PROGRAMMING

FOX Sports unveiled its broadcast roster for its coverage of Major League Soccer’s 25th Season Celebration, which culminates with the 2020 MLS Cup. The campaign kicks off Saturday, as Nashville makes its league debut against 2018 MLS Cup champion Atlanta United with coverage beginning at 8p on FOX. Play-by-play announcer John Strong, match analyst Stu Holden and reporter Katie Witham lead FOX Sports’ MLS broadcast team. In addition, Brad Evans makes his national television debut as a match analyst, joining Aly Wagner, Maurice Edu, Kyndra de St. Aubin and Warren Barton, who contribute in the same role. On play-by-play, JP Dellacamera returns with Lisa Byington, Keith Costigan, Mark Followill, Poppy Miller and Jake Zivin also calling matches throughout the season. Danielle Slaton, Marisa Pilla, Jackie Montgomery, Kiri Bloore and Alex Curry serve as reporters. Rob Stone and Sara Walsh share host duties for MLS studio coverage, joined by Alexi Lalas as studio analyst.

Around the dial, ESPN and ESPN Deportes’ coverage of the MLS season will kick off Sunday, with a doubleheader: Seattle Sounders/Chicago Fire (3p), followed by Los Angeles FC/Inter Miami CF (5:30p). ESPN and ABC will combine to air 31 regular-season matches during MLS’s inaugural 25th season. ESPN Deportes will also offer a Spanish-language presentation of all 31 matches, ESPN’s lead MLS commentator team will be Jon Champion (play-by-play) and Taylor Twellman (analyst). They will make their 2020 debut in Los Angeles with reporter Stefano Fusaro, while Adrian Healey, MLS Cup champion Alejandro Moreno and reporter Sebastian Salazar will call the Seattle opener. The ESPN Deportes Spanish-language teams include Mauricio Pedroza and former U.S. National Team player and three-time MLS champion Hérculez Gómez in LA, while Richard Mendez and Alex Pareja will be in Seattle.

The Professional Fighters League is launching the annual PFL Awards, honoring the league’s best fighters and moments of the year. PFL will also recognize its Professional of the Year, a fighter who best exemplifies sportsmanship in the cage and leadership in the community. Fans, media, fighters and the league will cast votes across 10 categories, with winners being unveiled during the PFL Awards Show on ESPN+ in March. “We are excited to announce the launch of the first-ever annual PFL Awards,” said Peter Murray, CEO of the Professional Fighters League. “2019 was a record year for the PFL on ESPN, doubling our Championship audience with over 400,000 TV viewers in the U.S., and over two million globally. This success is attributed to our great fighters, many of whom had to fight five times last season for a shot at the $1 Million Dollar Championship. Through the PFL Awards, we will shine a light on the many fighter achievements and moments deserving of recognition.”

The Hockey East Association and CBS Interactive inked a multi-year agreement to stream all Hockey East men’s and women’s games on CBS All Access, The partnership, beginning with the 2019-2020 regular season, is the first of its kind for Hockey East and will see each game played in Hockey East arenas, including all postseason contests for both the men’s and women’s leagues, streamed live in the United States and Canada on the platform, with archival content available on demand as well.

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LaLiga North America entered into a multi-year partnership with Verizon, exclusive to the United States. The deal will offer Verizon customers the chance to interact with the soccer league via experiential events, educational opportunities, youth and coaching programming, clinics and tournaments – all officially launching with ElClásico on Sunday. “This partnership with Verizon further validates North America as a key growth region for soccer and LaLiga, and where leading companies are recognizing the full potential of the sport and the audience it attracts,” said CEO of LaLiga North America, Boris Gartner. “We welcome Verizon to the LaLiga family and look forward to growing soccer and super-serving our fans together.”

DIGITAL, DATA & TECH

Minute Media raised $40 million in venture capital, bringing its total funding to $160 million. This latest round of funding was led by Dawn Capital with participation from existing investors. The new funds will be used to support global expansion and enhancements to its tech publishing platform, further invest in the recently acquired The Players’ Tribune athlete-focused content and prepare for future acquisitions.

Roar Digital, the joint venture between MGM Resorts and GVC, announced that BetMGM is now accepting wagers throughout the state of Indiana. BetMGM is entering Indiana through a market-access agreement with Boyd Gaming, which has several casinos in the state, including the Belterra Casino in Florence, Indiana, and the Blue Chip Casino Hotel Spa in Michigan City, Indiana. “We’re excited to launch BetMGM in a state as passionate about sports as Indiana is and look forward to seeing fans in the state take advantage of our unique in-app offers,” said Adam Greenblatt, Chief Executive Officer, Roar Digital. “Indiana marks an incredibly important expansion for us as we look to solidify our presence in the Midwest and continue to bring BetMGM to new states in the US.”

ESPN Digital reports that January saw a sports category record 117.4 million unique visitors on its platforms, up 19% YOY. It also captured 5.9 billion total minutes, up 9% YOY, for its best January on record. Additionally, the ESPN App logged its third-largest month ever in terms of uniques with 24.7 million, up 24% YOY. ESPN.com alone also reached a record high 102.0 million unique visitors.

The Vegas Golden Knights reached an extension of the organization’s partnership with 15 Seconds of Fame, the mobile app and social media platform that delivers users their personal videoboard and TV appearances from live events. 15SOF’s platform allows for fans to receive clips of their Knight Tron appearances from Vegas Golden Knights games at The Fortress.

ESPORTS

In this week’s edition of Cynopsis Esports…
· Dota adds local flavor
· Events see coronavirus chaos
· ONE Esports Bangs out mobile event
· Examining Call of Duty’s marching orders
· New Lifestyle section
· 100 Thieves’ apparel program
· Logitech gets cozy with Herman Miller
· Global esports heading for $1.1 billion

THE MAIN EVENT

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In the Know
Who portrayed the character, boxer Maggie Fitzgerald in the film Million Dollar Baby? (Hint: not Clint.) (Email [email protected] with your answer and be sure to include your name, company and city).

Answer to Our Last Sports Trivia Question
In the WWE, who was known as “The Mouth of the South”? Answer: Jimmy Hart. Kudos: John Ferlazzo/London; Keith “The Mouth of Manhattan” Marder-Halstead Real Estate/NY; Rodney Leconte-Disney Streaming Services/NY; Chris Long-DraftKings/NY; Scott Jenkins-Gracenote/NY; C.J. Bottitta-Big Picture Productions & Consulting/Apex; Gerald Delon-NEP Group/Pittsburgh; Brent Fuller-Transflo/Tampa; Tom Lopez-UPS/Atlanta; Joe Lyons-ESPN/Dallas; Andy Pittman-TAMU/College Station; Bill Robertson-WCHA/Bloomington; Greg Moloznik-GLM Media/Scottsdale; Dominick Latorre-Sinclair Broadcast Group/Simi Valley; Larry Hutchings/Nipomo; Lorrie Shilling/El Segundo; Jacob Ullman-FOX Sports/LA