Shaquille O’Neal and presenting sponsor JBL locked in Super Bowl plans to bring his carnival themed music festival, “Shaq’s Fun House,” to Atlanta on Feb. 1. The evening will feature performances by rap trio Migos, iconic global DJ Tiesto, Diplo, as well as Lil Jon, T-Pain, and a set by SHAQ aka DJ Diesel. The event will feature a full carnival midway, a performance from Mystere by Cirque Du Soleil, interactive circus performers, food options from Atlanta restaurants more. The event will be hosted at Live at the Battery! located at SunTrust Park
PGA TOUR Champions announced that professional employer organization Oasis Outsourcing will be the title sponsor of the Oasis Championship, a premier PGA TOUR Champions event held annually in Boca Raton. The three-year agreement runs through 2021 with the 2019 Oasis Championship slated to tee off on Feb. 4-10.
Yahoo Sports is giving all Daily Fantasy Sports fans a shot to win big during the remainder of the regular season, hosting a Million Dollar Baller contest with $250K in overlay and only accepting a total of $750K in entry fees. Yahoo Daily Fantasy’s Million Dollar Baller is open for registration and will cap at 37,500 entries. The top 9,530 participants, roughly 25% of the field, will share a portion of the $1 million total prizes, with $100,000 guaranteed to first place.
DIGITAL, DATA & STREAMING
NASCAR inked a multi-year partnership with Sportradar’s Integrity Services. The deal will see Sportradar’s Fraud Detection System will monitor domestic and global betting activity for signs of “nefarious” activity for all races across NASCAR’s three largest events: Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series, NASCAR Xfinity Series and NASCAR Camping World Truck Series. The deal will include on-site workshops for NASCAR drivers, teams, officials and associated stakeholders delivered by Sportradar’s integrity and educational experts. In addition, Sportradar’s Integrity Services will also help NASCAR develop a full-fledged betting integrity program, including robust betting-related rules and policies.
The NBA and The Stars Group announced a new multiyear partnership that designates the company as an authorized gaming operator of the NBA in the US, marking The Stars Group’s first with a professional sports league in the country. As part of the partnership, The Stars Group will have the right to use official NBA betting data and league marks across The Stars Group’s digital sports betting offerings. During the partnership, The Stars Group will be promoted across the NBA’s digital assets including NBA TV, NBA.com, the NBA App and NBA social media platforms. Additionally, the NBA will be promoted across The Stars Group’s gaming platforms including PokerStars.
Riot Games scored a record-setting 99.6 million unique viewers for the Worlds 2018 – Finals to rank as the largest viewership number for any esports event in history, and topping last year’s benchmark of 80 million unique viewers tuning in to watch who would win the Summoner’s Cup. This year’s event peaked with 44 million concurrent viewers, according to the company, with an average minute audience of 19.6 million. Meanwhile, Riot is also boasting that millions of fans worldwide also watched the World Championship Opening Ceremony presented by Mastercard which debuted kDA, a music group created by Riot Games, and their song “POP/STARS,” performed on-stage by Madison Beer, (G)-IDLE, & Jaira Burns. The music video reached #1 on the Billboard music charts, #1 on Google Play Top Songs, #1 on iTunes K-Pop chart, and #2 on iTunes all Pop. The song has accumulated more than 242.8 million video and music streams.
The Pittsburgh Steelers are getting deeper into the esports game, announcing an initial investment into the Pittsburgh Knights. The Knights were founded by James O’Connor and Rob Lee in December 2017 with the goal of creating a premier esports team in the city, boasting a roster that includes PUBG players. Additionally, the Knights were named one of the 16 teams invited to the inaugural year of the PUBG Pro League.
Red Bull Summoning will welcome DRAGON BALL FighterZ players and fans to battle it out and wrap up the official DRAGON BALL FighterZ 2018/2019 World Tour. The event will take place from Jan. 26-27 in LA, at The Majestic Downtown and will be livestreamed on Twitch. The BANDAI NAMCO title will have hopefuls battling it out at the Last Chance Qualifier on Jan. 26, before the face off at the World Finals on Jan. 27.
NBA Vice President of Basketball Operations and former NBA All-Star Shareef Abdur-Rahim has been named President of the NBA G League. Abdur-Rahim will replace Malcolm Turner, who will step down Jan. 11, to become the Athletics Director at Vanderbilt University. In his new role, Abdur-Rahim will be responsible for all aspects of the NBA G League’s business and basketball operations, including the implementation of the newly formed professional path, ongoing testing of experimental rules and league-wide expansion efforts.
KORE Software appointed Al Guido, President of the NFL’s San Francisco 49ers and CEO of Elevate Sports Ventures to its Board of Directors. “Al’s reputation as one of the foremost leaders in sports today makes him a perfect addition to our team,” said Matt Sebal, KORE Software’s Chairman of the Board. “For KORE, ensuring our leadership understands the challenges and opportunities that impact our growing client base is essential to ensuring we continue to be the global leaders in our field. In Al, we have as seasoned senior leader at the top of his game whose experience and dedication to sports, entertainment and brands mirrors our approach exactly.”
FOX Sports Latin America confirmed the first round of names who will be joining the First International Anti-piracy Summit devoted to sports that to be held for the first time in Latin America, taking place in Mexico City on Feb. 21-22. Emilio Garcia Silvero, FIFA’s Chief Legal Officer; Javier Tebas and Carlos Del Campo, President and y Deputy Director respectively of the Spanish League; Arne Rees, EVP of Bundesliga; Yon De Luisa, President of the Mexican Football Federation; Enrique Bonilla, President of the MX League; Mariano Elizondo, President of the Superliga Argentina de Futbol; Jorge Enrique Vélez, President of the Colombian Dimayor League; Miguel Ángel Gil, CEO of the Atlético De Madrid Club; and more. Topics will include: content protection, sports rights, production and distribution strategy, artificial intelligence, augmented reality, business intelligence, fan’s engagement, successful practices, education & CSR, innovation, gaming and esports.
The City of Oakland filed a federal lawsuit against the Raiders and the NFL. City Attorney Barbara J. Parker “recommended and the Oakland City Council authorized filing the lawsuit to recover damages resulting from the Raiders’ illegal move to Las Vegas, including lost revenue, money that Oakland taxpayers invested in the Raiders and other costs,” an claimed that the league was “boycotting Oakland in the marketplace for hosting a football club” and, thus, “violated federal antitrust laws while the Raiders’ move also violated the NFL’s own policies for team relocation.”
Raptors/Warriors on ESPN at 10:30p.
