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John Ourand & Eriq Gardner
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Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday (Thursday is an Inner Circle exclusive)
A professional-grade rundown on the business of sports from John Ourand, the industry’s preeminent journalist, covering the leagues, players, agencies, media deals, and the egos fueling it all. Plus, the latest intel from Eriq Gardner on the sports legal beat.
THE LATEST ARTICLES
FIFA Prepares Its 2030 Wish List
With the overperforming World Cup headed into its final (and probably thrilling) stretch, FIFA is seemingly in the catbird seat in negotiating rights deals for 2030 and 2034. And while there is no shortage of suitors, there are surprisingly few details, and a time-zone penalty that makes viewership and rights fees next to impossible to predict.
John Ourand
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July 7, 2026
Waiting for Goodell
As talk of a new suite of NFL deals cools, analyst Steven Cahall predicts a bruising rights fight that will reshape media economics, while casting doubt on blockbuster M&A scenarios for NBC and Fox.
John Ourand
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June 30, 2026
Shanks United
With World Cup ratings smashing expectations, Fox Sports C.E.O. Eric Shanks opens up about his network’s long bet on soccer, the Zlatan phenomenon, and the virtue of hydration breaks.
Sports Docs’ Drive to Survive
Since their pandemic-era Last Dance peak, sports documentaries have become harder and harder to get greenlit—even at Netflix. Superstars and monoculture nostalgia plays can still find a home, but the bar has been raised while the payouts have fallen. So what’s a sports doc producer to do?
John Ourand
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June 23, 2026
Sports Betting Enters Its World Cup Era
FanDuel president Christian Genetski is only six weeks into his newly expanded role running the company, but he’s got plenty of thoughts about the state of the sports-betting business—from FanDuel’s move into prediction markets to the Sorsby headache and why this year’s World Cup is like March Madness on steroids.
YouTube’s Skinny Sports Rights Diet
For a while, it seemed as though YouTube was coming to eat everyone’s lunch in the sports media business. But after its recent miss on a suite of NFL games, many media insiders are wondering how much the Google guys really want to be in on the actual game action—and if they need the league at all.
John Ourand
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June 16, 2026
Zen Garden
After decades of dysfunction, the Knicks won their first title since 1973 thanks to Jim Dolan, of all people, finally trusting the right basketball specialists and resisting the mistakes that defined the previous 25 years. Mike Breen, the voice of the team, and clutch ESPN analyst Brian Windhorst break it down.
Can Fox Avoid the Skipper Tax?
As the NFL continues to draw congressional heat, it’s growing increasingly tired with Rupert Murdoch for instigating the fuss. With the league’s coveted antitrust exemption theoretically in the crosshairs, might Fox have bitten the hand that feeds it?
John Ourand
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June 9, 2026
YouTube’s NFL Discipline & NFL Partner Math
Rich Greenfield, the LightShed partner and sports guru, weighs in on the looming NFL rights renegotiation bonanza: who wins, who blinks first, and why the league still has all the leverage in the post-cord-cutting era.
Searching for Conor McGregor
The UFC is at the beginning of a seven-year, $7.7 billion media deal, the envy of every other emerging sports outfit in the world, and about to reach the ultimate mark of Trump II cultural dominance with a much-hyped fight card on the White House lawn. So where are all its new stars?