Boston Celtics Now Most Valuable Team, Betting on March Madness

Summary

Bloomberg Business of Sports: "Boston Celtics Now Most Valuable Team, Betting on March Madness"

Date: March 21, 2025
Hosts: Michael Barr, Vanessa Perdomo, Damian Sassour
Guests: Randall Williams (Bloomberg Sports Business Reporter), Ira Budway (Bloomberg News Global Business of Sports Reporter), Adam Greenblatt (BetMGM CEO)

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Overview

This episode breaks down two of the biggest financial stories in sports:

1. The historic $6.1B sale of the Boston Celtics—now the world's most valuable sports team.
2. The evolving landscape of college athletics, from a $3B NCAA legal settlement to the booming market for betting on men’s and women’s March Madness, with a focused discussion on surging women’s betting interest and regulatory changes in college sports.

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The Boston Celtics’ $6.1 Billion Sale

Key Points

• Historic Sale: The Celtics were sold for $6.1B to a group led by Bill Chisholm, making it the most expensive sports franchise transaction ever.
• No Stadium Ownership: The Celtics do not own their stadium, which was seen as a significant caveat to the deal.
• Implications for NBA Expansion: The sale price sets a benchmark for future NBA expansion fees and potential franchise sales, particularly in markets like Las Vegas and Seattle.
• Extraordinary ROI: The previous owners (Boston Basketball Partners, led by Wyc Grousbeck) purchased the Celtics in 2002 for $360M—netting a nearly 17x return in 23 years.

Discussion Highlights & Quotes

• Historical Context:
  • Michael Barr: “Gee, something happened with the Boston Celtics.” (03:50)
  • Randall Williams: “Looks like they're sold. $6.1 billion to Bill Chisholm.” (03:54)
• Benchmark Setting:
  • Randall Williams: “$6 billion without a stadium is a lot of money... This is setting the table for NBA expansion.” (04:22)
• Insider Details & Future of Team Ownership:
  • Randall Williams: “They said that they were going to sell this in two phases, 51% and 49%... Bill Chisholm... is going to purchase the rest of the team at a later date.” (07:16)
• On Iconic Franchises Surpassing This Record:
  • Randall Williams: “There will be a team that eventually surpasses this. The team to do it will have to be an iconic franchise in a big market.” (09:04)
• ROI Comparison:
  • Vanessa Perdomo: “Wyc Grousbeck bought the team in 2002 for 360 million. 6.1 billion... 17x in 23 years... I'm looking up Nvidia stock, right?” (06:09)

Timestamps

• Celtics sale announcement and context — 03:49–06:38
• Impact on expansion/benchmark for other leagues — 04:22–05:45
• Ownership changes and multi-phase deal — 07:08–07:33
• Comparing return on investment — 06:09–07:53

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The Changing College Sports Financial Landscape

Key Points

• NCAA Settlement: A class-action settlement (pending approval) would pay $2.8B to former athletes and allow schools to pay up to 22% of athletic revenue directly to players.
• Enforcement & Regulation: Deloitte will run a clearinghouse to vet all significant NIL (Name, Image, Likeness) deals—aimed at establishing “fair market value” and reducing “pay to play” abuses.
• The Future is Uncertain: Whether true collective bargaining agreements (CBAs) in college sports are possible remains to be seen, given legal and logistical hurdles.

Discussion Highlights & Quotes

• Ira Budway: “This class action suit is supposed to be finalized in April... schools will now be able to pay players directly up to 22% of their athletic revenue.” (16:31)
• Enforcement Complexity:
  • Ira Budway: “If you have a deal of more than $600, you have to bring it to the clearinghouse... [Deloitte] is going to look at the deal... is this actually just the money that they're trying to pay you to come play for their school? If they think it's too much, they're going to throw it out.” (18:16)
  • Damian Sassour: “How do you wrangle all this together? This all kind of developed organically and there's no real regulatory body...” (18:07)
• Impact on Competitive Balance:
  • Ira Budway: “They're trying to make it a relatively level playing field, which is the whole point of salary caps and salary structures and professional sports in general.” (22:15)
  • Ira Budway: “The CBA as a structure is obviously the solution to all of these problems... But how you port that to college sports, no one's figured out yet.” (24:17)
• The Bottom Line for Athletes:
  • Michael Barr: “You got to build a name first to cash in on [NIL], which means you’ve got to play the doggone game. And if you don’t play the game, you don’t build a name.” (25:12)
  • Ira Budway: “The argument is this is antitrust behavior, like you're being a monopolist. If you tell people they can't sign a deal, how does the NCAA have the authority to tell two parties that they can't make a deal for as much money as they feel like?” (22:15)

Timestamps

• NCAA settlement and NIL regulation explained — 16:20–24:13
• NIL enforcement and challenges — 18:16–22:15
• CBAs and the future of college athlete pay — 24:13–26:56

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March Madness: The Business & Betting Boom

Key Points

• Explosive Growth in Women’s Betting: BetMGM saw a 30% YoY increase in women’s college basketball bets, with a staggering 750% growth over two years—the fastest in any sports betting sector.
• Changing Audience: March Madness especially draws more recreational, less experienced bettors, leading to a 20% rise in pre-game bets vs. in-play betting.
• Expanding Betting Options: BetMGM is offering more player props and in-game markets, including for women’s games, and partnering with media brands like The GIST to reach new, largely female sports fans.

Discussion Highlights & Quotes

• The “Cinderella” Effect:
  • Adam Greenblatt: “The public [is] captivated by those Cinderella stories and really investing behind them.” (31:30)
• Boom in Women’s Sports Betting:
  • Adam Greenblatt: “This year we’ve seen a 30% year on year increase in bets on women’s college basketball... Over the past two years, we’ve experienced more than 750% increase in bets on the women’s college game.” (32:29)
• New Partnerships and Audience Insights:
  • Adam Greenblatt: “We’ve partnered for The GIST to provide social media content during the women’s tournament... 71% of the GIST’s readership has expressed interest in sports betting.” (32:29)
• Trends & Product Offerings:
  • Adam Greenblatt: “We have something for everybody... free to play games, bracket challenges, singles bets, parlays... You can even bet whether teams are going to score in the first minute or how many dunks there will be.” (30:00)
• Recreational Bettors’ Impact:
  • Adam Greenblatt: “We see about a 20% increase in the proportion of pre-game bets during March Madness because the audience is much, much wider.” (35:29)

Timestamps

• Betting landscape and BetMGM products — 29:34–32:13
• Growth and data on women’s sports betting — 32:13–36:03
• March Madness audience and pre-game betting trends — 35:29
• International perspective and upcoming soccer World Cup — 36:29–38:25

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Notable & Memorable Quotes

• “$6 billion without a stadium is a lot of money... This is setting the table for NBA expansion.” — Randall Williams (04:22)
• “17x in 23 years... I’m looking up Nvidia stock, right?” — Vanessa Perdomo (06:09)
• “Over the past two years, we've experienced more than 750% increase in bets on the women's college game.” — Adam Greenblatt (32:29)
• “You’ve got to build a name first to cash in on that, which means you’ve got to play the doggone game. And if you don’t play the game, you don’t build a name.” — Michael Barr (25:12)
• “The CBA as a structure is obviously the solution to all of these problems... But how you port that to college sports, no one's figured out yet.” — Ira Budway (24:17)

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Episode Structure & Flow

1. Boston Celtics’ sale and implications for sports valuations and league expansions (03:50–14:09)
2. NCAA legal settlement and future of athlete compensation, NIL, and regulatory efforts (15:37–27:49)
3. March Madness betting boom, with a deep dive into women's sports wagering, new products, and audience dynamics (28:57–40:11)

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Summary Takeaway

This episode showcases how the business of sports is driven by unprecedented valuations, legal and regulatory disruption (especially in college athletics compensation), and surging fan interest in women's sports and sports betting. The Celtics’ record sale marks a new era in team valuations, the NCAA settlement signals seismic change in athlete compensation, and March Madness—especially the women’s tournament—is driving record betting interest and new business models, underscoring sports’ transformation into a multi-billion dollar, fast-evolving financial sector.

Transcript

[Michael Barr]

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[Damian Sassour]

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[Michael Barr]

The business of sports can be intimidating or hard for a starter to break into.

[Vanessa Perdomo]

We really appreciate when our owners are actually there, you know, with us through the journey.

[Damian Sassour]

Teams, ours especially have been very intentional to diversify at all levels of the company.

[Randall Williams]

I think we're in the golden years for the NFL and college football.

[Vanessa Perdomo]

Our demographic reach has continued to expand.

[Damian Sassour]

This is going to be really unlocking.

[Ira Budway]

The streaming platform for sports fans.

[Randall Williams]

Sports valuations are rising. We'll see when they peak.

[Ira Budway]

You don't have to be the best.

[Michael Barr]

In your sport to make a whole ton of money.

[Damian Sassour]

Bloomberg Business of Sports From Bloomberg Radio.

[Michael Barr]

This is the Bloomberg Business of Sports. We explore the big money issues of the world. Sports I'm Michael Barr along with my colleagues Damian Sassour and Vanessa Perdomo. Scarlet Fu would join us later in the show. Coming up, we talk college basketball. March Madness is here and we'll talk with BetMGM CEO Adam Greenblatt about some of the biggest betting trends for the tournament.

[Adam Greenblatt]

This year we've seen a 30% year on year increase in bets on women's college basketball and this is Going to blow your mind. Over the past two years, we've experienced more than 750% increase in bets on the women's college game.

[Michael Barr]

We'll also talk the latest in a legal battle between the NCAA and former players. A crucial court date is set for early April, and that could pay out nearly $3 billion in damages to former athletes and build out plans for future compensation for college players. All of that and more is straight ahead on the Bloomberg business of sports. But first, the Boston Cel. They have a new owner. A group of buyers, including STG Partners co founder Bill Chisholm, reached a deal late this week to buy the NBA's Boston Celtics in a deal totaling just over $6 billion. Here now to take us through what we know about the deal and what could be next is Bloomberg News sports business reporter Randall Williams. Randall, welcome to the Bloomberg business of sports.

[Randall Williams]

Thank you for having me.

[Michael Barr]

Gee, something happened with the Boston Celtics.

[Randall Williams]

Looks like they're sold $6.1 billion to Bill Chisholm.

[Vanessa Perdomo]

Now, that's more than Josh Harris paid for the commanders, right?

[Ira Budway]

Yeah.

[Vanessa Perdomo]

So does that get the most.

[Randall Williams]

Yes. The most expensive sports deal ever.

[Vanessa Perdomo]

Wow.

[Michael Barr]

Which.

[Randall Williams]

People were wondering if this would happen, if they would surpass that $6 billion mark. They barely got over it.

[Ira Budway]

Wow, that's awesome.

[Vanessa Perdomo]

I mean, so 6.1 billion. Yeah. I mean, Wick Grossbeck's gotta be doing cartwheels in his right about now, wouldn't you say?

[Randall Williams]

Yeah, I think so. I mean, the Celtics don't own their stadium. And that was a big caveat to this deal because, you know, this is setting the table for NBA expansion. And if you're an expansion bidder and you're watching this, you want. You don't want to pay more than the Celtics, obviously, because the Celtics are one of the oldest franchises. They don't own their stadium. And so when you're looking at this, it's like, okay, let's set the mark and let's see what we don't want to pay. And this doesn't include a Stadium. So $6 billion without a stadium is a lot of money. You think about Vegas, Vegas is a big market. You think about Seattle. Seattle already has their stad built. So I don't think Seattle will surpass this. But who knows? Who knows what the price could go up to? I think Vegas very well could, depending on who's buying.

[Unidentified Male Guest]

But they would get it as an expansion fee. As that high of an expansion fee?

[Randall Williams]

I don't think so. The expansion fee. Bankers and people around have Told me that they expect it to be between 4 and 5 billion. Now, without a stadium. 4 and 5 billion. So just a fee straight up paid out to the NBA owners. But with a stadium, if you don't have a stadium, then you have to build one. And that could be anywhere from one and a half billion to two and a half billion dollars more. You add that on top of the 4 to 5 billion, and that's anywhere from, you know, 5 and a half to 7 and a half. I don't think that, you know, an NBA expansion team is going to sell for seven and a half billion, but there are some pretty prideful people out there, pretty prideful billionaires out there who want into this NBA business. And who knows what's going to happen?

[Unidentified Male Guest]

Is that what we saw with this was that he was just more willing to spend the money than anyone else, or why did they get chosen?

[Randall Williams]

Still be determined. I think Bill had a good group. And when you have a private equity firm that comes with a billion dollars, that helps out tremendously. I don't know the specific details of what the other bidders had, but they had the best deal. And the Boston basketball partners will be moving out at the end of 2028.

[Vanessa Perdomo]

So let's dial it back here. I mean, Wick Grossbeck bought the team in 2002 for 360 million. 6.6.1 billion. I mean, Michael Barr, 17x in 23 years. And right now, you caught me because I'm looking up Nvidia stock, right? And I'm trying to figure out when you had to buy Nvidia to get a 17 times return. I mean, like, how many assets out there. And by the way, we're not talking about a dollar. I mean, you have to invest360. To get 17x on that number is just frighteningly.

[Randall Williams]

And you have to think about, like, Steve Pagliucca, who's also an owner. He had a 20% stake and he was bidding for this as well. So, like, he's technically not a loser. When you think about him owning 20% and his team being sold, like the other groups out there, I think are, you know, you could argue are bigger losers. But for Steve, who was a big Celtics fan, you know, it's not the worst thing in the world. You already own a piece of the team. You're being paid out even more than, you know, what he got in the first place. So there's no losers in this deal, except for the people who aren't owning the team.

[Michael Barr]

Well, now the Grossbeck family They wanted it. I want to go back to what you were saying earlier. In two phases.

[Randall Williams]

Exactly.

[Michael Barr]

Can you explain that?

[Randall Williams]

They said that they were going to sell this in two phases, 51% and 49% with this first piece being sold. Now Bill Chisholm, he's going to purchase the rest of the team at a later date. So he's going to be the outright owner of this team. He and his ownership group.

[Vanessa Perdomo]

I'm looking at the chart here. Nvidia stock. If you bought Nvidia at the depths of the coronavirus, the COVID crisis, right. I'm talking March 20, March 2020, you could have got it at $7 a share. It's trading at 120. So. Okay, you know, it's been done before. I'm just let everybody know here. I mean we could have bought Nvidia and 2020 would be, you know, wouldn't be here right now, Michael Barr, you and I'd be on the beach.

[Michael Barr]

How can I. I can't do that. Why? Why can't I do that, Randall? Why can't I? You can't. Why can't I do this?

[Randall Williams]

I mean, technically you can. You just have to choose a smaller league. So whether you want to get into the nwsl, the wnba, there are other sports investments out there for us everyday being able to raise funds. Can you, Michael Barr, raise 250 million? It's not six and a half billion, you know, it's a smaller number. But that might get you a WNBA team. It might get you an NWSL team. But 250 million isn't even going to get you 2% of an NFL team.

[Michael Barr]

Oh yeah, that's. Boy, that's it. It shows you. Now you need private equity to do these. Exactly.

[Randall Williams]

You're going to see more of that in the future.

[Michael Barr]

Can the. The Celtics as a team. I, and I agree with what you're saying earlier. 6.1. That's only going to be out there for so long because somebody's going to come along maybe because this is any team now, any pro team and one day come along and they say, hey, Jerry Jones, listen, you're talking Jerry Jones.

[Randall Williams]

I don't know about that, but keep going.

[Michael Barr]

If the price is right, why not?

[Randall Williams]

I think it does. There will be a team that eventually surpasses us. Now the team to do it will have to be a iconic franchise in a big market.

[Vanessa Perdomo]

I mean, let's. Right. I mean ISHBA only paid what for the Suns? I mean that's not. Yeah, you can't Compare that exactly.

[Randall Williams]

Now, if I had to guess, it's easy to say for the MLB to surpass this, it would have to be another one of their iconic franchises. For the NFL, I think it's the next one.

[Vanessa Perdomo]

Yeah, right.

[Unidentified Male Guest]

I'm just gonna ask that NFL, it has to be just the next one and it'll keep growing on so. Right. Because like in this idea of the NFL revenue, no one can come close to it. That's why this was almost surprising. Or was it just because it was a storied franchise?

[Randall Williams]

It's both. I think it's surprising that they got just a tad bit over. But for the NFL, I mean, you have to think about the last couple purchases from the NFL. When the Panthers were sold, I believe that was around 2.2. Then you had the Broncos, which is 4.6. And then you have the commanders at 6 billion. Who knows what the next one could sell at? But if the Celtics are, you know, just surpass that by $50 million to get to 6.

[Vanessa Perdomo]

And they're the champs, the defending champs.

[Randall Williams]

And they're the defending champs and they.

[Vanessa Perdomo]

Got their crazy players locked up and they're young. Yeah. That mean, you know, so I agree with you.

[Randall Williams]

Exactly. So who, you know, you look at some of these secession plans that are out there. We know that the Seahawks have to be sold. We know that the Saints have to be sold. There's going to be somebody out there who's looking at the NFL's business and is like, these teams don't lose money. I am going to control my stadium. I'm going to make a whole lot more cash. Even after investing this money, I think it's inevitably going to be passed. And my bet would be on an NFL franchise at some point.

[Vanessa Perdomo]

Well, Randall, you know, I got to ask you, I mean, the Lakers look good, man. Talk to us a little bit about after this trade. You know, what do the Lakers look like to you? Right? Are they a real contender? But more importantly, where does this leave Dallas?

[Randall Williams]

I mean, my God, I've never seen it. I'll say I've never seen a franchise torn apart in a year the way that in a week I have seen this franchise. I mean, like, Dallas lost the Finals. Luka goes out with an injury. You trade him in the darkness of the night, and then Kyrie gets hurt, Anthony Davis gets hurt. And I mean this. I'm naming the top players. There are other players who have also been hurt in regards to the Lakers. The Lakers can contend like it has drastically. They got, they got Luka Doncic for Anthony Davis and a couple other pieces. But they didn't lose their soul when they traded for him. Which if you're trading for Luka Doncic, you're expected to lose your soul. And so with that in mind, you think about how much that supercharges the NBA as A league. With LeBron and Luka playing together. Here come the Lakers into the front court with the ball. And a one point lead.

[Ira Budway]

Reaves.

[Randall Williams]

Top of the key goes to Luka, right side. Doncic dribbling one on one against Walker Kessler. Three pointer over Kessler. It's good. Luka's first three is a Laker. And the place goes nuts. LeBron with Marcus Smart on it. LeBron dribbles right. LeBron down the middle. They forgot to stop the ball. Dunk by LeBron. What does it look like? Think about these matchups for the Lakers. If they play the Celtics, you have the, the oldest rivalry in basketball going at it again. Jalen Brown against Luka Doncic. He's thinking about pulling up for the three instead. Couple of dribbles, shot clock down to six. Jalen backs it out. He's near half court. Jalen pull up on Luka straightaway.

[Adam Greenblatt]

Three.

[Damian Sassour]

Got it.

[Randall Williams]

If they play the Cavs, it's LeBron returning to Cleveland. Like there's a lot of different stories and granted, and even in the matchup.

[Vanessa Perdomo]

Before that, through okc, I mean they're the only.

[Randall Williams]

And we're not worried about okc. Golden State, like you think about the Western Conference finals. Now you have LeBron versus Steph Butler, right wing, gets it to Curry, curls fires up three, knocks it down. He's now got 25,000 points plus in his career. The 26th player in NBA history to reach that plateau. Yeah, again, so there's a lot out there.

[Michael Barr]

See, and you're right because the, the LA against Boston and okay, old man Barr is going to talk again the 1970 back in the NBA game of the week when ABC. Yeah, we had color back then and TV antennas.

[Vanessa Perdomo]

Well, Michael, did you see where Randle just went there? He went right to the playoffs. And you know, we're talking about a $6.1 billion valuation to take it back to the Celtics. It's all about getting to the playoffs and getting. And more playoff games, more home playoff games. And now, now aren't The Lakers the two seeds? So LA's got. It's showtime.

[Randall Williams]

They're around there. I mean, so much of this is fluctuating because I think the seeds between three and eight are just so close to one another. But if LeBron and Luka are playing and they don't make at least the Western Conference finals, it would be a tremendous disappointment.

[Michael Barr]

Keep your eye, by the way, on the Cleveland Cavaliers.

[Randall Williams]

They're the real deal. They're the real deal. They don't get talked about enough because LeBron's not there anymore, but they're a serious threat.

[Michael Barr]

Spider Mitchell, crossover three ball bang.

[Randall Williams]

A 50.

[Adam Greenblatt]

A 50 piece here in.

[Michael Barr]

The first quarter for the Cavaliers. Randall Williams, my man. Thank you again for joining us on the Bloomberg Business of Sports. Always a pleasure, always dropping knowledge on us. Thank you again.

[Randall Williams]

Thank you for having me, as always.

[Michael Barr]

Up next, we dive in on March Madness for my colleagues Damian Sassauer and Vanessa Perdomo. I'm Michael Barr. You're listening to the Bloomberg Business of Sports, Bloomberg Radio around the World. The FIFA World Cup 26 is coming to North America next summer. It's the ultimate celebration of sports and culture and an opportunity to elevate your company. Get closer to where business meets the beautiful game with a premium hospitality package. Build partnerships in the best seats and suites. Achieve goals over world class food and beverage. Get closer to winning on and off the pitch. Register [e-mail] Interest Join Bloomberg in Houston or via livestream on November 4th for the Future Investor Finding the Opportunities. This 2025 event series will examine how companies are investing in their businesses to create efficiencies, innovating their products and services and improving the customer experience. This series is Presented by Invesco. Q. Q. Q.

[Ira Budway]

[e-mail] Few Future Investor Houston that's Bloomberg live.com Future Investor Houston this is Bloomberg.

[Damian Sassour]

Business of Sports from Bloomberg Radio.

[Michael Barr]

This is the Bloomberg Business of Sports where we explore the big money issues in the world of sports. I'm Michael Barr along with my colleagues Scarlet Fu and Damian Sassour. The NCAA tournament is here. But before we go all in on March Madness, we want to touch on another big story in college sports which could have a huge impact. The NCAA is expected to approve a settlement that would pay out nearly $3 billion in damages to former athletes and establish a framework for player compensation. Bloomberg News Global Business of Sports reporter Ira Budway has done a lot of reporting on this and he is here now to take us through the latest. Ira welcome back to the Bloomberg Business of Sports.

[Ira Budway]

How's it going?

[Michael Barr]

The flawed plan to gain control of college athletes pay now as my father would say, how in the hell are you going to do that?

[Ira Budway]

It's Interesting. I mean, I think people who follow college sports are aware of this settlement and the class action suits that were brought by former athletes over the fact that they weren't allowed to earn money off the field for years and years. And then the NCAA changed that rule back in 2021, and now we all know this term. Nil name, image, likeness, deals. That class action suit is supposed to be finalized in April, actually the same day as the men's NCAA basketball championship final. It has in it these provisions that schools will now be able to pay players directly up to 22% of their athletic revenue. Everyone's sort of focused on that, this pay and this cap that are included in there. But there's also a provision in there that outside deals, third party deals for nil, which basically are what now drive the market. What athletes are getting millions of dollars for, are going to be subject to a fair market review by this outside entity that's going to be run by Deloitte. Basically what they're trying to do is ensure that NIL deals are no longer used as pay to play, which is what's happening now. NIL is supposed to be like, I lend my name to your advertising campaign, you give me some money for that. But what it's become is I come to your school and play quarterback and you give me some money for that. Right. And they want that to end. They want the pay to be capped and to come through the schools and to be under their control and for them to have full visibility into the marketplace. But I think it's going to be really hard to enforce.

[Damian Sassour]

Yeah, how do you do that? I mean, how do you wrangle all this together? This all kind of developed organically and there's no real regulatory body overseeing any of this.

[Ira Budway]

Yeah, it's very tricky. I mean, this world exists in pro sports. So athletes who do endorsement deals in professional sports are supposed to are bound by rules in their collective bargaining agreements that basically say the owner can't come and make a deal with you on the side with his other company or whatever it may be, and pay you basically salary off the books. And teams have tried to break these rules. So there are these fair market reviews. They exist in sports, but they usually are part of a collective bargaining agreement. And that's how this works normally. But college obviously is a special case. There is no cba. There doesn't seem to be any movement toward one. It would require all this work about declaring athletes employees, forming unions or some kind of representation. And so they're trying to figure out a way to do this through this settlement and through this Deloitte Clearinghouse, which is basically going to say, if you have a deal of more than $600, you have to bring it to the clearinghouse. And the clearinghouse is going to look at the deal and they're going to say, is this deal with somebody who we call basically a booster, like somebody who wants the school you're going to to win? Like Phil Knight, very famously co founder of Nike, supports the Oregon Ducks, University of Oregon. He gives lots of money to their athletes and nil deals. He would be one of these people on the list, right, who he's giving this money because he wants Oregon to win, not because he's trying to, you know, promote his new company. And so if you're on that list, then Deloitte is going to take that deal and say, is this what people are paying for the work you say you're going to do for the name, image and likeness of a person like you, who plays, is a sophomore and plays in this position in this market with this many social media followers, Is this the right amount of money or is this actually just the money that they're trying to pay you to come play for their school? If they think it's too much, they're going to throw it out. And then the athlete will either have to appeal that to an arbitrator or renegotiate or just abandon it.

[Damian Sassour]

Those Deloitte guys will be really popular.

[Ira Budway]

Well, yeah, so that's one issue, right? Their authority is going to get tested in court and otherwise. And then they also then have to have this separate to the Deloitte Clearinghouse, this enforcement entity that they're going to build. Assuming this gets finalized, this gets finalized in April, this would all go into effect in July. So they've got a little bit of time to build it, but it's a real challenge because then they have to have a group of people who basically figure out if you have unreported deals. Right. A lot of times these deals, at this point, athletes are supposed to disclose their nil deals to their schools. A lot of them do not. And so you're going to be back in the same situation that they've been in for a long time, which is athlete rolls up to school in a luxury car. You don't know where that money came from. It doesn't seem to make sense. You have to open some kind of investigation. Or guy at Alabama tells on guy at Clemson because he wants to get Clemson in trouble and he knows that Guy at Clemson made a deal without disclosing, and now you got to chase down that tip. Or Guy makes a deal with a car dealership in town who is a booster for Kentucky, let's say, and the deal is, we'll give you $100,000, but you got to show up to 20,000, 20 events that we're going to hold during the course of the next year. Deloitte looks at that and says, all right, I think that passes muster. That's within the range of the reasonable. But Guy no shows, right, Goes to one event, skips the other 19. You got to follow up on all of that. I think it's going to be a real trick.

[Michael Barr]

By the way, in case anybody not familiar with the settlement part, the NCAA, if approved, would pay $2.8 billion in damages to former athletes and establish a framework for schools to compensate current players. Now, which brings me to the next question. The NCAA has just finally said, you know what? The heck with it. There's nothing we can do. Yes, the amateurism stuff, okay, it's over. All right, fine. Now you got to clean this stuff up. I guess the first step is taking the third party out of it.

[Ira Budway]

That's kind of the goal here. I mean, I think what they want to do is have these boosters give that money to the athletic department, donate it, and we will use it as part of our revenue because we're allowed to now pay 22% of our revenue to players. So that'll boost the overall average that these schools are getting. Right? It's a pegged by to an average. Give us the money and we'll pay. So this coming season, theoretically, schools are going to have about 21 million in the schools that are part of this settlement to pay players directly. And so they want to say, look, that's the money. That money we don't have to put into any kind of fair market value assessment. We can just give as much as we want as we see fit, and we will spread it out among different programs, different athletes, and we'll figure it out. Right? It's basically like we're going to have payroll and salary cap management and GMs who are going to have to do that job. But don't go outside of that, because the main thing they're worried about is competitive balance. When Phil Knight is willing to spend as much as he's willing to spend to support the University of Oregon, that's a problem for a school that doesn't have a billionaire patron. They're trying to make it a Relatively level playing field, which is the whole point of salary caps and salary structures and professional sports in general. But again, those are all part of collective bargaining agreements, which gives them legal standing. I think this. Basically the argument is this is antitrust behavior, like you're being a monopolist. If you tell people they can't sign a deal, how does the NCAA have the authority to tell two parties that they can't make a deal for as much money as they feel like? The answer is, in the case of the sport of professional leagues, well, we have a collectively bargained agreement. So everyone's signed onto it. And collectively bargained agreements generally have an antitrust exemption, so we're allowed to restrain these kind of behavior. NCAA is hoping that they can use a class action settlement to accomplish the same thing, but there really is no real precedent for that.

[Damian Sassour]

Do you feel like, from where you sit, that CBAs are inevitable in college sports?

[Ira Budway]

I mean, it's interesting. I don't know where you go from here, because getting to CBAs is its own challenge, and they've spent so long resisting that. Right. And there is no current framework really for it. And you've got the problem of, like, the rules for public schools will be different than the rules for private schools. At what level would players be represented? Who would be representing them at the table, and who would they be negotiating with? None of these questions are answered. However, the CBA as a structure is obviously the solution to all of these problems. Right? It's a solved problem. How do you pay athletes in an equitable way that is legal and that allows for competitive balance between teams? You do a collectively bargain degree.

[Damian Sassour]

The transparency is all spelled out.

[Ira Budway]

It's all there. And we know how it works. It's a solved problem. Baseball did it decades ago. Other leagues have adopted it works. But how you port that to college sports is no one's figured out yet.

[Michael Barr]

I think a lot of people, a lot of college athletes are forgetting, and you brought it up about name, image, and likeness. Well, you got to build a name first to cash in on that, which means you got to play the doggone game. And if you don't play the game, you don't build a name. Hey, that rhyme, that was good. Which came first, the chicken or the egg is like, hey, guys, you want to build the name? Caitlin Clark's a classic example. She built the name on the court, and now she made a boatload of money from endorsements. And I guess I'm trying to pass that on. Maybe that's something that needs to Be schooled into a lot of the college athletes.

[Damian Sassour]

You got to put the horse before the cart.

[Michael Barr]

Exactly. Yeah, exactly.

[Ira Budway]

Yeah, I think that's true. I think the counter argument is like, look, leagues and conferences and schools are making a lot of cash off of our work, Right. People are tuning in to watch us play and so we should get a piece of that. Right. And that's what this revenue sharing part of the agreement is really about. Right, but what is that money for? It's for the performance on the field and on the court. And no one can quite admit that because that means you're an employee.

[Tom Keene]

Right.

[Ira Budway]

And so they've tried every other way.

[Damian Sassour]

Saying that out loud would just change the game completely.

[Ira Budway]

Even in this, this settlement, they're not exactly saying schools are going to pay directly to players is for their play. They're basically saying it's revenue sharing money. And it's still nil because the players will be giving over some of their name, image and likeness rights to the schools. They don't want to open that kettle of fish. But it's like it's open in practice, it's there. And everyone knows what this is about.

[Michael Barr]

Well, yeah, I mean it's like think about it. Before all of this came about and I'm going to openly admit, but before all of this happened, with the can of worms of nil, I was like, that's right. College athletes, you make that money, you get what you can and then somebody didn't think it through and this is what we got. I mean think about it. Schools make used to make money off of the athletes jerseys and you know, and of course the college athlete is like got a free lunch and that was about it. You know, in terms of. In the cafeteria.

[Damian Sassour]

No, no, he got the degree, remember, that was scholarship.

[Michael Barr]

Okay. Yes, very much so. And by the way, you can't go to class because you gotta be out on.

[Damian Sassour]

That's a separate story.

[Michael Barr]

Yeah, Ira, if we all just had a beer, we could settle this all. Ira Boudouaou, our very own Bloomberg. Great article folks. The flawed plan to gain control of college athletes pay. Thank you again, my man.

[Ira Budway]

Thank you.

[Michael Barr]

Up next, we stick with college basketball and bring in BetMGM CEO Adam Greenblatt to talk about some of the latest betting trend for the NCAA tournament this year. For my colleagues Scarlet Fu and Damien Sassour, I'm Michael Barr. You're listening to the Bloomberg Business of sports from Bloomberg Radio. Around the world.

[Ira Budway]

There are two kinds of people in the world. People who think about climate change and people who are doing something about it. On the Zero podcast, we talk to both kinds of people, people you've heard of, like Bill Gates. I'm looking at what the world has to do to get to zero, not using climate as a moral crusade and the creative minds you haven't heard of yet. It is serious stuff, but never doom and gloom. I am Akshat Ratty. Listen to Zero every Thursday from Bloomberg Podcasts on Apple, Spotify or anywhere else you get your podcasts.

[Damian Sassour]

This is Bloomberg Business of Sports from Bloomberg Radio.

[Michael Barr]

Thanks for joining us on the Bloomberg Business of Sports. We explore the big money issues in the world of sports. I'm Michael Barr along with my colleagues Damian Sassauer and Vanessa Perdomo. The NCAA basketball tournament is underway and that means it is a big time for sports bettors. MGM is all ready for March Madness and this year it's trying out something new, including a free to play game. Here now to talk to us about the sports betting landscape for March Madness this year and more is BetMGM CEO Adam Greenblatt. Adam, welcome to the Bloomberg Business of Sports.

[Adam Greenblatt]

Well, thank you for having me. It's always great to be back.

[Michael Barr]

I was just talking about this just before you hopped on the line that I was going to make an individual bet in the I know brackets are big, but I'm looking at the individual games in making the bets. Which, where do you make more money from individual bets in this time of the year or people just trying to like, you know, do their bracketology?

[Adam Greenblatt]

First thing to say is we have, we have something for everybody. We've got free to play games. We've got bracket challenges, we've got singles bets. You can parlay up things across games. You can put things together in the same game. You can bet on individual players. You can even bet whether teams are going to score in the first minute or even whether how many dunks they're going to be in a game. You know, so there really is something for everyone and it's an exciting part time of the year for us.

[Unidentified Male Guest]

Adam, you know, it's interesting because the super bowl is obviously the biggest concentrated betting day of the year, but due to sheer volume of the games of, you know, the fact that there's a men's and women's tournament going on at the same exact time, does that, does this come close to the super bowl? Or like, is this almost, is it the second biggest betting market of the year?

[Adam Greenblatt]

It's an incredibly important time of the year for the industry. And as you rightly Call out where the super bowl is the biggest individual event. The American Gaming association has just come out and said that Americans will legally wager $3.1 billion on the men's and women's college tournaments. And that's up from $2.7 billion last year. So we expect this to be the most bet tournament in BetMGM's history. And it's just that there are so many games as the men's and women's tournament and the women's tournament. The year, and frankly since last year actually is really gaining momentum, gaining steam and is a meaningful contributor to participation and bet volume. And in fact, there are just so many good storylines to follow. You know, player level storylines, team level storylines. We've got some, you know, history with St. Peter's a couple of years ago in North Carolina. You know, they're what we see differently in this tournament from frankly the regular season and any other event. Is the public being captivated by those Cinderella stories and really investing behind them?

[Vanessa Perdomo]

Adam, I'd like to know from your perspective, we've seen continued growth in the women's game, but are we seeing that growth translate into the amount of money wagered on the women's game? I know you're teaming up with the gist. Tell us a little bit about what you're doing this year that's different than last year.

[Adam Greenblatt]

Last year was really the breakout year for the women's game and that was really driven by how Caitlin Clark captured the imagination of the public and the betting public. But that story isn't over. And what we're excited to see is a new slate of stars like Juju Watkins, Paige Beckers. They've really continued to captivate. So this year we've seen a 30% year on year increase in bets on women's college basketball. And this is going to blow your mind. Over the past two years, we've experienced more than 750% increase in bets on the women's college game. And I think that's probably our highest growth in that period of any sport. And so as a business, you look at where your growth is and you invest behind it. So this year we're going to offer more markets than ever before for the women's tournament. We're expanding our player props so bettors are able to bet on the performances of individual players. And we're expanding that player prop offering to more players because what we are seeing is there is more players have resonance with the betting public. And we're also offering things like half time markets in earlier rounds this year and you name check the GIST as well. This is, we're really excited about this our partnership which is a new one with the gist. It's a women's led sports media brand and we've partnered for the GIST to provide social media content during the women's tournament. And one data point why did we choose the gist? 71% now this is the overlap between the general interest and betting interest. 71% of the Gist's readership has expressed interest in sports betting. Another interesting point. So we've seen tremendous interest in the college game during the regular season and one of the themes this year versus last is the growth in the same game parlay adoption. So players have really embraced the ability to bet a few things in the same game that from BetMGM's perspective has increased, has doubled year on year. Now your question was about do we see something different during the tournament than the regular season? And the answer is we do. And what we the tournament attracts the widest possible audience in you know, following obviously the college game and with a wider audience that introduces more recreational we call them recreational betters, less frequent bettors to enjoy the enthusiasm and the excitement of the tournament. Now less regular bettors are less familiar with the product and the so what of that is we see about a 20% increase in the proportion of pre game bets. So non live bets, players who are less familiar with the product will come and go oh the game's going to start, I must get my bet on. And those betters will be less familiar with the fact that oh when the game's on there's a myriad of things that I can, I can bet on as well. So we so, so that's the key point. 20% more pre game betting because the audience is much, much wider. We have more higher concentration of less regular bettors.

[Vanessa Perdomo]

But Adam, in all seriousness, I mean the tournament, it's a special time of season for you obviously but you know I joke because you and I talk about South Africa, it's not rugby season but talk to me a little bit about international sports. Talk to us about Premier League, talk to us about soccer. Globally speaking sports gambling has obviously been Europe and the rest of the world was before the US but what does the world look like to you now and what does the world look like to BetMGM?

[Adam Greenblatt]

First point to make is that BetMGM, the joint venture between MGM Resorts and Entain My2 shareholders the joint ventures sole focus, my sole focus and our businesses sole focus is in North America. So we are the, we are a leading operator in, in North America which includes all of our North American regulated states, U.S. regulated states, plus Ontario. We are the number one by market share operator in Ontario and we're looking forward to the Province of Alberta regulating online sports betting and igaming probably the beginning of 2026. More broadly however, international sports, we're seeing strong and increasing interest in what the Europeans call football, what we call soccer. And you know, as we look to next year where we'll be hosting, we the. In the US we'll be hosting the soccer World cup, the football World Cup. We are anticipating that being a catalyst for soccer really taking off as a one of the bread and butter betting sports in the US at the moment. Of course it's, you know, we've got the big three by volume. We've got football, basketball and, and baseball with hockey somewhat of a distant fourth. Alongside it's hockey, tennis, soccer. I think post the World cup next year we're going to see much deeper penetration of soccer as a betting sport, which it is frankly everywhere. Apart from the US Soccer is the number one best sport outside the US by some margin and I expect that we will see accelerated growth come next year. As a.

[Michael Barr]

I know we're running out of time, but since you brought up Ontario and you're in a very strong market there, the tariffs are not really affecting you, are they of what's going on? Because it's yes, it's a physical product but it's not. You're not bringing steel or aluminum or anything like that. Has there been any impact from the tariffs for you guys?

[Adam Greenblatt]

So we haven't seen direct impact from the tariffs from a US perspective. We have of course seen a move, a decline in the exchange rate. The U.S. dollars is our, is BetMGM's reporting currency. So obviously as you as the Canadian dollar loses value, the value of our in US terms the value of our Canadian earnings, it just converts at a lower rate. So that would be the most direct impact we are seeing. But stepping back on from a more macro perspective, we're not really seeing any indication of a slowdown. Our betters are turning up as frequently as they have in the past bet. Count how many bets our players are making. It remains strong and the value per bet remains in line. So we're not really seeing any impact of either the tariffs or macro slowdown in the US Or Canadian economies.

[Michael Barr]

Adam, we're better as we're a die hard bunch. We'll come, we'll come and we'll bet it. Adam Greenblatt, thank you, sir, for joining us on the Bloomberg Businesses World.

[Adam Greenblatt]

Thank you for having me.

[Michael Barr]

Our thanks to BetMGM CEO Adam Greenblatt for joining us. And thank you for my colleagues Damien Sassour, Vanessa Perdomo and Scarlet Fu. I'm Mike La Barr. Tune in again next week for the latest on the stories moving big money in the world of sports. You're listening to the Bloomberg Business of Sports from Bloomberg Radio around the world. Foreign.

[Tom Keene]

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