NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman on Hockey's Growth, An Early Look at the Olympics

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1:01I'm Caroline Hyde in New York. And I'm Ed Ludlow in San Francisco. Subscribe today, wherever you get your podcasts. This is the business of sports. Sports are the greatest unscripted show on earth. The next generation of players who really grew up with tech and believe in tech. Your face is your ticket. Your face is your wallet. Your face is your access to a club. These are such iconic and important buildings for businesses, for fans. COVID was one of the best things that ever happened at golf. The NFL is a bulletproof business. Racing's unique because there is absolutely no reason why we can't compete with the guys.

1:36Come on, is pro pickleball real? Are people really going to tune into this? If you're playing money ball with a huge bag of money, you're going to be really, really good. Bloomberg Business of Sports from Bloomberg Radio. This is the Bloomberg Business of Sports, where we explore the big money issues in the world of sports. I'm Michael Barr, along with my colleagues Damian Sassauer and Vanessa Perdomo. Coming up on the show, we'll hear from NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman as we get ready for another season of hockey. You look for big events, for big stories, and you use every platform imaginable, whether it's linear, streaming platform, social media, and no different than what we did in February with the Four Nations Tournament.

2:20I mean, we created something that even if you weren't a hockey fan, even if you weren't a sports fan, you felt compelled to tune in because it was so topical and so intriguing. People wanted to know more. Gutman spoke on stage alongside monumental sports and entertainment founder Ted Leonsis in a panel moderated by our own Scarlett Foo recently at Bloomberg Power Players New York. All that is on the way on the Bloomberg Business of Sports. But first, the next Winter Olympics are right around the corner and preparations are well underway for the next Summer Olympics that hit Los Angeles in 2028.

3:02To give us an update on all things Olympics, we welcome back Sarah Hirschland. She's Chief Executive Officer of the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee. Sarah, welcome back to the Bloomberg Business of Sports. I am so glad that you have joined us. And I want to talk about some of the things that you're doing with the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee. Where do you see it now for the upcoming games? Where do you see the committee heading in this race? Well, as you know, in February, we will take a delegation of Team USA to Italy, anchored in Milan. but with a strong presence up in Cortina, Lavinio.

3:47So we'll be spread across the Italian Alps with what I will say is one of the strongest winter Team USA teams we've seen in quite some time. So we're optimistic and excited. My goodness, spread across the Italian Alps. It doesn't sound too bad, doesn't it, Michael? No, I think we can tag along. You need someone to carry the luggage, just call me, Sarah. Yeah. So in this time, in the next few months, what are you know, what's your biggest, you know, things that you have to worry about and that you have to strategize for for Team USA to be ready for those games in February? Well, a few pretty, pretty important things.

4:24Number one, we've got to make sure all the athletes qualify. So there is a quite a series of, you know, as we like to say, making Team USA, you got to make the Olympic and Paralympic team first. So a lot of qualification events, those will actually start here very soon across all of the winter sports. And then there will be some team selections, as you can imagine, something like our ice hockey teams. Those coaches and captains will go through a process of selecting the individual athletes who will represent us on those teams. So you got to qualify first. our organization spending a lot of time making sure we have all of the logistics in place so that when we get on the ground, these athletes have all of the support resources that they're accustomed to in their training environments.

5:12And, you know, that's everything from nutrition to recovery equipment to sports medicine support, making sure that they can be in an environment that's going to allow them to reach their highest potential at exactly the right moment. And the, you know, the core, the secret, if you will, that's not such a secret is we always say if we get Team USA to the start line healthy, we like our chances. Yes. So, you know, Sarah, for me, it's the question I have is what are you doing? 2025 is an off year, you know, but there's so much preparation that goes hand in hand with getting the venues ready, getting actually the athletes ready.

5:49You know, where are you most focused right this minute? It's, you know, the year after a summer games and right before a winter games is naturally a bit of a transition year for us. So you're right. It's a combination of some long-term planning, obviously the short-term planning and work that goes into preparations for the winter games. but it's also an opportunity for us to make sure that we're focused on, you know, what's on the long horizon and are we set up properly to drive a good, strong, healthy sport culture for many years to come. So we do work on what we call quadrennial planning, a four-year long-range plan.

6:27Looking out ahead, obviously, for us, we're in the unique situation of having the LA28 games in our next four-year cycle. So it is getting the people, getting the resources in place, human and financial, to be ready. In late July, the committee, they updated its policies on transgender athletes. Can you tell us more about what the committee decided? You know, a real, and this has been, as you guys well know, a really robust discussion, I would say, across global sport, across this country, but also with our peers around the world. And I think there's a very strong commitment in many places, many countries, many hallways in the United States, a very strong commitment to protecting women's sports in particular, and a real focus on ensuring that the gains we've made in the U.S.

7:24in particular, continue to provide fair opportunities, safe opportunities for women to compete in sport. And that's really exactly what this is about. And that obviously comes off of the back of President Trump's declaration, right, of keeping women's sports and protecting women's sports. Is that right? That's right. The administration and the president in particular have been, you know, really vocal on this topic. And it's an area where we see tremendous support from the public at large. People understand fairness in sport and safety in sport above all else. Athletes will tell us it's the single most important two issues to them.

8:07And so we feel a real obligation to make sure we're listening and paying attention to what is it going to take to provide both a safe environment, but also, you know, fairness that everyone feels like they arrive on the field of play with a level playing field. Sarah, talk to me about ski mountaineering. It's a new sport in 2026. What other new sports are coming to the Olympics in the not too distant future? Well, that's the one in 2026 on the winter side. And it will be, you know, we do, there are people in the United States who are ski mountaineer athletes. And so we will hope to have a team there competing, but not something that's been, you know, mainstream and really popular.

8:46So I think the U.S. will find it fun. It's quite an endurance sport. And we tend to like the endurance sports. You know, you could almost liken it to long distance running or cycling, but the combination of some endurance and some speed. So it'll be fun to watch. When we get to Los Angeles on the summer side, we know we'll see squash. We'll see flag football. And I'll call out in particular there, that one will be fun for both men and women. We'll see baseball, softball come back. We'll see lacrosse come to the games for the first time. So and we'll see I think I mentioned squash and we'll see cricket for the first time.

9:24So some some very popular global sports back in the games in Los Angeles. Obviously, we saw a huge resurgence, just felt like a big resurgence in 2024. The Paris Games is being so, so successful. And then now kind of not to take a step back, but what's going on with college athletics? And given the NCAA House settlement that now was passed that looks to potentially have some adverse effects on Olympic style sports, are you at all worried about that given that a lot of Team USA is made up of college athletes or athletes that train at colleges? We have been very vocal for some time, years now, in the halls of Congress and among our peers in the collegiate space, advocating for the preservation of broad -based sport opportunities on our campuses.

10:21The U.S. is the envy of the world. We are the greatest sporting nation in the world. And a huge component of that is the education-based sports system that we have always enjoyed. And so to see that sports system threatened and changing in elementary, middle school, high schools, as it has, and to now see that broad-based sport offering threatened at the collegiate level is absolutely concerning to us. And so, yes, we are very focused on it. We are, we're advocating, we're lobbying, and we're sitting at every table that we can to be part of the conversation around creating solutions. Further to that, how does name image likeness affect you?

11:08How does it affect Olympic athletes? Do you see there be incentives, you know, for them to move away from amateur sports from the Olympics? Or is, I mean, what are you doing to compete with all that? I think the important thing is we have to separate true name image likeness from the pay to play environment. And that unfortunately hasn't happened effectively in the collegiate environment. We are and have been huge advocates for athletes to capitalize on their name, image, and likeness to generate income. We've been supporters of that at the Olympic and Paralympic level. We're supporters of that at the collegiate level.

11:51And there are athletes who've been wildly successful in becoming, you know, marketing geniuses in their own right and capitalizing on their name, image, and likeness to drive real income. And that's good and positive and should be encouraged. But the distinction between that and what has become recruiting endorsements is a very different thing. And that's where the struggles and challenge in collegiate athletics is navigating how you properly ensure athletes have the ability to earn in an appropriate and fair way. We have the same sort of principles and premises. We would love for Team USA athletes to have significantly greater income than they do.

12:40We're working really hard to improve upon that. In fact, this year was a huge milestone for us. You guys know a big part of our revenue and our funding comes from the American public through philanthropy. We had our first hundred million dollar donation by an incredibly generous gentleman in his family named Ross Stevens, who created the Stevens Awards. And that is income directly to athletes. It's$100 ,000 grant and$100 ,000 life insurance for athletes who make Team USA. And the Winter Games in 26 will be the first group of athletes who receive that benefit. So a lot of us are working on the right ways to ensure athletes have earning.

13:22The key is to make sure that we do it in ways that's going to incent the right behaviors. Sarah Herschland, Chief Executive Officer of the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee. We are so grateful that you came to join us and talk with Bloomberg's Business of Sports. We really do appreciate it. It's always a pleasure to be with you guys. Thank you. Up next, we turn to SportsTech and a firm investing in the people and products that will power the future of sports. From my colleagues, Vanessa Perdomo and Damian Sassauer, I'm Michael Barr. You are listening to the Bloomberg Business of Sports with Bloomberg Radio around the world.

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15:29Bloomberg Business of Sports from Bloomberg Radio. This is the Bloomberg Business of Sports. We explore the big money issues in the world of sports. I'm Michael Barr, along with my colleagues Damien Sassauer and Vanessa Perdomo. Now for a look at the sports tech world. 76 Capital is a sports tech venture capital company that focuses on the people and products that are building the data, analytics, and technology that will power the future of sports. Joining us now is Wayne Kimmel. He's managing partner at 76 Capital. Wayne, welcome to the Bloomberg Business of Sports. Thanks for having me. This is really exciting to be here.

16:13I'm excited because you know me. I hate this. Yes, I bet. Yes, I do. and I'm not good at it, but I bet. Have we hit a point now where the market has saturated with online betting? Not yet. I mean, I really don't think we've hit a point yet. And we certainly have where DraftKings and FanDuel have taken the lead with betting today. But at the same time, you've got BetMGM, Fanatics, nipping at their heels. You've got also at the same time the prediction markets. And that's a whole other can of worms, which really now has betting legal in 50 different states now, not just the 38, 39, 40, whatever it is, regulated states.

17:02Now it's everywhere. So it's really, really interesting to see what's going to happen next. But for us, look, it's all about making sure that betting is safe and fun. And we're just making sure that there's true integrity, there's real compliance with everything that's going on across that. And that's where one of our companies, IC360, is right in the middle of all that. Which is really important, obviously. And when we're talking about security and all that, and it's particularly struggling right now in the prediction markets, I would say, right? It's a little bit less regulated there. There's those things there that aren't really regulated as much.

17:38So how do you figure that when it comes to the entire betting process? Well, look, I think in general, what we really want to make sure is that there's true integrity and there's really no anomalies across across the whole space. And that's what our team at IC 360 really works on to make sure and just making sure that people are doing the right thing. Right. I mean, I think that's the key to everything. if everything's on the up and up, we can't let professional sports turn into a scripted something like wrestling. Like it can't be that. We need to be able to be in a position where we know that what's going on on the field is really what's happening.

18:16And that's the most important thing for us. Wayne, you know, you're the managing partner of 76 Capital. And the reason Michael Barr and we started asking about sports betting is because that's really been your focus for the better part of the last few years. But at 76, you invest in all sorts of different companies of all different shapes and sizes. And I just have to ask you, that world of sports as an asset class, talk to us about exit strategies. Because it's really easy to invest in a good idea. And it's really, really difficult to crystallize that in terms of returns for you and your partners.

18:46So talk to us a little bit about your approach, how you work with these companies, how you get them cash flow positive, and how you get them into cruising altitude. I think what's really important is to make sure that these companies are truly ready to go and sort of moving forward and working with our companies so that they then can be one of those companies that we can sell like we did with Visa and selling them to DraftKings or selling a company to FuboTV or the pylon cams you see on NFL fields that was sold to Cosm and then Cosm raised$250 million to open up more of their venues. So for us, it's really all about getting behind amazing entrepreneurs who are truly doing something innovative.

19:29And then and most times the stuff that we invest in are companies that are involved that have have hardcore technology, data and analytics. and we really help those companies and help build those companies and make sure that they have relationships with the teams, the leagues, the sports betting regulators, the sports books themselves. And also, you know, just think about, you know, it could be at any, as any part of the overall landscape from professional sports where they work in or college sports, or it could be even on the youth side of things. There's so much to do out there right now. But for us, it's really all about making sure that we get behind amazing companies.

20:05We get them moving and then that they start to really execute and do what they need to do. Well, Wayne, you made an interesting point there. I mean, all of those exits were selling to a private, right? Or to a larger company. It wasn't a public listing, so to speak. It wasn't an IPO. The traditional way that a lot of private equity investors try to cash in. But talk to me about the depth of that market. And an operator like you who's been in the business since the late 90s, those relationships and how important they are. I mean, you have your athlete and residence program at 76. Talk to us a little bit about how you work with your investors, your constituents, and you kind of get to that point where you have those relationships that you can even take a good idea or a well-functioning opportunity and bring it to somebody's attention.

20:50I think one of the big things that we do at 76 Capital is really work closely with our companies and help them with their marketing, with their branding. So they actually get out there into the market so that they are a brand name when it comes to the NFL or the NBA or any of those leagues. At the same time, we sometimes will use the help of an athlete who can help us maybe market the company a little bit to get them out there a little bit. So that's something that we'll certainly do. But I think the key for everything is really that these companies have the best technology that they have to be able to work really closely with incredible media companies like ESPN.

21:34I mean, as an example, you know, one of our companies is literally powering the personalization and customization of the ESPN app that's out there today. We're super excited about that. And that's something that, you know, you won't know the name of the business is not really that important. But it's when you see your fantasy and you see your bets and you see everything that's personalized to you, that's coming through the tech side of things. I want to talk about you were an investor in VEASAN when the whole thing started. And I don't think people understand how much of an impact VEASAN made on the market.

22:06Because you used to have to go to the racetrack. Some guy is selling a tip on a piece of 8.5 by 11 paper that's all typed in. And now you can listen to VEASAN. And if you want to do your homework on a bet, you can. Talk to us about that, about the impact of VEASAN. Well, VEASAN was an unbelievable investment for us. I mean, getting the opportunity to work with the legendary Brent Musburger, his nephew Brian, Bill Adie. These guys were just incredible. And they were always thinking about everything, you know, 10 steps forward. So it was the idea of why shouldn't there be a network that lets you hear everything that's happening across the sports betting markets, just like here at Bloomberg, where you get to learn everything that's happening on the financial markets.

22:56And then not only have it be able to listen to it, but also broadcast it like you guys do right from the floor of the exchange, which at the time our first studio was in the South Point in Las Vegas, the only 24-hour sports betting book that was open at the time. It was amazing to be there and be in the middle of all that and have the glass studio in there and really built that out. But now they're at Circa and just in many other places. I mean, they're continuing to really build that. We sold that company to Giraffe Kings. Now it's private again. They have it back. But it's one of those things where it was all about those entrepreneurs, their ideas, going out and getting really great hosts to really make sure you had authentic voices.

23:42That was one of the most important things, right? You hadn't really know what minus 110 means, not negative. that is it's it's a it's a learning curve for sure and i just hit my first big bet actually this week really pumped about it in a 400 bet it was awesome um whoa whoa whoa no no yeah i had a 400 bet this weekend michael be jealous it was amazing so my nails for my bachelor party gonna be free um so one of the things you were talking about there and you're talking about v-sin and you're talking about like the pylon cam and things like that those are more forward-facing like for consumer businesses, right?

24:21And then you have other things that you invest in on the analytics side, the baseball and basketball, shot tracker, those things that really help the sport in itself. When you're looking at what to invest in in the space, which are you really looking at more? What would you say is more for your interest or has a bigger impact on the sport? Yeah, the big thing for us is really, you know, whether it's on the field, off the field, for the consumer, you know, for the business, it's really just making sure that, that there's the core of everything is all around tech data and analytics. So, you know, you mentioned Shot Tracker and Diamond Kinetics on the baseball side.

24:58I mean, like Shot Tracker on the basketball side of things, really being able to use that information, use that data to enable you to be a better player. And that could be at the youth level, that could be at the college level, all the way up to the pro side of things. So I think like the, the whole thing for us is, is just making sure that you have really the best of the best tech. And that's a big part of what we look for. Wayne, we were kidding offline here about the phenomenal valuations that specifically the NFL, but all professional sports teams are now fetching in the open market. Some of these transactions, I mean, I'll just give our audience, I think the Dallas Cowboys, which were the most valuable franchise heading into this year per Sportico at$10.3 billion, it's now estimated to be$14.5 billion, right?

25:42Same$1.2 billion in revenue per year. But my question for you, as we were talking about it offline, is what do these team owners need to do to justify those valuations? I mean, is it IP? Is it a technology? I mean, what can they do to realize anywhere near what the market values are going for now? I think one of the big things for us, certainly, and it's certainly the theme of everything that we do at 76 Capital, You look at every other industry and every other company that has gone from where they are today or where they were in the past and how they've continued to grow. That's what needs to happen here in sports.

26:21And what they use and what they do in many cases is that's where they use the tech side of things. And so for us to be able to bring in ways for you to now monetize your fan base even more through the use of technology. So that could even be, you know, one of our companies, an example is Boomerang is actually in Boomerang is a lost technology company that enables lost and found, you know, easily to find something. So if you lose something at Madison Square Garden at a Knicks game this year, you can easily get it back through using Boomerang. Same thing, Fenway Park, same thing at many NFL stadiums, many other NFL arenas around around the country.

27:00But those are the types of things. If you use technology to enable your team to get better on the field, for you to be able to monetize your fans, and that's where we believe the values of these enterprises, which today are – some people say are high, but we believe they can go even higher because we're just getting going with that. Because also the thing is, is that if you start to think about the types of people also that are now owning these teams, they have done this in other industries. This isn't the first go around for some of these masters of the universe, we'll call them, right, who are now owning a lot of these teams.

27:39They've done this before. They've actually gone in and bought companies and then taken those companies to the next level and then sold them. And that's what's going to happen. And we really believe that the reason for these valuations that continue to rise is because of the tech. Our thanks to Wayne Kimmel for joining us. He's managing partner at 76 Capital, a firm that invests in the sports tech space. Up next, we look ahead to the new NHL season with NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman and Monumental Sports and Entertainment founder Ted Leonsis. For Vanessa Perdomo and Damian Sassauer, I'm Michael Barr.