A sports media company co-founded by NFL star quarterback Tom Brady, sports broadcaster and NFL Hall of Famer Michael Strahan, and filmmaker Gotham Chopra announced it had raised $10 million in venture capital funding this week, which it plans to use to expand its online programming.
Religion of Sports was founded in 2016 as a multimedia sports network with a focus on telling human stories across different platforms. The documentary series Tom vs. Time, featuring Brady during his 18th and final season for the New England Patriots, was its first hit. Since then, it's produced several projects featuring big names in sports such as snowboarder Shaun White and basketball star Stephen Curry.
"What we've tried to do is think across mediums — podcasts, video, short-form, long-form — and do so with a very unique point of view," CEO Ameeth Sankaran told Cheddar. "Everything that we produce answers the central question of 'why sports matter.'"
The model relies on partnerships with other companies and platforms such as Netflix, Showtime, Apple TV+, and Amazon.
Sankaran noted that ESPN's popular 30 for 30 documentary series set the benchmark for the business, which has seen a boom in recent years with blockbuster sports documentaries such as The Last Dance, in partnership with Netflix, on the NBA great Michael Jordan.
During the coronavirus pandemic, Religion of Sports has compensated for the lack of professional sports with more audio content and graphics-based video content.
"It's like any other industry, it forces us to be creative," Sankaran said.
It also helps, he added, that the public exposure to athletes' private worlds has become the norm, creating a demand for deeper dives into their lives and careers.
"What didn't exist 15 years ago is access to these athletes through social media and other places," Sankaran said. "For us, it creates the opportunity to show more."
The funding will support a new slate of programming and expansion into new mediums, according to the CEO.
Nvidia on Wednesday became the first public company to reach a market capitalization of $5 trillion. The ravenous appetite for the Silicon Valley company’s chips is the main reason that the company’s stock price has increased so rapidly since early 2023.
Chris Williamson, Chief Business Economist at S&P Global, breaks down September’s CPI print and inflation trends, explaining what it means for markets.
A big-screen adaptation of the anime “Chainsaw Man” has topped the North American box office, beating a Springsteen biopic and “Black Phone 2.” The movie earned $17.25 million in the U.S. and Canada this weekend. “Black Phone 2” fell to second place with $13 million. Two new releases, the rom-com “Regretting You” and “Springsteen — Deliver Me From Nowhere,” earned $12.85 million and $9.1 million, respectively. “Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc” is based on the manga series about a demon hunter. It's another win for Sony-owned Crunchyroll, which also released a “Demon Slayer” film last month that debuted to a record $70 million.
The Federal Aviation Administration says flights departing for Los Angeles International Airport were halted briefly due to a staffing shortage at a Southern California air traffic facility. The FAA issued a temporary ground stop at one of the world’s busiest airports on Sunday morning soon after U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy predicted that travelers would see more flights delayed as the nation’s air traffic controllers work without pay during the federal government shutdown. The hold on planes taking off for LAX lasted an hour and 45 minutes and didn't appear to cause continued problems. The FAA said staffing shortages also delayed planes headed to Washington, Chicago and Newark, New Jersey on Sunday.
Boeing workers at three Midwest plants where military aircraft and weapons are developed have voted to reject the company’s latest contract offer and to continue a strike that started almost three months ago. The strike by about 3,200 machinists at the plants in the Missouri cities of St. Louis and St. Charles, and in Mascoutah, Illinois, is smaller in scale than a walkout last year by 33,000 Boeing workers who assemble commercial jetliners. The president of the International Association of Machinists says Sunday's outcome shows Boeing hasn't adequately addressed wages and retirement benefits. Boeing says Sunday's vote was close with 51% of union members opposing the revised offer.
The stunning indictment that led to the arrest of more than 30 people — including Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier and other NBA figures — has drawn new scrutiny of the booming business of sports betting in the U.S. The multibillion-dollar industry has made it easy for sports fans — and even some players — to wager on everything from the outcome of games to that of a single play with just a few taps of a cellphone. But regulating the rapidly-growing industry has proven to be a challenge. Professional sports leagues’ own role in promoting gambling has also raised eyebrows.
