Dear reader,

Welcome to The Playbook, a weekly newsletter on the business of sports and gaming. If someone shared this newsletter with you or if you’ve found the online version, please hit the subscribe button below — it’s free! You can unsubscribe anytime.

Unfortunately, I do not have a story for you this week. The story I’d been working on over the last few days hasn’t shaped up as per my expectations. I will be back with a detailed story next week.

Until then, I’ve put together a short curated edition featuring the top sports business news and long reads for the weekend.

Warm regards,

Venkat

⚡️Quick Singles

⚽️💰🚪: American investor John Textor is seeking to exit his 45% holding in Premier League club Crystal Palace FC. Textor, however, wants to remain involved in English football, and might be eyeing Everton FC, whose sale to 777 Partners is currently in limbo over the latter’s financing issues. Besides his co-ownership of Palace, Textor also owns majority stakes in French Ligue 1 club Olympique Lyonnais, Brazilian club Botafogo FC, and Belgium’s RWD Molenbeek. 

⚽️⚪️🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿:Energy drink giant Red Bull has purchased a minority stake in English football club Leeds United, which will also see its brand featured on the club’s shirts from next season. Red Bull is the latest addition to Leeds’ ownership group — the US-based 49ers Enterprise, following the inclusion of Hollywood star Will Ferrell. Red Bull has teams playing in various leagues including New York Red Bulls (MLS), RB Leipzig (Bundesliga/Germany), Red Bull Bragantino (Brazil), and Red Bull Salzburg (Bundesliga/Austria).

✋🏏🙅:The Board of Control for Cricket in India is reportedly leaning towards holding on to the existing 3+1 retention rule ahead of the Indian Premier League’s mega auctions, according to News18. The retention rule has been the subject of much speculation and discussion of late, with voices in favour of increasing the quota to 6-8 players to allow franchises to retain their core and build loyalty.

♟️🇮🇳🏆:Indian grandmaster Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa, 18, defeated five-time world champion Magnus Carlsen in a classical game for the first time in his career on Wednesday. Praggnanandhaa’s win over Carlsen came in the third round of the Norway Chess super tournament at Stavanger. However, Pragg lost to world number three Hikaru Nakamura a day later and relinquished his lead in the tournament. His grandmaster sister R Vaishali is also participating in the women’s edition, and is currently leading in the tournament after her win over Swede Pia Cramling.

📖 Weekend Reading

Reebok Isn’t A Hobby for Shaquille O’Neal [The New York Times]

How a bet on Everton engulfed a football investor and its financial backers [Financial Times]

Inter Milan Was A Billionaire Plaything, Then The Money Ran Out [Bloomberg]

You can reach out to me at venkat@thecore.in with any feedback (good, bad, or ugly), tips, and ideas. I take my mailbag seriously, and would love to hear from you! You can also connect with me on X (@venkatananth) and LinkedIn. Thanks for reading, and see you again next Friday!