.
NFL and Cisco Expand Partnership on NFL International Games
Through the agreement, the NFL will continue to rely on the same Cisco technology and expertise used for the Super Bowl, NFL Draft and NFL Kickoff to bolster its operations across a growing slate of international games, which includes matchups in São Paulo, London and Munich in 2024, and Madrid in 2025. The NFL’s growing international operations are leveraging the Cisco playbook, with solutions including switching for networking, and a combination of on-premises hardware and cloud-based software from the Cisco Security portfolio, including Cisco Umbrella, Cisco XDR, Cisco Firepower and Cisco Secure Malware Analytics. Cisco’s CX services team continues to support the NFL from deployment to monitoring and troubleshooting in real-time.
New York Rangers Renew Marketing Partnership With Benjamin Moore
Madison Square Garden Sports Corp. (NYSE: MSGS) announced the renewal and expansion of its marketing partnership with Benjamin Moore. As part of the partnership, Benjamin Moore remains the Rangers’ in-game helmet sponsor, with a logo on either side of each player-worn helmet during all home and away preseason, regular season and if applicable, postseason games, with the exception of any NHL-controlled games. Madison Square Garden and Benjamin Moore will also introduce a private hospitality space inside The Garden known as the “The Benjamin Moore Boardroom.” Interior designer and native New Yorker Sasha Bikoff has reimagined the space using premium Benjamin Moore paints.
PRODUCTS
GoRout Launches Diamond 2.0 for Upgraded Coach-to-Player Communication
GoRout, a provider of coach-to-player communication technology for baseball and softball teams of all levels, has launched Diamond 2.0, a new and upgraded system for the company’s Diamond sports technology. GoRout is designed to simplify the coaching experience and increase player development. GoRout Diamond was originally launched in 2023 and has since been adopted by over 1,100 teams. New features of Diamond 2.0 include multi-column layout, hot lists and a device performance dashboard.
Draymond Green, Jordan Schultz Announce New Weekly Football Show
Four-time NBA Champion, four-time NBA All-Star and Olympic gold medalist Draymond Green and Fox Sports NFL Insider Jordan Schultz announced the launch of their new weekly football show, Why Is Draymond Green Talking About Football? With Jordan Schultz. The show airs each Thursday on Instagram Live (@money23green & @JordanSchultz) ahead of the Thursday Night Football game and features Schultz and Green bouncing their diverse perspectives on football and sports off each other to create a combination of insight, analysis and perspective. Following the live show, clips will be shared across their combined six million social media followers.
Willow Launches North America’s First Cricket-Focused FAST Channel
Willow announced the launch of Willow Sports, North America’s cricket-focused Free Ad-Supported Streaming TV (FAST) channel. Starting Friday, Willow Sports offers fans free access to live marquee matches, classic games and more. Willow Sports is available on major streaming platforms, including Sling Freestream, Fubo, DistroTV, Plex, Free Live Sports, YuppTV and KaroStream, where viewers can catch select ICC Women’s T20 World Cup matches beginning on Oct. 13.
PURCHASES
Sixth Street Growth Makes $130 Million Equity Investment in atVenu
Sixth Street Growth has made a $130 million investment in atVenu, a provider of live event software and payment solutions. The partnership with Sixth Street will build upon and accelerate the company’s growth into new live event markets, including sports and food and beverage, while maintaining its position in music merchandise. AtVenu, founded in 2012, provides a live event platform to the world’s largest touring artists, merchandisers, record labels, venue operators, festival promoters and food & beverage concessionaires. AtVenu processes over $1.6 billion in merchandise and food and beverage volume annually and is used at over 125,000 events each year.
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