Under Armour Exits NFL - Front Office Sports (2024)

Under Armour is ending its on-field licensing contract with the NFL and restructuring its business to focus on being “a performance brand” above all.

Products with the company’s logo will be barred from being worn or displayed on the field during NFL games.

The decision comes after Under Armour terminated multiple collegiate contracts in the last year.

• Cut ties with Cal and its 10-year, $85 million deal.
• Left its record 15-year, $280 million deal with UCLA.
• Paid $9.75 million to exit its 10-year, $50 million deal with Cincinnati.

In 2019, Under Armour also backed out of a deal to provide MLB uniforms, saying it would save the company $50 million.

On-field NFL licensing agreements are estimated to be valued between $10 and $15 million.

Under Armour-sponsored NFL athletes are reportedly “re-evaluating” their marketing opportunities ahead of next season, though the company confirmed its contract with Super Bowl-bound Tom Brady is intact.

Houston Rockets owner Tilman Fertitta has big plans for his hospitality empire.

Fertitta Entertainment, parent company to Golden Nugget casinos and restaurant chain operator Landry’s, is going public through a merger with a SPAC called FAST Acquisition Corp.

The new company is valued at $6.6 billion. Fertitta will be the largest stakeholder at 60%. Institutional investors — including Fidelity and BlackRock — are adding $1.2 billion for a roughly 35% stake in the business.

Fertitta Entertainment made its move to sports when Fertitta bought the Houston Rockets for $2.2 billion in 2017. Similar crossovers between sports and hospitality have been ongoing for decades.

• Now: A-Rod is a platform investor in a $650 million hospitality fund with CGI Merchant Group. Announced last year, the fund aims to acquire and build 20 hotels throughout North America and the Caribbean by 2024.
• Then: Football legend Roger Staubach founded his own real estate firm in 1977. Staubach was once the highest-earning retired NFL player because of his wide-ranging ventures.

In its history, Fertitta Entertainment has made 25 acquisitions, including six public companies, for over $3 billion.

“The consumer is coming back,” Fertitta told CNBC last week. “Where we can do business, we are doing business.”

Dak Prescott is adding robots to his roster. Don’t worry — not on the field.

The Dallas Cowboys quarterback is part of the latest investment round for OxeFit, a sports medicine startup offering an “integrated fitness ecosystem.”

The company aims to bring advanced robotics and AI to strength training. The Series A round of funding was led by Lydia Partners, and the $12.5 million raised will go toward product development and other initiatives.

“There is tremendous untapped potential in leveraging technology to make strength training an easy and critical part of our daily health and fitness,” said OxeFit co-founder, CEO and Chairman of the Board Mohammed Shanableh.

OxeFit is scheduled to launch its equipment this year for in-home use, fitness clubs and rehabilitation centers.

Other athletes, including teammates Blake Jarwin and Jason Witten, Baltimore Ravens receiver Dez Bryant and the New York Jets’ Demaryius Thomas, join Prescott as investors.

A cryptocurrency exchange has proposed a new way for sportsbooks to manage risk.

Digital asset trading platform ErisX asked the Commodity Futures Trading Commission to review whether casinos can use futures contracts to hedge against NFL bets.

The contracts are designed to help prevent an imbalance in wagers. The CFTC will determine whether sportsbooks can protect against losses the way a financial business would use derivatives as a similar tool.

Futures contracts would provide sportsbooks with the ability to accept more tickets and larger wagers, and the trading would be limited to licensed sportsbooks.

Contracts on NFL games are the priority, but ErisX eventually wants to offer professional baseball and basketball contracts if the CFTC grants approval.

But approval is unlikely. Congress previously banned financial instruments involving gaming in 2010. Some, however, believe the current rules are due for a change.