By Bruce B. Siegal, Esq. — Greenspoon Marder LLP Originally published January 9, 2026, by Greenspoon Marder LLP. Republished on SportsEpreneur with permission. Bruce B. Siegal, Esq. — a 31-year sports IP veteran and former General Counsel of the Collegiate Licensing Company. Bruce’s breakdown of the USPTO’s refusal of “Las Vegas Athletics” and “Vegas Athletics”
TL;DR: Every sports feed is full of “the league is cooked” takes. The bar is fine — the feed is the problem. Millions of complaint posts feed the same algorithm that monetizes them. The influencers calling the NBA dead are getting rich off the league they’re declaring finished. Meanwhile: the Lakers sold for $10 billion,
There has been a lot of noise around the April 3, 2026, executive order on college sports. Most of it treats the order as an immediate reset of NIL, transfers, and eligibility. That framing is off. The order does not instantly rewrite college sports. It introduces pressure, signals direction, and sets up what could come
MLB is competitive on the field. The players are real, the games are real, and the outcomes are not predetermined. But MLB is not built for equal competitive pressure across all 30 teams. The business model produces two different realities: a small group of clubs that can spend for resilience (depth, redundancy, and error tolerance),
by Geoff Wilson, author of Leading a Grassroots Sports Club (Routledge, 2026), UEFA/FIFA consultant and EFL Advisory Panel member. When we talk about sport, the spotlight usually lands on packed stadiums, elite athletes and broadcast deals. But long before any player signs a professional contract or represents their country, they start somewhere else. They start
John Damon: What High Performance Actually Looks Like One of the most respected high-performance coaches in the country. Trusted by Hollywood talent, elite athletes, and Fortune 500 executives. Founder of The Cave, a private training and recovery sanctuary in Charlotte, North Carolina. John Damon joined Linda Martindale on Game Changers for a conversation about what
TL;DR From the Super Bowl to the FIFA World Cup, modern mega-events don’t just fill stadiums — they flood entire cities. The real crowd risk doesn’t begin inside the venue or in the control room. It forms upstream in public spaces long before kickoff, and by the time a risk war room reacts, geometry and
NBA tanking is suddenly being treated like a full-blown crisis this season. Every major outlet has a version of the same headline: too many teams are losing on purpose, Adam Silver needs to act, competitive integrity is at risk. But this isn’t really a tanking crisis. It’s an incentive design problem that finally became too
College basketball lost continuity. It gained something else. Here’s how to watch the sport as it actually is — not as it used to be. Last season, Cooper Flagg and Kon Knueppel were roommates at Duke. They shared a dorm, ran the same offense, and led the Blue Devils to a 35-4 record. This season,
A SportsEpreneur Sports Business Deep Dive TL;DR NBC is charging $10.99/month on Peacock for full 2026 Winter Olympics coverage. People are furious. Here’s what they’re missing: the Peacock Olympics experience is better than anything NBC primetime ever gave us. No curated time wasting. No tape delay drama. No 45-minute detour into a figure skater’s childhood
Key Points: Are College Athletes Employees? Schools began paying athletes directly through revenue sharing on July 1, 2025, with Division I programs distributing up to $20.5 million per year Top quarterbacks in the 2026 transfer portal commanded $5-6 million, exceeding many NFL rookie salaries 82% of Division I schools opted into the new system, creating
TL;DR Tackle football participation is declining, driven by safety, cost, and access concerns. Flag football is rising by removing high-impact collisions while preserving the game itself. Olympic visibility will accelerate growth, but access depends on how pathways are governed. According to the National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS), 11-player tackle football participation in
Part of the “Securing the Game” Series by Albert R. Tamayo When Conditions Change, Who’s in Charge? Mega-events are planned down to the minute. Risk registers are built, command structures finalized, technology deployed, and contingencies documented. Yet history shows that the most consequential moments rarely unfold according to plan. They emerge when conditions shift weather
The Colorado Avalanche aren’t having a moment. They’re having an era. Since 2018, Colorado has made the playoffs every season. They won a Cup in 2022. They’ve contended for another almost every year since. While other franchises cycle through rebuilds, the Avs just keep showing up. There’s a reason for that. And it’s not just
TL;DR Lower-league soccer clubs in the U.S. operate in a closed system with limited financial upside and no guaranteed path to higher divisions. As a result, many are forced to think and operate like startups—maximizing limited resources, building community support, and focusing on long-term sustainability rather than promotion alone. One reason soccer is often called
TL;DR: Athletes no longer have to rely on team-controlled systems to understand their bodies. Wearables like WHOOP and Catapult, continuous glucose monitors, and independent lab testing services are putting performance data directly in players’ hands. The NFLPA set the precedent—NFL players own and control their individual data. College athletes, pros, and weekend competitors are following
TL;DR Mid-major programs have become the college sports’ development league. They identify and grow talent, give players real reps, and take on the risk. Power programs step in once that value is proven and pay to remove uncertainty. NIL and the transfer portal didn’t create this system — they made it visible. Mid-major programs are
Part of the “Securing the Game” Series by Albert R. Tamayo When fans walk into a match, they feel the energy long before kickoff. But behind the scenes, a completely different game is unfolding. It’s 6:45 p.m. The stadium is filling. The fan zone is buzzing. Moreover, outside the rail station, a small surge is
Originally published November 2025. Updated May 2026 with the 2026 playoff officiating controversy, the Booker fine, and the ongoing Billups and Rozier federal cases. TL;DR: The NBA has one real officiating scandal in its history (Tim Donaghy) and new gambling-era problems (Porter, Rozier, Billups arrests). Three series from 2000–2002 built the league’s conspiracy culture, but
TL;DR The NFL doesn’t need to be rigged to be profitable. Every questionable call, replay debate, and “is this league even real?” moment fuels engagement, conversation, and revenue. Officiating chaos isn’t a flaw in the system—it’s part of the product. The league’s officiating problem might frustrate fans, but it’s also what keeps it on top.
A SportsEpreneur NIL Deep Dive TL;DR Texas colleges can now pay athletes directly — up to about $20.5 million per school per year. High school seniors (17+) can sign NIL deals but can’t receive payment until they enroll in college. A new “fair market value” system means the NCAA and Deloitte are monitoring every deal.
The NCAA is a mall cop with a whistle, and they just figured out the casino moved into the food court. Division I athletes and athletic staff can now legally bet on professional sports. College games? Still off-limits. If Divisions II and III approve the change later this month, it goes live November 1. The
TL;DR: High school sports are shifting toward year-round specialization, with athletes focusing on one sport to chase scholarships and pro goals. Early specialization raises concerns about burnout, injury, and shorter athletic careers compared to multisport athletes. The rise of NIL laws in 31 states allows high school athletes to earn money, but it also adds
TL;DR: College sports have entered the era of monetized identity. NIL (Name, Image, and Likeness) deals are now regulated through the College Sports Commission and NIL Go, ending the “Wild West” phase—but ushering in a new one defined by transparency, power, and profit. Athletes are entrepreneurs, schools are brands, and the real game now happens
TL;DR: The College Sports Commission (CSC) just released its first NIL Deal Flow Report. From June 11 to August 31, 2025, 6,090 NIL deals worth $35.42M were cleared through the new NIL Go portal. The key lesson: deals must have a valid business purpose — real promotions, real deliverables, real value. This matters for athletes
TL;DR Starting September 2025, all NIL deals worth $600 or more must be reported to NIL Go, the new federal NIL clearinghouse. Overseen by the College Sports Commission and operated by Deloitte, NIL Go marks the end of the Wild West era of NIL (kinda). Every deal now faces compliance review, and the penalties for
TL;DR: NBA private equity ownership lets PE funds buy stakes in teams — Cuban says this shifts focus from fans to valuations. The NBA’s new $76B media deal fragments games across ESPN, NBC/Peacock, and Amazon. Unlike the NFL’s scarcity model, oversupply + streaming risk could backfire. PE investors might accept profits without winning — a
Scroll your feed and the sports news isn’t always great. Missed shots. Trades gone wrong. Injuries. Or another loss. But there’s another side we don’t see enough of: athletes doing good. Not highlight-reel good. Real good. That’s what Giannis Antetokounmpo is doing in Milwaukee. He’s not just scoring points for the Bucks. He’s helping families
The NBA’s new media rights deal is finally here. Eleven years, seventy-six billion dollars, three giant partners. It’s the kind of business headline that lights up Wall Street and the Sports Business Journal. But let’s be honest: the average fan doesn’t care about billions. They care about Tuesday night when they just want to watch
I’ll be honest: I don’t watch much ESPN anymore unless it’s a game. The network doesn’t feel like the ESPN I grew up with. But this latest move? It’s absolutely the right call. ESPN just hired 22-year-old creator Katie Feeney as a sports and lifestyle content creator. Fans online are furious. Reddit threads say ESPN
