Welcome back to MoneyCall, The Athletic’s weekly sports business cheat sheet. (Want to get this conveniently delivered via email? Sign up here.)
Name-dropped today: “Jets Jake,” Jake Paul, Kalshi, Snoop Dogg, Martha Stewart, South Florida Sails Angling Club, Cris Collinsworth and more. Let’s go:
Driving the Conversation
It’s beginning to look a lot like Netflix
Tomorrow, we all settle in for the biggest Christmas Day sports TV tradition: the NFL on Netflix.
What began as a novelty a year ago — a widely viewed, Beyoncé-powered spectacle that shockingly (if relatively easily?) displaced the NBA from its place as the hub of Christmas sports — is now ensconced.
It’s not just Netflix tomorrow, though. With Christmas on a Thursday, Amazon Prime Video benefits from its “Thursday Night Football” deal to give us a third Christmas game. (There are no more jokes about how hard it is to find a game that’s streaming — a few weeks ago, Prime Video set its all-time Thursday NFL high.)
That Netflix NFL experience last year was also a harbinger of the rising dominance of streaming throughout 2025, with the biggest impact yet to come. Just a sample of 2025’s deals:
- Amazon Prime Video launched its NBA live-game coverage (as did Peacock, as part of the league’s reunion with NBC). Reviews have been positive on both.
- ESPN launched its long-awaited direct-to-consumer service (“ESPN Unlimited”), then landed a deal to show all of WWE’s biggest live events, including WrestleMania.
- Paramount+ got in on the action, allotting billions to secure the rights to UFC matches (now available for the price of Paramount+’s monthly fee, rather than pay-per-event).
- Netflix — not content with the NFL and the occasional Jake Paul boxing match — acquired some of MLB’s biggest events, starting in 2026, including Opening Day, the Home Run Derby and the Field of Dreams game.
- Apple shook off its underwhelming MLS deal and paid a premium to land the glitzy F1 rights (which dovetailed with the release of its “F1: The Movie” to boffo box-office results).
- YouTube snagged an NFL game in Week 1, then positioned itself to be an even bigger player, as foreshadowed by acquiring the rights to air the Oscars (starting in 2029), arguably the Super Bowl of non-sports culture.
When you settle in for tomorrow’s NFL triple-header, albeit a weaker one (along with the traditionally compelling NBA lineup as a side dish), you will be couch-surfing one of the biggest sports-business trends of 2025 into the new year.
Speaking of takeovers, I’m taking a quick family holiday, so I’m handing off the rest of MoneyCall this week to my brilliant colleague Lauren Merola …
Get Caught Up
A messy NIL lawsuit, plus a former NBA All-Star’s fishy pursuit
Thanks, Dan! I’m at my parents’ house for Christmas and am forbidden from touching the ever-so-precious thermostat, so while I type with cold fingers, I’ll try not to drop the baton. 🤝
Big talkers from the sports business industry:
A landmark NIL lawsuit: Missouri edge Damon Wilson II sued Georgia’s athletic association, alleging a civil conspiracy involving the school and its collective to try to “penalize Wilson for his decision to transfer.” It’s believed to be the first time a player and school have taken each other to court over an NIL dispute.
Simmons sails away: The 29-year-old Ben Simmons, the three-time NBA All-Star who remains unsigned (and said he hopes to make a comeback later this season or next), purchased an ownership stake in the South Florida Sails Angling Club, a team in the Sports Fishing Championship.
DAZN deal looms: Main Street Sports Group, owner of FanDuel-branded regional sports networks, is trying to sell a majority stake to DAZN, a network most popular outside of the U.S. A sale could wrap as soon as January. If it falls through, Main Street could be shut down, leaving the fans of 29 pro sports teams across the NHL, NBA and MLB without a local network.
Snoop’s back: After Snoop Dogg’s fairly successful stint as a host of NBC’s 2024 Olympic coverage — a role he’ll reprise in a couple months — he returns to the company to call an NBA game on Jan. 5.
Intensified WNBA negotiations: “The WNBA Players Association announced Thursday that it had authorized its executive committee to call for a strike ‘when necessary.’” More from Sabreena Merchant and Ben Pickman here.
Which team has the ultimate front office in 2025? Our readers said the Oklahoma City Thunder.
Lauren’s other current obsessions: What boxers really think of Jake Paul … why Notre Dame and USC hit pause on their rivalry (Fight On, from a former Trojan ✌️) … LeBron James’ calm confidence … the NCAA being “vehemently opposed” to prediction markets after a run-in with Kalshi — which, speaking of …
What I’m Wondering
What is a prediction market?
I thought I was leaving this year with a pretty good understanding of all that changed in the sports-betting sphere. Then prediction markets took off. An evolved form of gambling, it’s both much different and much the same as placing a wager in an app.
Our Hannah Vanbiber and Dan Santaromita break it down for us in-depth here. Below are their (very) abridged explanations:
What is it? “Exchanges, like stock markets, where people bet on the outcomes of future events. Any event you can imagine could potentially be added to the market.”
How does it work? “They create binary ‘yes’ or ‘no’ contracts that can be bought and sold by users. An example could be ‘Will the Buffalo Bills win the Super Bowl?’ with ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ as the options to buy.”
How’s that different? “In a prediction market, you are putting up money against another market participant on the other side, rather than betting against ‘the house’ as in traditional sports betting. The companies make money via commissions and transaction fees.”
What are some of the marketplaces? Kalshi, Polymarket, Fanatics Markets and DraftKings Predictions. “But for sportsbooks, getting into prediction markets means trying to carefully navigate their relationships with state regulators,” so specific markets aren’t available nationwide.
(If you’re like me, we won’t call this catching up from 2025; it’s simply getting ahead for 2026. Go even further.)
Grab Bag
Ratings Point: 14.9 million … 4.4 million
The first round of College Football Playoff games garnered eye-popping numbers, both high and low. Alabama-Oklahoma and Miami-Texas A&M drew 14.9 million and 14.8 million viewers on ABC/ESPN, besting last year’s first-round high of 14.68 million.
Games on TNT/HBO Max involving Group of 5 teams, however, claimed opposite recognition: Ole Miss-Tulane saw 6.2 million viewers and Oregon-James Madison 4.4 million. The latter went up against Bears-Eagles.
Data Point: $3 billion
That’s how much the Chiefs’ 2031 domed stadium in Kansas is projected to cost. The other proposed option was a $1 billion renovation of Arrowhead Stadium in Missouri.
Investor of the Week: Martha Stewart
The 84-year-old lifestyle mogul is the newest minority owner of Championship club Swansea City, joining the aforementioned Snoop Dogg as an investor. Their unlikely friendship goes back more than 15 years; People lays out the full timeline of their iconic bond.
Name to Know: “Jets Jake”
That’s Jake Chatzky, the “New Heights” director of social media. From helping Travis Kelce meet Taylor Swift to fishing for Jason’s lost Super Bowl ring in a blow-up pool of chili, Chatzky partly credits getting his zany position to his Jets fandom.
Last-minute stocking stuffer ideas
Lotto tickets, phone charger, hair ties, coloring book, water bottle, yearly calendar, card game, luggage tag, sunglasses, chapstick, gum, ice roller, martini picks/wine glass charms, air tags, reading light … Wirecutter has a ton more for you.
Beat Dan Lauren in Connections: Sports Edition
Puzzle No. 457
Dan’s time: 00:57
Give it a try here!
Worth Your Time
Design: Dan Goldfarb; Photos: Mauro Ujetto, James Gill, Kate McShane, Adam Hagy, Thien-An Truong, Julian Finney / Getty Images
Great business-adjacent reads for your downtime or commute:
The best women’s sports moments of 2025! There were a ton. Pick your favorite moment from our list here.
A few more:
Back next Wednesday! And, as always, give a try to all The Athletic’s other free newsletters.