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Speaker 1: This is Bloomberg Business of Sports. Everybody is into soccer,

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Speaker 1: so it's not a case of like building the game

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Speaker 1: in ninety four. To me, the metch have one of

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Speaker 1: the most aggressive owners in all of pro sports. Women's

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Speaker 1: sports has become much more high profile. There's been a

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Speaker 1: lot of focus on it. TV networks have made a

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Speaker 1: killing off college football and they will continue to do that.

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Speaker 1: If you have a very motivated owner, which the Padres do,

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Speaker 1: which the Phillies do, which the Yankees do? You spend

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Speaker 1: I think sports maybe driving some of these streaming services

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Speaker 1: as they go forward. As a shelf life. To be internactlete,

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Speaker 1: you have to figure out what the BIV is going

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Speaker 1: to be. Bloomberg Business of Sports from Bloomberg Radio. This

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Speaker 1: is the Bloomberg Business of Sports Show. We explore the

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Speaker 1: big money issues in the world of sports. I'm Michael Bark,

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Speaker 1: I'm Scarlett Phil and I'm Demien Sassaur. Today we speak

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Speaker 1: with David Levy, co CEO and founder of Horizons Sports

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Speaker 1: and Experiences and former president of Turner. Horizon is a

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Speaker 1: multi arm consulting and marketing that was just launched in November.

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Speaker 1: One of its first big events will be the inaugural

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Speaker 1: Pickleball Slam this coming weekend, in which tennis legends listen

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Speaker 1: to these names, Andre Agassi, Michael Chang, John McEnroe, and

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Speaker 1: Andy Roddick will compete for a million dollars prize purse.

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Speaker 1: And I guess it's time for me now, for a

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Speaker 1: million dollars, I better learned pickleball and realize that the

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Speaker 1: pickle isn't involved. David Leavey, Welcome to the Bloomberg Business

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Speaker 1: of Sports. Thanks Michael and Damien scar Thanks for having me. Yes,

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Speaker 1: it's d minus six or seven days here to the

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Speaker 1: pickle Ball Slam. Man. This thing is pickleball is taking off.

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Speaker 1: I mean this is like, hello, I'm in your face pickleball.

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Speaker 1: It is the fastest growing sport in America right now,

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Speaker 1: and I don't see it's stopping right now. It seems

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Speaker 1: like every single person I talked to, including my own family,

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Speaker 1: is starting to pick up a racket and a ball.

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Speaker 1: Are scun a caddle and a ball? Tell us a

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Speaker 1: little bit, David, how this competition with the likes of Andregz,

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Speaker 1: Michael Chang, John macro and Andy Roddick came together. Who

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Speaker 1: did you call first? Who was the first one to

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Speaker 1: say yes, and that enabled everyone else to say, yeah,

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Speaker 1: sign me up. It's a great, great question. So, as

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Speaker 1: you guys announced early in the introduction there, we're a

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Speaker 1: very very new company called HS and my partner and

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Speaker 1: co CEO, Chris Wild and I started this in November

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Speaker 1: of last year, so very very new. Our third partner

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Speaker 1: as a gentleman named Bill Konisburg, and Chris and I

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Speaker 1: were out thinking about what we wanted to do with

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Speaker 1: this new sports marketing company, how we wanted to develop

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Speaker 1: and where'd you want to go with it? And there

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Speaker 1: were four key areas that we thought we'd want to

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Speaker 1: focus on, at least for the first year, and that

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Speaker 1: was Formula one. The growth of Formula one here in

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Speaker 1: the United States and what's happening in Miami and Las

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Speaker 1: Vegas and things of that nature, and the growth in

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Speaker 1: that sport. We wanted to make sure that we focus

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Speaker 1: a little on that. We wanted to pay attention to soccer,

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Speaker 1: where World Cup is coming here in twenty twenty six,

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Speaker 1: so how we get involved in that area. We thought

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Speaker 1: about golf, and then my partner and I thought, you know,

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Speaker 1: you know, the other thing we should really think through

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Speaker 1: is pickaball. And the next thing we did was, oh

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Speaker 1: my god, let's see if we can get the best

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Speaker 1: racket names in sports. McEnroe, Agazy, Roddick and Chang put

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Speaker 1: them in the pickaball situation because nobody's ever done that,

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Speaker 1: and put a million dollar purse, the largest purse ever

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Speaker 1: for a pickaball, and put him in the stadium that

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Speaker 1: seats four thousand people at the Hard Rock Casino in Hollywood, Floorida. Now,

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Speaker 1: David hold On, I just have to cut you off here.

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Speaker 1: I saw John McEnroe calling out Andre Agassi over the weekend.

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Speaker 1: I saw him on social I think it's mcinro and

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Speaker 1: Chang if I'm not mistaken against Roddick and Agassi, is

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Speaker 1: that right? That's correct? That is correct. So who's going

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Speaker 1: to be a line judge there? Who wants to argue

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Speaker 1: with John McEnroe when when you know, pickaballs are kind

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Speaker 1: of on the boarder, that be serious, It is gonna

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Speaker 1: be insane. I hope, I hope he does get that way,

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Speaker 1: you know. I mean, you know that's what Johnny does well, um,

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Speaker 1: you know, and I think that's going to be helping

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Speaker 1: the whole sport. I mean, I think this event. You know,

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Speaker 1: I've spoken with some of the other professional pickaball leagues

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Speaker 1: I think you know, if you guys know them, the

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Speaker 1: PPA or Major League Pickaball MLP UM and they all

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Speaker 1: believe that this rising tide will lift all ships. Meaning

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Speaker 1: you know, right now, pickaball hasn't quote unquote been as

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Speaker 1: successful as everybody would have hope on a TV perspective,

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Speaker 1: But I think it has a lot to do with

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Speaker 1: the names and the brand of the names and where

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Speaker 1: it's airing. This is airing on ESPN, and these are

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Speaker 1: the best brand names in racquet sports. So I have

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Speaker 1: to say that it makes so much sense, David, to

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Speaker 1: get these four guys together. I'm surprised it took this

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Speaker 1: long for someone to do it. Yeah. Well, um, I'm

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Speaker 1: glad that nobody did before me, so before before before

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Speaker 1: as any um, you know, this came an idea that

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Speaker 1: I had listened. I background is from Turner Broadcasting. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: we did this thing called the Match back in twenty eighteen,

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Speaker 1: which was Tiger Woods versus Phil Nicholson nine million dollars

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Speaker 1: winner take call pay per view event, and it was

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Speaker 1: that kind of concept that I figured could actually work

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Speaker 1: in other sports and That's basically what the what the

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Speaker 1: Pickaball Slam is is taking the best of the best.

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Speaker 1: We hope this is a five event deal with a

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Speaker 1: hard rock so I could see ourselves and hopefully and

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Speaker 1: get nothing signed. And I don't have any deals structure yet,

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Speaker 1: but you know, maybe the Williams sisters play next. You know,

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Speaker 1: maybe maybe made a Fetterer Nadell play. You know, um,

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Speaker 1: let's get the best of the best. You know, you

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Speaker 1: know that the best highest ranked pickaball players in the

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Speaker 1: world are all ex tennis players. Of course, David, I

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Speaker 1: mean I have to. I mean, look, we have to

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Speaker 1: go back to where you began your career for twenty

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Speaker 1: years of Turner Sports. I mean you were the chap

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Speaker 1: who developed a ride sharing scheme where CBS and Turner

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Speaker 1: had to split the NCAA finals, Right, and so here

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Speaker 1: we are. You know, next week is finals weekend. Right.

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Speaker 1: We got the Miami Hurricanes, we got the Aztecs, the Owls,

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Speaker 1: we got them all there, we got the Huskies. You know,

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Speaker 1: talk to us a little bit about your expectations because

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Speaker 1: it's such a flat field, right, there's no nc there's

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Speaker 1: no Duke. You know, like, what are your thoughts heading

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Speaker 1: into next weekend. I mean, obviously eighteen point one million

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Speaker 1: viewers last year, can we expect more or less? What

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Speaker 1: do you think coming out of COVID, what's going on there?

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Speaker 1: You know, that's a great question. You know, when we

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Speaker 1: when Sean McManus at CBS and myself created this incredible

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Speaker 1: picasso of what everybody's watching these days, which is four

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Speaker 1: events happening all at the same time. You know, uh,

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Speaker 1: the interaction of what March Madness is. You know, we

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Speaker 1: always thought it would be. You know, it's great that

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Speaker 1: Cinderella teams kind of sneak in in the first early rounds,

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Speaker 1: but you know, you always hoped back then that you know,

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Speaker 1: would be the big brand names, the Dukes, the Kentucky,

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Speaker 1: the North Carolinas, the Ohio State, Michigan, the Syracuses and

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Speaker 1: things of that nature, because you know, big brand names

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Speaker 1: always helped big ratings. But but you know what's different

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Speaker 1: from when we did that event back in two thousand

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Speaker 1: and eleven to where we are today is sports betting.

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Speaker 1: And I you know, if you bet on a sporting event,

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Speaker 1: you're ninety eight percent more likely to watch. And I

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Speaker 1: think that the way sports betting has grown here in

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Speaker 1: the US. These Cinderella teams, which probably would have affected

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Speaker 1: ratings more in those later rounds, aren't and it's because

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Speaker 1: you know, people are betting on these, you know, the

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Speaker 1: Floridas and the Miamis, you know, and the Connecticuts, which

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Speaker 1: are you know, relatively small you know, um alumni um.

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Speaker 1: And so I think what's happening is I think you're

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Speaker 1: still going to see these ratings, and I think it's

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Speaker 1: because of the sports betting and they still have you know,

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Speaker 1: I mean, you know, there are you know, San Diego

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Speaker 1: is a nice story. Connecticut has always had a good

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Speaker 1: brand for basketball. Miami, you know, is unique and difference.

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Speaker 1: So you know, it's a it's a special final four

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Speaker 1: and we're going to see how how well it can perform.

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Speaker 1: But I think sports bet is going to play a roleman.

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Speaker 1: I think it's gonna do fine. My wife had asked

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Speaker 1: about how did the bookies do with this NC DOUAA tournament,

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Speaker 1: and I'm saying they're laughing their hinees off because so

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Speaker 1: many teams. There's no number one team that is in

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Speaker 1: the final four, and it's it hasn't happened in years,

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Speaker 1: and if teams got upset and unless you were betting

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Speaker 1: on the Hey, I like the uniforms. The bookies had

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Speaker 1: to make out. Yeah, you know, it's kind of funny. Um,

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Speaker 1: you know the bookies obviously they all want to make money, obviously,

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Speaker 1: but at the end of the day, they don't mind

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Speaker 1: what people win also because it gets them to come back.

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Speaker 1: So um, there's a lot of in game betting going

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Speaker 1: on as well that you know, when you can vet

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Speaker 1: while the game is going on, and so odds change

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Speaker 1: over and over. But I think what you're seeing here

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Speaker 1: is the start of what possibly nil, the new nil

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Speaker 1: error will mean. You know, it used to be that

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Speaker 1: these big brand teams were the only teams that could

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Speaker 1: recruit and hold on to um, you know, incredible athletes,

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Speaker 1: uh and star athletes. But now you know, you know,

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Speaker 1: obviously with the transfer portal, which now you can transfer

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Speaker 1: you know, the ear of and not have to sit out,

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Speaker 1: which I think is crazy. I would like to actually

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Speaker 1: see that they had to sit out. I'm not a

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Speaker 1: big fan of this transfer portal as some other people are.

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Speaker 1: But the nil you know, where you can you know,

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Speaker 1: you know, pay a player in a sense, not directly,

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Speaker 1: but through services of whether it's community service or whether

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Speaker 1: it's a commercial or things that nature. But there are

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Speaker 1: ways to have athletes now come to your school. So

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Speaker 1: I think it'll shake up March Madness for a long time.

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Speaker 1: And you're going to see different teams make it to

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Speaker 1: the finals and not all number one seeds will be there.

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Speaker 1: So I think we're starting to see cracks in what's

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Speaker 1: going to be changed. And I and I you know,

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Speaker 1: change is good. I'm not scared to change. You just

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Speaker 1: have to adapt. I like the way that you put

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Speaker 1: that how Nil changes the landscape here. I can't remember

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Speaker 1: the last time, and I'm not a March Madness person,

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Speaker 1: but when was the last time we had four teams

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Speaker 1: that did not that only came from the coasts, right,

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Speaker 1: you're talking about Florida, You're talking about the West coast

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Speaker 1: with San Diego and Yukon over on the East coast

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Speaker 1: where you didn't have the rest of the country involved.

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Speaker 1: Because you talked about how these schools don't have as

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Speaker 1: big fan bases as perhaps Kansas or Indiana would. That's

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Speaker 1: that makes a difference in terms of just people who

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Speaker 1: are naturally attracted to wanting to turn on the game. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: I'm and and that's why, you know, you know, that's

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Speaker 1: why sports is the you know, the ultimate drama in television. Right. Um,

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Speaker 1: you just don't know, you don't know the autom have predicted. Um,

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Speaker 1: and uh, I'm sure there'll be some articles if these

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Speaker 1: ratings are down saying that, you know, if these teams

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Speaker 1: don't have the big brand names and so forth and

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Speaker 1: so on, and if ratings are up, there'll be a

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Speaker 1: story about sports betting and how betting helped drive viewership

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Speaker 1: because there's engagement involved. We don't know yet, um, but

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Speaker 1: you know, typically and I would go back to two

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Speaker 1: thousand and eleven, when when when Sean and I created

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Speaker 1: this uh March madness, Um, you know, three day extravaganza,

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Speaker 1: excue me, three weeks extravaganza was we always wanted. We

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Speaker 1: didn't mind those early you know, uh, first round, second

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Speaker 1: round games having some upsets because you know, breaking the brackets. Um.

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Speaker 1: But you know, as you all heard, there wasn't a

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Speaker 1: single bracket on ESPN, you know, black at them that

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Speaker 1: was still alive. You know, nobody would take you know,

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Speaker 1: so you know, there was a lot of bracketbusters this

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Speaker 1: year and uh, to be determined on ratings, but I

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Speaker 1: still think the excitement was there. Everybody's still talking about

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Speaker 1: March Mans and then I want to go back just

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Speaker 1: one second. The reason why the pick a Ball Slam

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Speaker 1: and why we chose April second was because the semifinals

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Speaker 1: of the men's formament is on Saturday, the finals is

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Speaker 1: on Monday. Sunday has always been sort of a what

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Speaker 1: do we do kind of day? Why not put why

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Speaker 1: not put the pick a Ball Slam smack in the

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Speaker 1: middle of it? And now and now this year for

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Speaker 1: the first time, which rightfully so, the women's tournament is

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Speaker 1: on Sunday night, so we're actually a lead in to

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Speaker 1: the women's finals in the March Madness tournament. So it

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Speaker 1: is a fully packed what I would say, sports viewership

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Speaker 1: weekend and hopefully we'll be smack in the middle of

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Speaker 1: that mix, you know, during those audiences. So you know,

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Speaker 1: I mean, it's a very interesting year, right I mean,

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Speaker 1: the economy's coming off a little bit, you know, and

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Speaker 1: I have to draw on your you know, your background

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Speaker 1: and AD sales. I mean last year, if I'm not mistaken,

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Speaker 1: the finals, did you know one billion and overall AD revenue,

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Speaker 1: but it was two million dollars for a thirty second

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Speaker 1: commercial during the championship game. Is that what they're asking? Now,

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Speaker 1: do you have any insight? Is it somewhere in that

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Speaker 1: ballpark or or our economic conditions beginning to weigh heavily

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Speaker 1: on on on people who want to take out spots. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: So the way the marketplace works for for March Madness

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Speaker 1: is majority, probably eighty percent of that inventory was sold

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Speaker 1: you know, three months ago, four months ago, or even

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Speaker 1: three year, two multi year deal. So you know, the

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Speaker 1: number you're you're seeing it is probably going to be

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Speaker 1: very close to that billion dollars and more, just because

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Speaker 1: you know a lot of that inventory is based before

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Speaker 1: the teams are chosen, right, you know, it's just you're

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Speaker 1: you're buying into the tournament. And I love this concept

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Speaker 1: where you know, the Capitol One, the Coca Colas, the

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Speaker 1: at and ts that produce commercials for these three to

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Speaker 1: three weeks, right, I mean, I think that's terrific when

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Speaker 1: you can have that contextual commercial versus the content itself

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Speaker 1: and they're intertwined. Where Bartley is in all the Capital

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Speaker 1: One commercials, you know, and you see Reggie Miller in

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Speaker 1: Wendy's commercials and things of that nature. So they're already

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Speaker 1: preparing for this, you know, you know, six seven months

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Speaker 1: ahead of schedule of this event. So what you're really

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Speaker 1: talking about is the last minute. You're filling up the

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Speaker 1: last ten percent. And I still think they're selling the

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Speaker 1: same rating as if this was going to be Michigan

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Speaker 1: versus Kentucky, you know what I mean. I don't think

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Speaker 1: they're thinking San Diego State and Connecticut, which you know

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Speaker 1: obviously doesn't have the brand power. But I do believe

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Speaker 1: it's still going to be a great rating. People still

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Speaker 1: love this event, and it's just the fields are going

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Speaker 1: to be different. The brand names are going to be

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Speaker 1: different from here on forward because of nil and transfer portals,

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Speaker 1: and that's changing things. I know we're running out of time,

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Speaker 1: but I want to bring this up about the pickleball tournament.

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Speaker 1: I know the big names are head lining this with

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Speaker 1: Roddick McEnroe, Agacy, and Chang, but hey, there's the Amateur

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Speaker 1: pickle Ball Slam Tournament. That's where people like Damien and

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Speaker 1: Scarlett have a chance to get in this thing. They're

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Speaker 1: gonna compete for ten thousand dollars and if I'm reading

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Speaker 1: this right, the winner will compete against the tennis legends. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: how cool is that? I mean that I think is

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Speaker 1: actually thanks for bringing that up. That's actually a real

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Speaker 1: special part of this whole weekend. The that is conrect.

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Speaker 1: The amateur event is Friday and Saturday at a local

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Speaker 1: park about twenty minutes outside of the hard Rock and

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Speaker 1: the semifinals and finals are on Saturday and once there's

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Speaker 1: two divisions, so each division we'll get to get the

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Speaker 1: ten thousand dollars they win the division, and then Roddick, Chang,

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Speaker 1: Agacy and McEnroe are coming to the park. We're a

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Speaker 1: public park and they're gonna play in a pickle ball

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Speaker 1: match against the winners. This is amazing and hopefully that

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Speaker 1: blows up on social We have a couple of local

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Speaker 1: radio stations that are going to come in and kind

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Speaker 1: of broadcast that event, which is going to be fun.

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Speaker 1: We've got a great partners in this inaugural Pickaball event.

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Speaker 1: We got Subway and Franklin and hard Rock all sponsoring.

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Speaker 1: Case Swiss are all involved in the Pickaball Sam Franklin,

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Speaker 1: which is the ball that's gonna be played with so

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Speaker 1: great sponsors, great weekend, March madness. I'm just going I

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Speaker 1: just as a sportsman. I'm just smiling talking to you three.

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Speaker 1: It's been it's it's really fun. Well, thanks for making

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Speaker 1: my sports weekend busy, busy, busy. David Levy, co CEO

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Speaker 1: and founder of Horizons Sports and Experiences and former president

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Speaker 1: of Turning, thank you so much, sir for joining us

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Speaker 1: on the Bloomberg Business of Sports. Michael, thank you, Damien

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Speaker 1: and Scarlett. Thanks and I hope you'll be watching this

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Speaker 1: Sunday all. This is the Bloomberg Business of Sports pod asked.

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Speaker 1: I'm Michael Barr, along with Scarlet Food and Damian Saasaur.

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Speaker 1: Catch us here each and every Monday, Wednesday and Thursday

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Speaker 1: exploring the world of money in sports, and catch me

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Speaker 1: on Twitter at Big Bar Sports. I'm on Twitter at

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Speaker 1: Scarlet Food, and I'm on Twitter at Deep Sassur. You

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Speaker 1: are listening to the Bloomberg Business of Sports on Bloomberg

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Speaker 1: Radio around the world.