Jess Pegula on the Business of Tennis

Jess Pegula has spent her life around elite sports — both as one of the best tennis players in the world and as part of the family behind the Buffalo Bills and Buffalo Sabres. Beyond competing at the highest level, she’s become an influential voice in the future of professional tennis through her r…

Alan Waxman is a Sports Superinvestor

Alan Waxman’s Sixth Street Partners has a deep conviction in sports. Over the past five years, Alan and his firm have taken a minority stake in teams in most major professional leagues, including: the Boston Celtics, the San Antonio Spurs, the San Francisco Giants and FC Barcelona. In 2024, Sixth S…

AJ Andrews on What's Next for Baseball and Softball

Baseball and softball are both having a moment. The 2025 Women’s College World Series was the most watched ever, with 2.4 million people tuning in to game 3. On the baseball side, almost 11 million people watched Venezuela beat the U.S. to take the 2026 World Baseball Classic title. The audience fo…

How NFL Legend Steve Young Built a $10 Billion Fund

Steve Young has created a playbook for so many athletes looking to make their way in business and spends a lot of his time paying it forward. HGGC, the private equity firm he started in 2007 with Rich Lawson, currently has an AUM above $10 billion. He also happens to be one of the best quarterbacks…

The WNBA's Expansion into Cleveland is Powered by Private Equity

Kara Nortman bets big on women’s sports, and it’s paying off. She is the co-owner of Angel City FC, an NWSL team with a $335 million valuation. She is also the managing partner of Monarch Collective, the first investment platform exclusively dedicated to women’s sports. Monarch is now investing a $…

How Kenny Beecham Became the New Face of NBA Media

NBA fans, you’re about to see a whole lot more of Kenny Beecham. The founder of basketball media brand Enjoy Basketballfirst broke through in 2011 streaming NBA 2k games on Twitch. Since then, he has built a YouTube channel with over 700,000 followers, hosted altcasts on NBA TV and ESPN and intervi…

Elle Duncan Says It’s Too Early to Write Off Netflix Sports

Elle Duncan has heard your criticism of Netflix’s MLB Opening Day Coverage. And as the streamer’s first sports anchor, she has something to say about it. In this episode of The Deal, Elle explains to Alex and Jason that there is a difference between constructive criticism and saying something is “…

How Jesse Cole Turned the Savannah Bananas Into a $500 Million Business

Jesse Cole is the Walt Disney of baseball. As the founder and CEO of the Savannah Bananas and its parent company Fans First Entertainment, Jesse rewrote the rules of baseball to build an entertainment juggernaut. There are no bunts, walks or mound visits in Banana Ball, but there are dancing umpire…

MLB Opening Day Preview with Alex Rodriguez

Today is Opening Day of the 2026 MLB season. The season kicks off with a coast-to-coast showdown (on Netflix!) between the New York Yankees and San Francisco Giants. But it’s the off-the-diamond news that’s making the biggest waves. Beyond a streaming service partnership, baseball's also now in bus…

David Levy is the Reason You’re Watching March Madness

It’s brackets season! And you can watch all 67 games of both the women’s and men’s NCAA tournament on national TV, thanks to David Levy. Levy spent 33 years at Turner Broadcasting, eventually serving as its president, where he expanded the network’s NBA coverage. Levy is probably best known for bro…