The Warriors' plan to bring fans back | The $1 deal behind TPC Sawgrass | A betting record

Plus: An NFL stadium's revolutionary cameras

Sports Business

Forget the Super Bowl. Forget the World Cup. The 2020 U.S. presidential election was the single biggest betting event ever for at least one major sportsbook.

An online chat platform for sports fans launched by two of FanDuel's cofounders has raised $5 million in a Series A round.

Pro Football

Levi's Stadium, the home of the 49ers, is unveiling the NFL's first full-field 8K video replay system tonight. That level of resolution will allow viewers to determine if a single blade of grass is green or painted white.

Baseball

The list of declined player options and the lack of qualifying offers show just how little money MLB teams might be willing to shell out next season. With Steve Cohen now approved as the Mets' owner, however, New York might be in a position to spend.

Soccer

Celtic recorded a small profit before tax for 2019-20—no small feat given the impact of the pandemic. The bad news is that for the first time in a decade, its business model is showing signs of stress.

It's way behind Liverpool and Chelsea, but Manchester United has joined TikTok. It could learn something from a nearby 21-year-old whose ball-juggling videos attract more than 60 million views a month. "The BBC might put hundreds of thousands of pounds into one episode of something, and if it gets a million views, they're happy," she tells us. "My budget's an iPhone."

USWNT co-captain Alex Morgan has joined with fellow star athletes Klay Thompson, Travis Pastrana and Paul Rodriguez to launch a CBD brand.

Hockey

Before the NHL was sideswiped by the coronavirus, salary-cap projections for the 2020-21 season were rosy. Seven months later, the economic scene looks very different, with three of last season's four conference finalists in particularly tough spots.

Golf

TPC Sawgrass, the flagship of the Tournament Players Club chain, is celebrating its 40th birthday. The PGA Tour commissioner who got the course built tells the story of the $1 deal that yielded the permanent home of the Players Championship.

Featured Story

The NBA may be returning to the court sooner than anyone expected, which heightens the challenge of getting fans back in arenas—no small concern for the Warriors as they face an eye-watering luxury-tax bill. Golden State created a safe environment for its recent mini training camp, the "Dubble," and now the team is tackling the much larger problem. Two Warriors executives detail the team's new protocols; read the full story here.

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Upon Further Review

With the Nascar season drawing to a close this weekend and the good, available rides for 2021 now accounted for, we can examine the five big winners of free agency as well as five drivers who didn't receive the riches they had sought. All eyes are on Jimmie Johnson, however, as he hangs up his helmet. Johnson has been a mainstay on our list of the highest-paid Nascar drivers, placing no worse than fourth since at least 2008 and coming in at No. 2 in our most recent ranking.

The Last Word

“We’re not a normal sport where you can practice without being where you need to be.”

Chris Corning

Covid-19 lockdowns are complicating snowboarders' training schedules. "We don't have spring training for five to eight weeks like a lot of other sports; we have two weeks here and maybe a couple weeks during the winter where possibly we'll get on a jump," says reigning slopestyle world champion Chris Corning. "It's up to you to figure out your tricks and learn them. In two days, you have to learn new tricks on a new course." For more on how Corning is getting ready for a shortened season, read the full story here.