A-Rod bullish on app for athlete trading
New company aiming to be a ‘stock market’ for pros, allowing speculators to buy, sell players
Baseball great Alex Rodriguez and his business partner, Marc Lore, are investing in a new company aiming to be a “stock market” for professional athletes, allowing fans to buy and sell players whose values rise and fall based on their performances on the field.
Mojo, as the new business is called, plans to debut by the end of the year, with football as its first sport. The company has raised $75 million (U.S.) in a funding round led by Joshua Kushner’s venture firm, Thrive Capital. Tiger Global Management also participated.
Mojo executives are trying to build a product that feels like something trading apps users are familiar with, such as Robinhood or Coinbase.
“I’ve always thought the idea of a sports stock market was the holy grail — the vision could transform sports, and fandom as a whole,” Lore said in an email. “For years, I’ve heard people throw around the idea — but nobody has been able to do it. For the concept to truly work, you need underlying principles like intrinsic value and instant liquidity.”
Lore and Rodriguez have been active business partners and dealmakers over the past year, starting a venture capital firm and putting money into everything from an online brokerage to a nuclear fusion energy startup. They made their biggest splash last April, when they acquired a stake in the NBA’s Minnesota Timberwolves and the WNBA’s Minnesota Lynx. They won’t be involved in the day-to-day operations at Mojo, however.
Management will spend the fresh capital on hiring engineers, data scientists and market makers, with some saved for marketing. Chief executive officer Vinit Bharara said arrangements with state gaming commissions, regulators and the sports leagues are still in progress. Mojo declined to comment on the status of ongoing discussions.
Online sportsbooks have been hot in recent months as new markets open to sports betting, with major players like BetMGM raising its revenue forecast for the year. New York, which kicked off online gambling in early January, saw more than $2 billion in wagers in the first month to surpass Nevada and New Jersey as the largest bookmaking market in the U.S.
Lore and Bharara worked on a business that is similar to Mojo once before.
More than two decades ago, they ran a stock market for sports trading cards called the Pit, which they sold to Topps for $5.7 million in 2001. The pair would go on to found Diapers.com parent Quidsi Inc., which was sold to Amazon.com Inc. in 2010 in a deal valued at about $540 million.
For the concept to truly work, you need underlying principles like intrinsic value and instant liquidity.
MARK LORE MOJO INVESTOR