Club Level
August 2023 Recap
Closing out summer 2023 with a recap of the most recent updates from our platform, portfolio companies, and the sports+ industry. Welcome to fall and welcome back to Club Level.
Elysian Park and Platform News
“Is it possible to do conventional venture capital but take out some of the conventional venture risk?”
This thought-provoking question lies at the heart of our philosophy — a belief that innovation thrives when you dare to challenge the norms.
This past month, Sports Business Journal shared the story of how our idea of reshaping the sports industry has become a reality, one strategic investment at a time. (Read More)
We’re happy to announce the first close of EP Golf Ventures Fund I, a strategic investment partnership between Elysian Park Ventures and the PGA of America designed to support innovation in the golf industry. Selected investors include Topgolf Callaway Brands, Gametime Capital and several other institutions, individuals and investors across the sports, technology and media ecosystem. (Read More)
Portfolio Company News
Diamond Kinetics & MLB Players Inc, the business arm of the Major League Baseball Players Association, partnered to bring big leaguers to backyards, supporting shared efforts to increase youth participation and retention. (Read More)
GeoComply is tapping into top talent to strengthen its growth beyond the sports betting and iGaming industries. (Read More)
In the midst of attendance and viewership records being shattered at the Women’s World Cup, IDA Sports partnered with TOCA Football to provide consumers with a unique experience stateside. (Read More)
Jackpot.com officially launched operations in New York, introducing itself to residents of the Big Apple through a partnership with OpenFortune Media, one of the fastest-growing media companies known for its integration of advertising into fortune cookies. (Read More)
Pharrell’s auction house, JOOPITER, was featured in Highsnobiety, a global fashion and lifestyle media publication. (Read More)
Just a few weeks before Nebraska volleyball set the world record for women's sports attendance, League One Volleyball announced Omaha as home to the League’s fifth professional team launching in 2024. (Read More)
OnePlan was named the official digital twin and mapping partner for Paris 2024 after the British company became the first-ever start-up to sign as an International Olympic Committee partner. (Read More)
OnePlan also entered a new agreement with Crypto.com Arena, creating a digital twin of the L.A. arena to allow venue operators and tour managers to digitally experiment with logistical situations that have to be considered particularly in hosting concerts or events like The Grammy Awards. (Read More)
The Professional Fighters League (PFL) sold a $100mm minority ownership stake to SRJ Sports Investments, the sports-focused fund launched last month by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF). This is the fund’s first investment. (Read More)
PFL re-signed two-time Olympic gold medalist, and three division boxing champion, Claressa Shields. (Read More)
PlayVS appointed seasoned EdTech leader and EverFi Co-Founder, Jon Chapman as CEO, reaffirming the company’s commitment to providing inclusive esports opportunities and promoting diversity & access to students across the country. (Read More)
PlayVS also announced a partnership with esports apparel brand Emerge Apparel, enabling all interested high schools to both create and sell their merchandise through the Emerge Apparel website. Emerge Apparel’s 50% revenue-sharing program will allow schools to use merchandise to fund their esports programs and players. (Read More)
In the wake of a summer of heat waves across southern Europe—the most recent impacting Greece, Italy, and Turkey—Sensible Weather, a climate risk technology company that already works with several partners in the tourism space to offer compensation for travelers whose vacations are impacted by inclement weather will now also be covering heat waves. (Read More)
Splash launched its new peer-to-peer real money gaming platform in 33 states across the country. The platform allows consumers to organize Survivor, PickX and/or Daily Fantasy contests in accordance with state regulations. (Read More)
Sportsbox AI and La Golf officially partnered to launch the “LA Golf Fit Yourself Experience” inside the Sportsbox 3DGolf app, allowing golfers to record their swing and match it to the best equipment for their game based on motion science. (Read More)
Angela Ruggiero, Sports Innovation Lab's Co-Founder and CEO, joined Yahoo Finance Live to discuss her experience as a female athlete and Sports Innovation Lab's mission to increase investments in women's sports. (Read More)
SpotOn's GPS Fence, an industry leader in dog GPS fence solutions, was included in the highly coveted INC 5000 Class of 2023 list of the fastest-growing private companies in America. (Read More)
Top Industry Headlines
Half a century of leveling the playing field: the US Open's 50th anniversary of equal prize money marks a triumph for women's sports and its legacy continues to endure. (Read More)
Amid the whirlwind of conference realignment, it's time to unpack who's truly benefiting from these seismic shifts in college sports. (Read More)
As Nebraska's volleyball team shatters attendance records with 92,003 fans, it's clear that volleyball's rise as the No. 1 high school team sport for girls in the USA is a sign that the time to invest in its promising future is now. (Read More)
Despite only occupying the final third of the calendar year, the NFL accounted for 82 of the 100 most-watched broadcasts in the US in 2022. Ahead of this week’s kickoff, SportsPro broke down some of the major storylines underpinning the business of American football going into the 2023 season. (Read More)
The new Professional Women’s Hockey League was officially unveiled, along with its original six franchise locations — Boston, New York and Minnesota on the U.S. side and Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal in Canada. (Read More)
Opportunities in Our Network
Diamond Kinetics is hiring a customer experience representative and a manager for marketing automation & paid media.
Dot.la is hiring a platform and analytics manager.
DraftKings is hiring across its channel marketing, corporate compliance, engineering, communications, HR, media, trading, finance, information technology, product, product operations, sportsbook operations, program management, regulatory, trading, and VIP management teams.
EL1 is hiring professional baseball and softball instructors, a baseball leagues & tournaments manager, a general manager of baseball & softball operations, a baseball & softball operations intern, account representatives, an accounting specialist, a football instructor, and an operations assistant.
Fanaply is hiring a senior software engineer, a business development associate, an account manager, a marketing coordinator, and a marketing and account management intern.
FCTRY Lab is hiring a marketing and public relations manager.
Freeletics is hiring a CRM manager and a data scientist.
Gamurs is hiring a freelance game guide writer, a freelance weekend writer, a part-time editor, a freelance guide & news editor, a freelance editorial writer, an SEO writer, and a financial accountant.
Geocomply is hiring across IT, technical operations, product, engineering, and general teams.
The Gist is hiring a finance and accounting manager, an account executive, a newsletter writer, a fact checker, a senior growth marketer, and a newsletter editor.
Greenfly is hiring an account executive.
Jackpot.com is hiring an operations supervisor, a retail operations team lead, an operations associate, a CRM manager, a retention marketing manager, and a senior digital marketing manager.
LeagueApps is hiring a business development representative, an engineering manager, and a video producer.
League One Volleyball is hiring a pro marketing lead, a pro league marketing director, a club director, a staff accountant, a head of commercial/ revenue, and a CFO.
Mojo is hiring an account executive, a business development representative, a marketing manager, a senior product designer, a senior software engineer, a senior backend engineer, and a customer success and implementation professional.
Movella is hiring across its finance, internship, and sales teams.
Oosto is hiring a senior sales professional, a pre-sales engineer, and a support engineer.
ŌURA is hiring legal counsel, a senior product analyst, a product manager, and a senior software engineer.
PFL is hiring a vice president of media sales.
Protecht is hiring a senior front-end developer.
Renegade Brands is hiring a commercial sales representative.
Robin is hiring a marketing intern.
Second Spectrum is hiring across its operations and software engineering teams.
Sensible Weather is hiring a VP of marketing.
Snap! Is hiring across its customer service, outside sales, and warehouse teams.
SpotOn is hiring across its corporate, sales, and product & engineering teams.
Swish Analytics is hiring across its data science, product, software engineering, and trading teams.
Tappp is hiring a frontend developer, a roku developer, a senior java developer, a product manager, and a program manager.
Till Financial is hiring a senior software engineer.
Universal Tennis is hiring a regional team tennis manager and a regional flex league manager.
Upright Citizens Brigade is hiring a TV online pilot writing instructor, an improv instructor, a character instructor, and a sketch writing instructor.
WSC Sports is hiring across its business development, engineering, finance, account management, support and operations, product management, and design and user experience teams.
Want to learn more about our work? Check out our website or reach out to hello@elysianpark.ventures.