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frontproofmedia · 3 years

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Young Guns III: Edgar Berlanga, Xander Zayas and Keyshawn Davis Headline Hulu Theater at Madison Square Garden Tripleheader March 19 LIVE on ESPN

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Published: January 22, 2022

NEW YORK — Three future fistic superstars are set to unite under the Madison Square Garden spotlight. Brooklyn-born super-middleweight sensation Edgar “The Chosen One” Berlanga will defend his NABO belt against crafty Canadian Steve Rolls in the 10-round main event Saturday, March 19 at Hulu Theater at Madison Square Garden. Berlanga, whose family hails from San Juan, Puerto Rico, makes his main event debut in his stiffest test to date. In the junior middleweight co-feature, 19-year-old Puerto Rican star Xander Zayas will fight in his first scheduled eight-rounder against Louisiana-born spoiler Quincy “Chico” LaVallais. The eight-round televised opener will see the return of lightweight U.S. Olympic silver medalist Keyshawn Davis against Mexican veteran Esteban Sanchez. Berlanga-Rolls, Zayas-LaVallais and Davis-Sanchez will air live on ESPN and ESPN Deportes (simulcast on ESPN+) at 10 p.m. ET/7 p.m. PT. Promoted by Top Rank, in association with DiBella Entertainment, tickets starting at $51 go on sale Friday, Jan. 28 at 12 p.m. ET and can be purchased by visiting Ticketmaster.com or MSG.com. “Edgar, Xander and Keyshawn are future pound-for-pound superstars, and it will be a special evening in front of a sold-out New York City crowd,” said Top Rank chairman Bob Arum. “All three are in there with the toughest fights of their respective careers, but I expect them to pass with flying colors.” Berlanga (18-0, 16 KOs) took the boxing world by storm with 16 straight first-round knockouts to open his pro career. He went the distance twice in 2021, opening his campaign in April by knocking down Demond Nicholson four times in eight rounds in an ESPN-televised rout. Berlanga returned on the Tyson Fury-Deontay Wilder III card in October, defeating Marcelo Esteban Coceres via 10-round unanimous decision despite suffering a torn biceps in the third round and the first knockdown of his career in the ninth. Berlanga said, “I’m so excited to fight in my first main event in my hometown. It’s a dream come true for a fighter representing New York City and Puerto Rico. I can’t wait to show the world what I’m truly about. We are going to blow the roof off the Hulu Theater, so grab your tickets early and get your popcorn ready for this performance.” Rolls (21-1, 12 KOs), a 37-year-old from Toronto, is an 11-year pro who was an undefeated middleweight contender before moving up in weight. In June 2019, he challenged pound-for-pound stalwart Gennadiy Golovkin at Madison Square Garden and found some success in the second round before being stopped in the fourth. Rolls has tallied two wins since the Golovkin bout, most recently knocking out Christopher Brooker in the ninth round last month on the Artur Beterbiev-Marcus Browne undercard in Montreal. Rolls said, “I'm happy to be back headlining at Madison Square Garden. Training camp has been going well, and I feel very strong with nothing but war on my mind. Berlanga has power, but I'll be ready for whatever he brings. I’m looking forward to March 19. I'll see you then.” Zayas (12-0, 9 KOs) had a breakthrough 2021, going 6-0 with four knockouts while being mentioned prominently in Prospect of the Year debates. He made his Madison Square Garden debut last December and finished his 2021 campaign by knocking out Alessio Mastronunzio in the first round. He steps up against LaVallais (12-2-1, 7 KOs), who notched a December 2020 upset over Clay Collard at the MGM Grand Bubble. LaVallais, who is 2-2 since the Collard victory, has never been knocked out. Zayas said, "It's an honor to fight again at Madison Square Garden, where I know my Puerto Rican people will come out to show their support. 2021 was a great year, but I'm looking forward to an even bigger 2022. Quincy LaVallais is a solid veteran, so I can't overlook him. I want to make a major statement on March 19." Davis (4-0, 3 KOs), from Norfolk, Virginia, won three bouts in the first five months of 2021 before journeying to Tokyo and earning a silver medal. He then signed a long-term promotional contract with Top Rank and improved to 4-0 with a second-round stoppage over Jose Zaragoza on December 11. Davis makes his 2022 debut against Sanchez (18-1, 8 KOs), a 23-year-old from Ensenada, Mexico, who has won two straight bouts and will be making his American debut. Davis said, “I put on a show at Madison Square Garden in December, and I’m going to do it again. Esteban Sanchez is supposed to be my hardest fight as a pro, but it’s going to be easy work. The Davis Brothers are coming to represent Norfolk and leave no doubt that we are the future of boxing.” Undercard action will stream live and exclusively on ESPN+ and is scheduled to include a host of undefeated talents, including Puerto Rican junior welterweight John “El Terrible” Bauza (16-0, 7 KOs) in an eight-rounder, welterweight and Berlanga’s New York City stablemate Pablo “Pretty Boy” Valdez (6-0, 5 KOs) in a six-round attraction, Puerto Rican junior lightweight Henry “Moncho” Lebron (14-0, 9 KOs) in an eight-rounder, and a four-rounder featuring junior welterweight Kelvin Davis (3-0, 2 KOs).

(Featured Image: Top Rank Boxing)

#HF #Edgar Berlanga #Xander Zayas #Keyshawn Davis #Top Rank Boxing

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newstfionline · 3 years

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Tuesday, June 8, 2021

Biden heads to Europe this week. Some Europeans are wary. (Washington Post) President Biden embarks later this week on the first foreign trip of his presidency to attend a series of European summits. He’ll attend the meeting of the Group of Seven nations in Britain. Then, he’ll head to a NATO summit in Brussels where he’ll rub shoulders with the majority of the European Union’s leaders. All of that will precede what is likely to be a tense encounter with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Geneva on June 16. After spending the past five months focused on domestic affairs and battling the pandemic, Biden will try to demonstrate how his administration is “restoring” U.S. leadership on the world stage. No doubt, Biden’s European counterparts are relieved by the drastic change of tone between his administration and that of President Donald Trump. But elements of Trump’s trade war are still in place, while the Biden administration maintains pandemic-era restrictions on E.U. citizens traveling to the country even as the continent opens up to a legion of eager U.S. tourists. Experts see the fact that Biden has yet to name ambassadors to either NATO or to the European Union in Brussels as a sign of inattention from Washington. European commentators also recognize that, no matter Biden’s imminent bonhomie in London and Brussels, the United States increasingly views Europe at best as a junior partner in its intensifying competition with China. A survey of European attitudes published Monday by the German Marshall Fund (GMF) of the United States found only limited confidence in Washington. In France and Germany, slender majorities see the United States as the world’s most influential power. Only 51 percent of Germans surveyed viewed the United States as a “reliable” partner.

Jails emptied in the pandemic. Should they stay that way? (AP) It wasn’t long after Matthew Reed shoplifted a $63 set of sheets from a Target in upstate New York that the coronavirus pandemic brought the world to a standstill. Instead of serving a jail sentence, he stayed at home, his case deferred more than a year, as courts closed and jails nationwide dramatically reduced their populations to stop the spread of COVID-19. But the numbers have begun creeping up again as courts are back in session and the world begins returning to a modified version of normal. It’s worrying criminal justice reformers who argue that the past year proved there is no need to keep so many people locked up in the U.S. By the middle of last year, the number of people in jails nationwide was at its lowest point in more than two decades, according to a new report published Monday by the Vera Institute of Justice. “Reducing the incarcerated population across the country is possible,” said Jacob Kang-Brown, a senior research associate at the Vera Institute of Justice and author of the new report.

Harry and Meghan Announce Birth of Second Baby, Lilibet Diana (NYT) Prince Harry and his wife, Meghan, on Sunday announced the birth of a daughter, whose name, Lilibet, pays tribute to Harry’s grandmother, Queen Elizabeth II, after a year of estrangement between the couple and the British royal family. The baby, who was born on Friday morning in Santa Barbara, Calif., will go by the name Lili, an abbreviated version of the nickname given the queen when she was a young girl. The baby’s middle name, Diana, honors Harry’s mother, Princess Diana, who was killed in a car crash in Paris in 1997. This is the couple’s second child, and her birth adds a joyful note to what has been a year of turmoil.

AMLO’s majority shrinks (Foreign Policy) Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador’s Morena party and its allies came out of legislative elections on Sunday with a reduced majority, dashing the president’s hopes of enacting constitutional changes—which require a two-thirds majority. Morena is still expected to hold between 265 and 292 seats in Mexico’s lower house, according to the national election body. The results of 15 state governors races are not yet known, although pre-election polling favored Morena in most of those contests.

Colombia’s unrest (Foreign Policy) Colombian president Ivan Duque will ask lawmakers to approve new measures to address accusations of police brutality during weeks of protests that have morphed into an anti-government protest movement. Duque is calling for increased oversight of police officers as well as better training after human rights groups reported dozens of killings at the hands of police in recent weeks. Negotiations between the government and protest leaders have stalled over disagreements between the two sides on preconditions for the talks.

Not Russian Into The Spotlight (Washington Post/Bloomberg) Russian President Vladimir Putin doesn’t talk much about his adult daughters, only that he has two of them. He’s never even confirmed their identities. Russian independent and foreign media outlets have reported on them, but no one really talks about them, per Kremlin Policy. However, the more they’re in the public eye, the harder it is to keep quiet. One daughter is genetics researcher Maria Vorontsova. The other, 34-year-old Katerina Tikhonova, is the deputy director for the Institute for Mathematical Research of Complex Systems at Moscow State University. While they’re not directly involved in politics, they hold influential positions in businesses that have close ties to state enterprises. The approach runs counter to other countries, where the children of world leaders are often in the spotlight. Even former President Donald Trump’s daughter-in-law Lara made news when she said she wouldn’t run for a North Carolina Senate seat in 2022.

Train barrels into another in Pakistan, killing at least 45 (AP) An express train barreled into another that had derailed in Pakistan before dawn Monday, killing at least 45 people, authorities said. More than 100 were injured, and rescuers and villagers worked throughout the day to search crumpled cars for survivors and the dead. At around 3:30 a.m., the Millat Express train derailed and the Sir Syed Express train hit it minutes later, said Usman Abdullah, a deputy commissioner of Ghotki. It wasn’t immediately clear what caused the derailment, and the driver of the second train said he braked when he saw the disabled train but didn’t have time to avoid the collision.

India re-opens major cities as new COVID-19 infections hit 2-month low (Reuters) Key Indian cities re-opened for business on Monday, with long queues for buses in the financial hub of Mumbai while traffic returned to the roads of New Delhi after a devastating second wave of coronavirus that killed hundreds of thousands. The 100,636 new infections of the past 24 hours were the lowest in the world’s second most populous nation since April 6, and well off last month’s peaks of more than 400,000, allowing authorities to re-open parts of the economy. Delhi’s Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal ordered half the capital’s shops to open on odd and even numbered days of the month respectively, in a bid to limit crowds, but allowed offices and the Delhi underground rail network to run at 50% of capacity.

Israeli security chief issues rare warning over potential for Jan. 6-style mob violence ahead of Netanyahu departure (Washington Post) The head of Israel’s internal security service said that “extremely violent and inciting discourse” targeting the lawmakers who are seeking to end Benjamin Netanyahu’s 12-year tenure as prime minister could take a potentially lethal form—a grim echo of the warnings ahead of the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. Shin Bet chief Nadav Argaman said Saturday that the spike in vitriol targeting Netanyahu’s opponents online and in public demonstrations “may be interpreted by certain groups or individuals as one that allows for violent and illegal activities that may even, God forbid, become lethal.” He called on public officials to rein in the groups that have vowed to do “anything possible” to prevent the swearing in of a new power-sharing government that has been spearheaded by centrist politician Yair Lapid. Netanyahu has said he condemns any incitement and violence, but he said at a meeting with his Likud party on Sunday that “incitement against us is also raging.” He called on lawmakers to vote against the formation of the “fraudulent” alternative government.

Palestinian teen bears scar of eviction battle in East Jerusalem (Reuters) Jana Kiswani, a 16-year-old Palestinian, was entering her home in the East Jerusalem neighbourhood of Sheikh Jarrah when an Israeli police officer shot her in the back with a sponge-tipped bullet, her family said. Her spine fractured, the teen bears testimony to the tensions and violence surrounding an Israeli court-ordered eviction of eight Palestinian families from homes claimed by Jewish settlers. Last month, the Sheikh Jarrah dispute helped to trigger 11 days of intense fighting between Israel and Gaza’s ruling Hamas militant group, and frequent protests and confrontations with Israeli police in the neighbourhood have kept tensions high. Clashes were under way in Sheikh Jarrah on May 18 when Kiswani was shot. She said she was obeying police orders to go inside when the police officer fired. “I didn’t do anything. I didn’t pick up a rock, or even say a word to him or argue with him or anything, he had no right to shoot me,” Kiswani told Reuters. Asked about Kiswani’s shooting, an Israeli police spokesperson did not comment directly on the incident but said some events that day were under investigation. CCTV footage from the teenager’s home showed her falling to the ground in the courtyard and a stun grenade exploding as her family rushed to her aid.

Malaria is far deadlier in Africa than the coronavirus. Why is the vaccine taking so long? (Washington Post) NANORO, Burkina Faso—No hospital in this rural community has recorded a covid-19 death. But another menace fills graves on a grimly predictable schedule. The seasonal downpours that soak the red dirt roads here nurture clouds of mosquitoes that spread malaria. Researchers call it a forgotten epidemic: The parasitic disease kills more than 400,000 people each year. Most victims are children in Africa. The coronavirus pandemic, by contrast, has claimed about 130,000 lives on the continent in the past 15 months, according to World Health Organization estimates. Yet only the coronavirus has commanded a surge of global resources that fast-tracked vaccines, smashing development records and reshaping attitudes toward what is pharmaceutically possible. “We are all frustrated in Africa to see how covid gets so much attention compared to malaria,” said epidemiologist Halidou Tinto, regional director of Burkina Faso’s Institute of Research in Health Sciences. “If malaria concerned the West, the attention would be much more focused.”

An Italian Artist Auctioned Off an ‘Invisible Sculpture’ for $18,300. (Artnet News) From the department of “They sold that for how much?!” comes today’s story, about an Italian artist who, for the cool price of €15,000 ($18,300), recently auctioned an artwork that is… well, nothing. Last month, the 67-year-old artist Salvatore Garau sold an “immaterial sculpture”—which is to say that it doesn’t exist. For Garau, the artwork, titled Io Sono (which translates to “I am”), finds form in its own nothingness. “You don’t see it but it exists; it is made of air and spirit,” he explained. “It is a work that asks you to activate the power of the imagination, a power that anyone has, even those who don’t believe they have it.” Indeed, many people on the internet seem to be having trouble tapping into that power. “So you really just taped a square and called that a sculpture?” reads the most-liked comment on the video page.

#headlines #news

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rickhorrow · 5 years

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15+5+5 To Watch 6319

15 TO WATCH/5 SPORTS TECH/POWER OF SPORTS 5: RICK HORROW’S TOP SPORTS/BIZ/TECH/PHILANTHROPY ISSUES FOR THE WEEK OF JUNE 3

with Jacob Aere

Chipotle integrates Twitter and text for free burritos during the NBA Finals. According to Mobile Marketer, Chipotle is giving away up to $1 million in free burritos as part of a mobile promotion running around the NBA Championship. The catch is that every time any announcer – including sideline reporters – says "free" on-air during the first half of official league game coverage, the restaurant chain will offer up to 500 burritos. For the second half of games, mentions of "free" will result in 1,000 burritos up for grabs. The key to success is staying on Chipotle’s Twitter channel where the company will put out unique codes to be texted for code redemption. The giveaway is capped to the first 20 on-air mentions of "free" per game, meaning that there is potential for 20,000 burrito giveaways per game! The "Freeting" campaign also waives delivery fees for orders of $10 or more placed through Chipotle's app, website, and DoorDash. Although Chipotle is not an official NBA sponsor, the guerilla campaign is drawing hundreds of thousands of hungry basketball fans through the power of social media and “second screen viewing.”

Kevin Durant’s status is wrecking sports book havoc during the NBA Finals. The Warriors’ superstar has been sidelined by a calf injury that makes him questionable to appear at any point in the series. The series line at William Hill sportsbooks (Golden State -300, Toronto +250) is roughly the consensus market price, but that does not mean it’s the right price due to the unknown status of Durant’s injury. After factoring the money lines attached to each game, Golden State was placed as the -275 favorite. According to the New York Post, the first significant bet last Saturday was for $5,000 on the Warriors, pushing the price to -300, which equated to about a 73% chance of winning. If things were normal and Durant was at full strength, SuperBook odds maker Jeff Sherman said the Warriors would be at least -500 series favorites and 8½-point home favorites. Notably, Golden State is 31-1 the past 32 games when Durant was out and Curry played.

The Raptors debuted Drake’s OVO branded T-shirts for Game 1 of the NBA Finals. In celebration of the franchise's first-ever NBA Finals game, the Toronto Raptors partnered with their global ambassador Drake. According to HotNewHipHop, fans attending Game 1 of the NBA Finals in Scotia Bank Arena received the new black long sleeve shirt, which combines multiple designs from the basketball team and the rap label. Although the NBA issued a warning to the Raptors regarding Drake's "activity and presence on the sideline" during Toronto's series with the Milwaukee Bucks, it seems that the “6 God” won’t change his rambunctious ways on the sidelines. The Warriors are well aware of Drake’s sideline presence, and Steph Curry stated, "I know it's a tricky situation with him being right there on the court, but at the end of the day, he's having fun.” It seems that everyone outside of the Bay Area is rooting for the underdog Raptors and the #WeTheNorth online campaign, coupled with clutch shooting and Drake shenanigans, has propelled the Canadian team into the global spotlight.

Stanley Cup Finals seeing strong viewership. According to NBC Sports, the Boston Bruins and St. Louis Blues Game 1 matchup was the most-watched Stanley Cup game in four years. The matchup on NBC saw the network reel in an average Total Audience Delivery of 5.380 million viewers. It was third-most watched Game 1 since NBC began broadcasting the Stanley Cup Final in 2006 and even beat out the ever-popular “The Bachelorette.” Comparatively, Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Finals was up 2% compared to last year and a whopping 9% compared to 2017. On NBC alone, the game delivered a 2.87 HH rating and 5.264 million TV-only viewers. The title-hungry city of St. Louis led all markets with a 29.0 local rating, NBC Sports’ highest NHL rating on record in the market, while Boston scored a 25.2 rating. The series should draw consistently high numbers considering the Cinderella story Blues are taking on the behemoth Bruins, who posted 49 regular season wins and are the favorite for most bettors to take the Cup.

USGA increases purses for both men and women at respective U.S. Opens. According to Golf Channel, last year’s men’s winner Brooks Koepka took home $2.16 million from a $12 million purse at Shinnecock Hills. This year at Pebble Beach, the winner will look to bring home roughly $2.25 million. Meanwhile, the total purse was increased to $5.5 million for the U.S. Women's Open at Country Club of Charleston. Last year, Ariya Jutanugarn took home $900,000 for her first place finish while this year’s winner Jeongeun Lee6 will take home a seven figure number for the first time. Out of this year’s $5 million purse for the revamped, season-ending LPGA CME Group Tour Championship, the first place finisher will receive $1 million, or roughly 20% of the purse, compared to the men’s winner, who cashes in a larger number but a smaller share of total prize money at 18%. The LPGA is clearly making strides to put its athletes on a closer pay scale to that of their male counterparts.

VISA invests in women’s soccer on the eve of the FIFA Women’s World Cup. According to Forbes, VISA revealed it would partner with both the Women’s and Men’s U.S. National Teams eight days before the Women’s World Cup begins in France. The terms of the deal ensured “at least 50%” of the investment would fund the U.S. Women’s National Team and women’s soccer programs and surrounding marketing efforts, meaning the deal will provide a much-needed spotlight on the stellar U.S. women's team. The deal will see VISA become the presenting sponsor of the SheBelieves Cup, an annual four-team international invitational tournament in the U.S. Additionally, a new U.S. marketing campaign from VISA will feature World Cup squad members Adrianna Franch, Jessica Mcdonald, Rose Lavelle, Abby Dahlkemper, and Becky Sauerbrunn. USWNT co-captain Megan Rapinoe will join VISA’s roster of athletes and the financial services brand will be the first brand partner of the Player of the Match award at the FIFA Women’s World Cup. After U.S. women’s soccer players sued U.S. Soccer over gender inequality in pay this March, VISA is providing a helping hand for the three-time world champion USWNT.

ESPN+ will broadcast the Copa America. The streaming service has obtained U.S. English-language television rights for the Copa America, South America’s soccer championship that kicks off June 14. According to The Washington Post, ESPN claimed that all 26 matches will be streamed and none will be televised via linear broadcast networks. ESPN+, launched in April 2018, has televised more than 1,000 matches from Italy’s Serie A, England’s FA Cup and second-tier League Championship, as well as European Nations League matches and MLS games. The Copa final will air from Rio de Janeiro on July 7 and is part of a tripleheader of championship matches including coverage of the CONCACAF Gold Cup final in Chicago on FS1 and the Women’s World Cup on Fox. Although ESPN has not released viewership figures for soccer on its ESPN+ platform, it is covering its early summer bases by also launching “The Equalizer” series on USWNT star Alex Morgan, coinciding with the FIFA Women’s World Cup in France.

The Cal Ripken, Sr. Foundation unveiled a multisport, synthetic turf Youth Development Park on May 28 in Chicago’s Dunning neighborhood. Read-Dunning Park is lined for youth baseball/softball and soccer play and is now complete with a digital scoreboard, backstop, dugouts, and fencing. Chicago Parks District will manage and maintain the field and work closely with the Ripken Foundation to create programs to engage at-risk young people. The programs will address a variety of youth development needs, including character development, health, physical education, culture, and history. Read-Dunning Park was made in part by a generous $5 million donation to the Ripken Foundation from Group1001 and its CEO Dan Towriss, used to build a total of 10 Youth Development Parks over five years in 10 cities across the country. It is also supported by Chicago Cubs Charities and other local donors. To date, the Ripken Foundation has completed 84 multipurpose synthetic turf facilities in 22 states and Washington D.C. Read-Dunning Park is the second Ripken Foundation Youth Development Park, joining Freedom Field at Marquette Park located near Chicago’s South Side. The facility will be featured on a future episode of our monthly “Power of Sports” program, which explores Detroit in June.

Champions League broadcaster British Telecom calls up extra viewers via YouTube. Due to low subscriber numbers that have displeased sponsors, the British broadcaster will screen live matches from the Champions League and the Europa League for free, including on its YouTube channel. This included the Champions League final between winner Liverpool and Tottenham. According to Yahoo Sports, BT's free offering is a repeat of last season when they made Liverpool's Champions League final against Real Madrid available to non-subscribers. The decision helped the financially troubled broadcaster to pull in millions more viewers. A total of 8.5 million people watched that game across BT's TV and digital platforms, a record high for the company since the telecoms giant began broadcasting live football in 2013. It currently pays a hefty $499 million per season to show live Champions League and Europa League football. Due to high costs for broadcasting games, BT will stop broadcasting live English FA Cup games from the 2021-2022 season; in the meantime, English soccer fans will rejoice in being able to watch their teams compete for free.

Champions League victor Liverpool joins social media platform TikTok. Joining a host of European teams that have signed up with the social video network, the English club, the first Premiere League club to join the platform, will use the platform to share behind-the-scenes footage. The move should grow their already robust 66 million social media reach on a platform that has a young audience. One of the most downloaded apps in 2018, TikTok has seen several major European soccer teams launch their own video channels on the platform in recent months. According to SportsPro, TikTok signed its first soccer partnership with German side Borussia Dortmund last month, as part of a global marketing collaboration with the Bundesliga club. TikTok has taken the world by storm with its short video content and Liverpool has joined the mix to attract younger fans.

Publisher Meredith Corp. sells Sports Illustrated to Authentic Brands Group for $110 million. Authentic Brands Group is the brand-development company that manages Juicy Couture, Nautica, and elements of the Muhammad Ali and Elvis Presley estates. Meredith took on Sports Illustrated as part of its purchase of Time Inc. in January, 2018 for $1.85 billion plus debt. According to Variety, Authentic Brands now owns the rights to market, develop, and license Sports Illustrated and its kids edition, swimsuit edition, “Sportsperson of the Year,” and the magazine's sports archive. In a wide-ranging discussion, CEO of Authentic Brands Jamie Salter said that he envisioned possibilities ranging from SI medical clinics and sports-skills training classes to a gambling business and better use of the magazine’s vast photo library. The sale moves Meredith close to the end of its effort to sell various Time Inc. assets and allows SI to reinvent itself for the digital age to compete with companies like The Ringer, Bleacher Report, and Barstool Sports.

Toronto ticket prices are on the rise with the Raptors. The Raptors' NBA Finals tickets surpassed even the Warriors' prices, said TicketIQ Founder Jesse Lawrence. According to SportsBusiness Journal, Lawrence said the seats are that Game 1 were the “most in-demand Finals game that we’ve ever tracked” and that it was “ahead of every Warriors game.” The Raptors tickets are almost 50% more. Game 1 at Scotiabank Arena started at $816 which is roughly three times the cost of face value for 300-level tickets. The average ticket price for seats at the arena has been just under of $5,000, making it the highest final TicketIQ has tracked since it launched in 2011. This is the first time the Finals have been held outside of the U.S., which may be contributing to the skyrocketing ticket numbers in Canada. Although Canada may be a nation connected by hockey, Raptors fans who watch games outside the arena in rowdy “Jurassic Park” prove that love of basketball extends north of the border.

French Open unveils Court Simonne Mathieu to a smashing success. The new 5,290-seat arena at Roland Garros is nestled in a botanical garden, and is so aesthetically beautiful that SI.com claimed it "less a tennis court than a clay-covered terrarium." The court’s surface is 15 feet below street level and the stadium is surrounded by four new glass houses. French architect-engineer, Marc Mimram, had an ambition was to merge sport with nature and his results have been overwhelmingly positive. After last year's tournament, much of Roland Garros received a face lift. According to SportsBusiness Daily, 90% of Court Philippe-Chatrier was knocked down and replaced by stands that are eight meters higher than they used to be. By pushing the limits of what a stadium can be, the evolving Roland Garros has been the talk of the Tennis community and will provide inspiration for future tennis facilities.

NBC and Indianapolis 500 see TV viewership gains in their first year. NBC drew a total audience delivery of 5.446 million viewers for Simon Pagenaud's win in the Indianapolis 500, the first time the net had broadcast rights to the race. According to SportsBusiness Journal, last year’s race was a record low on ABC TV which averaged 4.913 million viewers. The 2019 audience peaked at 6.7 million viewers in the final quarter hour of the race, and drew a TV-only number of 5.414 million viewers and marks the most-watched Sunday afternoon sporting event on NBC since the Eagles-Bears NFC Wild Card game on January 6. NBC is in the first year of a multiyear broadcasting contract with Indy and significantly increased advertising efforts for the Indy 500 compared to ABC’s handling of the race in recent years. These are the baby steps for NBC and Indy, which are looking to attract younger audiences in a sport that has seen heavy viewership regression in recent years.

Las Vegas Raiders tickets selling well enough to add $40 million to stadium. Las Vegas Stadium COO Don Webb said that about $40 million more will be put into the stadium as the team has sold many personal seat licenses, stadium suites, club seats, and sponsorships. The additional money will help finance more suites, exterior restrooms, increased plaza security, and press areas and an enhanced stadium communications system. One of the enhanced areas will be a 26,000-square-foot "south end zone club space that would hold around 800 fans,” according to Las Vegas Stadium COO Don Webb. SportsBusiness Journal reports that the Raiders are in the final stages of completing a comprehensive transportation plan that will boost available parking significantly as the team has been acquiring nearby real estate to turn into more parking availability for fans. The Vegas Raiders will play in a $1.8 billion dome that sports a transparent roof, black glass exterior, and retractable doors to frame an 80-foot-tall and 215-foot wide view of the casinos on the strip, making it one of the most visually stunning North American stadiums to date.

Top Five Tech

ESPN is rolling out more Snapchat shows to “meet fans where they are.” According to Digiday, ESPN released another Snapchat show in March called “ESPN MMA Show.” That series is part of a larger push at ESPN to cover more mixed martial arts; meanwhile the sports media company also has “Sports Center,” “ESPN Daily,” and “College GameDay” as offerings on Snapchat. While the New York Times and Bleacher Report have paused their Snapchat channels, ESPN has increased content on the social media platform as they found Snapchat has proven to be a useful way to make revenue and to direct viewers to ESPN on television and to content on ESPN+. The daily morning show “Sports Center” on Snapchat has created a routine audience of millions of viewers with more than 60% of the audience tuned in three or more times per week in the fourth quarter of 2018. The company has used Snapchat as a conduit to drive customers to other platforms while also profiting from selling ads and commercials across all their Snapchat shows.

Welcome to the future: the French Open is delivered via 8K on a 5G network. For the first time at the Grand Slam tournament, national broadcaster France Télévisions has implemented 8K cameras at Roland Garros, which is leveraging the French telecommunications company Orange’s new 5G network recently installed at the facility. According to SportsPro, Orange and the French Federation of Tennis are also including mixed-reality animations for visitors via a new headset, adding to the tournament’s augmented reality (AR) features. Now in its 18th year with the tournament, Orange launched an artificial intelligence-driven (AI) “virtual assistant” for the use of fans at the French Open while the tournament’s first Chinese smartphone partner, Oppo, enhances the collaboration with the 5G network. The 5G network allows for crystal clear imaging and the 8K imaging provides a picture that can be displayed on screens like Oppo smartphones; the tournament is showcasing the entire cycle of what 5G can bring to sports in the near future.

Overwatch league commissioner leaving for Fortnite company Epic Games. According to SportsBusiness Journal, Nate Nanzer is leaving Overwatch to try and create a competitive esports initiatives for Epic Game’s Fortnite. Now that Fortnite has been released for nearly two years, the free game has amassed a high number of player yet has not grown a substantial esports initiative. The key to Nanzer’s arrival will be making the game’s competitive scene grows so that it can reel in professional gamers and sustain interest in the game in the long run. Nanzer was a driving force behind the innovative and ambitious OWL, which became one of the foremost esports leagues as it mimicked traditional sports with teams based in cities around the world. With Fortnite’s recent collaboration with the Jordan Brand, there has been a revival in talk around the game, making it a good time for Nanzer to set up what could quickly become a competitive esports giant.

NASCAR uses its races for a gambling app. According to pennsportsbooks.com, NASCAR and a global sports data company are teaming up to develop a race-car gaming platform, which will include real-time wagering around the country. Only licensed sportsbooks in regulated jurisdictions can purchase access to official data that won’t go live until at least the 2020 racing season. Genius Sports will use NASCAR’s official data feed to create a product meant to rev up fan interest and engagement in events. London-based Genius already partners with the NBA and NCAA and works with the PGA Tour to provide a range of betting options; NASCAR will have live odds around their races with the Genius Sports collaboration. NASCAR’s Pocono 400 is around the corner, and the racing association is trying to desperately to turn around its heavily-declining fan base – live betting seems to be one of the first steps in this direction.

NHL gets safer going ticketless. The NHL has agreed to a ten-year extension of its partnership with Ticketmaster. According to SportsPro, Ticketmaster is the official partner of 26 of the league’s teams and the global ticketing platform has also expanded on its existing agreement to serve several of the league’s other marquee events, including the NHL’s Winter Classic, All-Star Weekend, and Stadium Series. Now, NHL tickets will include near-field communication technology that allows fans to “tap” into a venue’s entrances – similar to a tap credit card – which protects against digital tickets being copied and resold. The new anti-counterfeiting feature called SafeTix works by tying a unique, identifiable digital ticket to each fan's mobile phone through an encrypted barcode that automatically refreshes every few seconds. By cutting down on falsely resold tickets, the NHL remains as one of the most tech-forward sports leagues around with its new tap feature sure to make game entry a more efficient process.

Power of Sports Five

Tiger Woods loses charity poker event to NBA superstar Russell Westbrook. For more than two decades, the 43-year-old has been hosting his annual Tiger Jam. A poker tournament has been a staple of the Las Vegas charity event, and that was again the case last week. According to The Loop, a number of auction items helped raise a hefty sum for Woods’ TGR Foundation, which aims to offer underserved children STEM curricula and the skills to survive in school and beyond. One of the auction items stood out as Dave Gilbert, founder and CEO of National Funding, bid $75,000 to caddy for Woods during a pro-am later this year. Although Woods is back on the green golfing, his Tiger Jam brought stars like Westbrook together over a poker game while he has continued to refine his image, again giving back to charity.

“Jeopardy!” champion and pro sports bettor starts donating his wins to charity. With 31 wins in his column so far, “Jeopardy!” champion and pro sports bettor James Holzhauer has started donating his winnings to charity. According to CNN, the 35-year-old professional gambler from Las Vegas recently became the second Jeopardy contestant ever to hit $2 million in winnings. With his total of $2,382,580 earned in 31 days, he's closing in on Ken Jennings' record haul of $2,520,700 won in 74 games. Earlier this month, Holzhauer and his wife gave $10,000 to Project 150, which is a charity that helps homeless students in Las Vegas by distributing school supplies, meals, and clothes. The Holzhauers also donated $10,000 to the Las Vegas Natural History Museum, and the couple’s most recent donation is $10,000 towards an educational charity called Communities in Schools of Nevada, a state branch of a national organization that works to prevent students from dropping out of school. Through all of his “Jeopardy!” success, Holzhauer has become one of Las Vegas' most celebrated citizens, receiving a key to the Las Vegas Strip and having Clark County officials declare May 2 "James Holzhauer Day.”

Star athletes will pepper the Monster Energy $50,000 Charity Challenge Celebrity Basketball Game. On July 8, in line with celebrating the 2019 ESPY Awards Week, the charity basketball game will return to UCLA's Pauley Pavilion to raise funds for multiple charities including the host beneficiary, Roger Daltrey and Pete Townshend's WHO Cares initiative Teen Cancer America. Team captains at the event are Floyd Mayweather and Rob Gronkowski, who will lead the show of cross-sport goodwill. According to Yahoo Finance, the $50,000 Charity Challenge will also feature the debut of the L.A. Challenge starring some of L.A.'s best athletes putting their shooting skills to the test. The winning team will receive $25,000 for the charity they represent, while the losing team receives $5,000 for their respective charity. Further, the L.A. Halftime Skills Challenge will feature L.A. athletes and celebs competing to benefit local L.A. charities, in addition to the event host beneficiary Teen Cancer America. The mid-summer event aligns football, boxing, and basketball stars to help in the battle against cancer.

Cristiano Ronaldo highlights a charity match at Juventus' Allianz Stadium. The Juventus golden boy was accompanied by football legends including Francesco Totti, Pavel Nedved, Andrea Pirlo, and Gianluigi Buffon as well as other sports stars including Ferrari's Charles Leclerc and Sebastian Vettel for the “Partita Del Cuore” or “match of the heart.” According to the London Daily Mail, the game brought together these stars in support of the Piedmontese Foundation for Cancer Research and the Telethon Foundation. The game featured extravagance of all sorts, with Ronaldo breaking out a bicycle kick with tons of soccer legends on the pitch. The Teleton foundation helps find cures for rare genetic diseases while the cancer foundation tackles one of the world’s gravest problems. By putting together current and former soccer stars alongside other big names including Exor CEO John Elkann and Juventus president Andrea Agnelli, the participants were able to maximize their reach.

The second annual AO1 Charity Softball Game raised $500,000 in Philadelphia. Carson Wentz’ charity softball game and its overwhelming fundraising may hint at a new golden age for Philadelphia sports. After the Eagles’ quarterback led his team to a Super Bowl title this past February and Bryce Harper joined the Phillies, sports in Philly are looking up. Although he did not play in the softball game, Wentz was working in his food truck, Thy Kingdom Crumb, to distribute free shrimp po’ boys and pulled pork sandwiches to ticket holders – something it does normally as the charitable food truck has delivered more than 8,000 free meals to those in need. According to Billy Penn, more than 15,000 fans came out to watch football players hit softballs, all in support of Wentz’s AO1 Foundation’s mission of “uplifting individuals and communities around the world by demonstrating God’s love for His people.” Playing at Citizens Bank Park, the quarterback also announced Camp Conquerors, an outdoor ministry program that introduces hunting and fishing to in-need children. Between Carson Wentz and the now-retired Chris Long, the Eagles have one of the most charitable presences among all American sports teams.

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