Pitch Deck

Expect some Infantino Dr. Evil memes from the global soccer community. Fresh of the heels of a hugely successful American World Cup, the FIFA President wants to be a deal guy. The plan is to create a new for‑profit subsidiary (FIFA Forward Enterprise) that houses the World Cup’s commercial and event operations, then sell up to about a 20–21% stake in that $20 billion entity to private investors led by Thrive Eternal. This would raise roughly $4.2 billion in upfront cash for FIFA and its 211 member associations.

The reception has been…not warm. UEFA and its 55 member national associations are threatening to boycott FIFA competitions, including the World Cup.

Neko’s $700M raise shows how preventive health is being delivered as a high-end data product, a subscription-style scan that turns your body into a dashboard and sells early detection as a luxury service. It arrives on US soil in 2027, and I expect it to be a hit with the deep-pocketed hyper-optimization crowd. I’m hopeful that this level of preventative wellness will become table stakes in the near term, with friction falling away by the year.

Big picture, Ole Miss’s suit against two LSU transfers isn’t really about the ~$1M at stake; it’s a test case for whether revenue‑sharing agreements become the new guardrails in college football or just expensive suggestions players can ignore without consequence. The downside is that many athletes, operating in a hyper‑fluid, poorly structured system, are being asked to sign complex financial deals they may not fully understand, setting up exactly this kind of messy, precedent‑setting litigation.

This will make you feel jet lagged just watching it. Genuine question for the audience – can anyone explain the mid-tournament trips to Madrid and then Doha in between stops to Miami and Dallas?

LeBron’s longevity is in a universe of its own. Vince Carter was far and a way the most productive 42-year-old NBA player ever, and he averaged 7.5 points per game in 2018-2019. That record is in grave danger, given King James averaged 20.9 points per game last year at age 41, exactly the same as he did in 2003 at age 18.

This soon-to-be TPG-owned MMR is having a banner year, and no one is surprised. Athlete deals are becoming a line item in the rights package, which is exactly what commanded the $2 billion price tag.

On July 30, 1930, Uruguay came back from 2-1 down at halftime to beat Argentina 4-2 in front of 90,000 in Montevideo, winning the first World Cup final ever played. The tournament featured only 13 countries, and the home team won.