Traditional sports ranking of community strength:

Teams > Players > League

but esports/socialmedia/fantasy/tradingcard-boom/tech-unbundles-everything has shifted things

Players > Teams > League

Players are realizing it. Teams will be wise to adapt fast.

When we started @CourtsideVC in 2016, the biggest question we faced was "Can you really generate venture returns investing in sports?". 5 years later, we have enough data to share. This is the story of how we turned our passion for sports into a business.
👇👇👇👇 👇 👇

First, some context. When I started my sports analytics software company in 2009, I was unable to raise a single dollar in venture capital. I ended up having to cobble together $10K, $25K and $100K checks from individuals to get things going.

At the time, there were no venture funds focused on this space and generalist VCs simply did not believe in the market size of sports companies. As a result, almost all of them ran to the hills when they heard the word "sports".

Even when we got to ~$10M in recurring revenue, there was nobody knocking on our door to try and give us growth capital to see if we could build something big. Ultimately, this forced us to sell short to private equity guys who destroyed the business.

Fast forward to 2016 and we felt the sports, fitness and gaming markets were on the verge of exploding - these were three places where the next generation was spending its money & yet there were no early stage funds setup to fund these entrepreneurs and strategically open doors.

Hyperice, the leading sports recovery company, is set to become the next multi-billion-dollar sports business.

The part you didn't know?

Without Kobe Bryant, it would have never happened.

Time for a thread 👇👇👇

1) Let's start in 2007 — Anthony Katz is a 30-year-old high school teacher and basketball coach in Southern California.

For exercise, he regularly organizes pickup basketball games.

The only problem?

As he got older, the games started to leave him increasingly sore & fatigued.

2) Looking for a way to recover faster & prevent injury, Anthony Katz researched how professional athletes dealt with soreness & fatigue.

"I wanted to get the level of treatment the pros were getting."

A combo of elevation, ice & compression made sense — but ice bags didn't…

3) Despite ice bags being used by athletes all over the world, Anthony Katz saw one glaring issue.

As the ice melts, the bag fills with air — causing it to lose its coldness & compression.

Not to mention, they looked ugly.

Instead, Katz set out to engineer a better solution.

4) In an effort to make his own ice compression wrap, Anthony Katz bought Neoprene from a Huntington Beach wetsuit maker, cut it with a knife, and sewed Velcro to hold the ice bag in place.

But would it work?

Next up — testing & feedback.

The Story Of Biafra Football Club (1969- 1978)

By Bianca Odumegwu Ojukwu

Indeed there was a country... and there was also the Biafra Football Club.

In the dying months of the breakaway Republic of Biafra, a group of idealistic young football lovers gathered together

in Valls, Barcelona (Spain) to honour the heroic struggle of The Biafrans .

They created a symbolic pennant and founded the Biafra Football club in order to draw world attention to the plight of Biafra, using one of the most potent methods known to humanity.

Football.

CF Biafra had about a hundred players from Reus to Pla, from Nulles to Tarragona they settled in El Vilar, within the federated amateur league and rode all the way to the Third Regional League.

Half a century later, the golden anniversary of the Biafra football club

was celebrated.

Though now extinct, Biafra , to those idealistic young men, was a mirror for their own struggles . In their perception, their own region of Catalunya ( Catalonia) was going through the same situation at the hands of the Spanish government as Biafra was

experiencing, at the hands of the Nigerian government.

They found a common bond and affinity with the Biafra struggle through the formation of the Biafra football club in Valls.

The club existed until 1978 when its activities were truncated by lack of economic resources.

You wanted it, you got it. The final 2020 QB STEW composite for Josh Allen. I will sit down and do all the NFL QBs soon.

#2 in CPOE
#3 in EPA/play
#5 in ANY/A
#3 in QBR
#4 in passer rating
#3 in DVOA
#5 in PFF grade

STEW score of 3.57. For reference, Wentz in 2017 was 4.71.

#FafduPlesis retires from Test cricket

Here's a thread on my most memorable test inning of Faf that came in his debut test match itself and happens to be one of the best ever innings played on Test match debut. 
He made 110* off 376 deliveries and secured a draw for SA !

It was the 2nd Test of the 2012/13 series between South Africa & Australia and the latter had posted an improbable target of 430 for the visitors to chase in the 4th inn.

SA’s start was a disastrous one. Skipper Graeme Smith departed for a duck in the 1st over. Hashim Amla, Alviro Petersen and Jacques Rudolph didn’t muster much between them, leaving the visitors reeling at 45-4. All this with 29 overs left on day 4.

In walked du Plessis, joining de Villiers in one of the most fascinating blockathons in modern-day cricket. The latter took an uncharacteristically defensive approach,consuming 220 deliveries for his 33. The fall of AB's wicket did not deter du Plessis though.

He was then joined by Kallis, who himself was battling with a hamstring strain. Together they took South Africa to tea with 5 wickets still intact.