This week we highlight FIFA being investigated for its World Cup ticketing. There’s also a look at Nintendo’s connection to the baseball playoffs, why tennis players need more lessons on organizing and a new NBA season with fresh faces at two the league’s premier franchises.

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FIFA Ticketing Probe

Selling tickets isn’t always easy, but it should be simple. Let’s say you have a popular event. You bring together your best brains to work out a price that both raises as much money as possible, but doesn’t alienate the very people you want to attend. You then create a website and payment system to sell the right amount of tickets. People then buy these tickets and attend the event. Hopefully they enjoy themselves, and you don’t end up with a criminal complaint.

Clearly this tried and tested method was far too boring for FIFA, which has landed itself with a criminal complaint before it’s even put on the event, in this case World Cup 2026.

FIFA’s problem started when, instead of selling tickets, it started to sell tokens. These offered the right to purchase World Cup 2026 tickets automatically, bypassing the need to navigate FIFA’s complex standard sales process. Some of these tokens were tied to the fortunes of specific national teams. England’s “Right to Final” token cost $999, but if they fail to make it to that game, you’ll have paid $999 for a snazzy JPEG with no chance at a ticket at all.

After we asked a few questions, Switzerland’s gambling regulator, Gespa, has decided that these tokens amount to illegal, unlicensed gambling services. This isn’t a great outcome for FIFA, which has already made more than $35 million in primary sales of these tokens, according to a report from the Athletic.

Photographer: Annabelle Gordon/UPI/Bloomberg

Sure, that’s a nice amount, but the last time FIFA held its World Cup – in a tiny country consisting mainly of arid desert where beer is banned – it made $686 million in revenue through ticket sales. There weren’t any tokens.

Fans have already been very vocal about the high costs to attend games in the US. Mexican laws cap ticket resale costs are capped at face value. The same rules don’t apply in the US, where tickets are set to be the most expensive ever, with some tickets for the World Cup final match on FIFA’s resale platform available for up to $30,000. Tokens, too, are going for thousands of dollars on FIFA’s secondary market.

Fans always complain. The World Cup is one of those tournaments that, if you build it, people will come, no matter where it’s held. Qatar, Russia, even Canada. But is $35 million worth a criminal complaint? Gespa can order Swiss-based companies that break its rules to halt wrongdoing, and added that the “final criminal assessment is the responsibility of the law enforcement authorities.” Maybe FIFA can sell an NFT to commemorate the court case. — Giles Turner & Emily Nicolle

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Locker Room

Wahoo!: There are lots of fun facts about the Seattle Mariners, the MLB team currently tied two games apiece in the American League Championship Series with the Toronto Blue Jays. The M’s, who debuted in 1977, are the only team to never make a World Series. The club had a 20-year playoff drought — another record. And in 1990, Ken Griffey Jr. and Ken Griffey Sr. became the first father-son pair to hit consecutive home runs in a game.

Still, for me, the best piece of trivia is that the Mariners were once owned by Nintendo, and are still part owned by the Japanese gaming company. I’m sure if you’re a baseball nut this will be old news, but to generalist sports fans, it seems bizarre, like Sega owning the New York Jets. 

Hiroshi Yamauchi, the man who turned Nintendo from a playing-card company into an entertainment behemoth, bought a 60% stake in the Mariners in 1992, as part of a consortium that wanted to keep the team in Seattle. MLB didn’t want to sell a team to a foreigner. But luckily for Yamauchi, the then-President’s son – George W. Bush – also owned the Texas Rangers baseball team. After a bit of presidential lobbying, the deal went through, although Yamauchi agreed to 49% voting rights in order not to have control of the team.

Photographer: Katsumi Kasahara/AP Photo

Yamauchi stopped the Mariners from leaving Seattle. Under his passive reign they did ok, getting a new stadium in 1999, winning the AL West division a few times. There were a few tours to Japan, and Ichiro Suzuki became a local legend. For a while, you could order food from your Nintendo DS Lite during home games.

In 2004, Yamauchi sold his stake to Nintendo for $67 million. Then in 2016, Nintendo sold the team to a local consortium, valuing the club at $1.4 billion. At the time, Nintendo was struggling with consumers spending more time playing games on mobile devices, moving away from dedicated machines like its Wii console. 

Nintendo is doing very well now. So, too, are the Mariners, valued at roughly $2 billion by Sportico.

There may be an influx of private equity money into sports, but there still aren’t any foreign owners (Canada aside). The MLB says that there isn’t a blanket policy, and that each proposed purchase of a club is evaluated on a case-by-case basis. Perhaps real progress shouldn’t be ever increasing valuations or decent media deal, but a Japanese controlling owner. — Giles Turner

Come Together?: Professional tennis players remain in a stalemate with the four Grand Slam organizers over revenue sharing and welfare benefits. The ongoing impasse highlights two key problems: players have little leverage — and no clear plan.

Former world No. 3 Maria Sakkari told me she believes “now is the time for change,” but offered few concrete ideas for how players might bring the Slams back to the negotiating table. Her comments echo a broader frustration on tour but also reveal a lack of strategy to turn that frustration into action.

Photographer: Mike Stobe/Getty Images

A couple of weeks ago, Novak Djokovic remarked on players’ lack of unity, saying they’re quick to complain publicly but slow to follow through. Sakkari also ruled out the possibility of a boycott, leaving the players’ approach looking disjointed and reactive.

So far, their push for reform seems half-baked — and perhaps tennis players could learn a thing or two from the WNBA. — Aysha Diallo

Acceleration: Normally, you think it’s obvious who actually owns sports teams. These things are often world famous institutions with hundreds of thousands of fans. It isn’t obvious. 

It’s not that people are being deliberately nefarious, but rather teams are getting increasingly sliced and diced, and minority owners don’t feel the need to show off about owning an asset. 

Take Aston Martin’s F1 team. In 2024, it was reported that credit fund HPS Investment Partners and venture fund Accel were taking a minority stake. It makes sense. F1 teams are a hot property right now, and despite not excelling on the track, Aston Martin has become a case study on how to turn a team into a valuable brand.

Photographer: Lillian Suwanrumpha/AFP/Getty Images

But there wasn’t an announcement from Aston Martin to confirm the deal, like there was when sports fund Arctos took a stake in early 2024. We looked at the company filings, and HPS did indeed take a stake — and being a credit investor helped finance Aston Martin’s insane new headquarters.

But Accel didn’t. Instead, the deal was done by some of Accel’s US partners, according to people familiar with the matter. Given Accel has invested in Facebook, Slack and Dropbox, I’m sure they have enough cash floating around to invest in an F1 team that’s valued at $3 billion these days. — Giles Turner

ICYMI

• Josh Wander, the co-founder of Miami investment firm 777 Partners, was charged with allegedly cheating lenders and investors in the firm out of almost $500 million. The firm was thrust into the spotlight when it unsuccessfully tried to acquire English football club Everton FC.
• The NFL’s international ambitions have led it to Europe and South America. The Middle East could be next.
• Audi, Ford and Cadillac are trying to capitalize on Formula One’s popularity. But the investment might not be enough to earn automakers what they want most: fans.
• Donald Trump’s golf resort at Aberdeen in Scotland posted a 13th consecutive year of losses as it spent more money on marketing and to develop a second course at the site.
• Is private equity ready to burn $50 million on failing coaches? Bloomberg’s Adam Minter weighs in on PE’s role in college sports.

How should regulators react to the blurring line between investing and gambling? Let us know in the latest Markets Pulse survey.

NBA’s New Blood

What’s up folks, it’s Randall. I hope you all are enjoying what has so far been a fabulous fall (the best season by the way). Next week the NBA will begin its 80th season in Oklahoma City where the defending champion Thunder will host the Houston Rockets. Kevin Durant watching the team that drafted him raise their first championship banner without him nearly a decade after he departed for Golden State is something I never thought I’d see.

I also never thought both the Celtics and Lakers would be sold in less than a 12-month span. The two franchises account for nearly 50% of the total championships won in the league (44% to be exact). The Grousbeck family originally bought the team for a mere $360 million in 2002 and announced they would sell the team after the Celtics won the 2024 title.

Photographer: Charles Krupa/AP Photo

Ten months later, Bill Chisholm bought the franchise for a then record $6.1 billion. Chisholm’s backers include the Mittal family, Sixth Street, Rob Hale and Bruce A. Beal Jr. Chisholm will inherit some of the same hurdles the previous owners dealt with, including not owning their arena and rising player contracts. The Celtics solved some of their payroll issues by parting ways with several players.

Chisholm has never owned a sports team and while Wyc Grousbeck, the longtime governor of the Celtics, originally intended to remain in that role for the next few years, Chisholm will assume that title.

The Buss family will pass on the reins of the Lakers to Mark Walter soon, too. The $10 billion deal for the Lakers hasn’t been voted on by the NBA’s board of governors. Walter differs from Chisholm in that his sports ownership experience runs deep. His assets include the Los Angeles Dodgers, the Cadillac Formula 1 team that will debut next year and the Professional Women’s Hockey League.

The sales of the two franchises show two things. One: The sports business isn’t slowing down anytime soon. Two: While these are billion-dollar assets and are incredibly expensive to run, they’re even more enriching to sell.

Lakers fans will likely welcome Walter with open arms, considering the Dodgers have won two titles under his ownership after enduring a 30-plus year drought without one. Chisholm is a bit more of a mystery. In his opening press conference, he did say he’ll do “whatever it takes” to continue winning championships.

As for the possibility of the Celtics moving out of TD Garden and building their own arena, Chisholm told NBC Sports Boston: “The Bruins and the Celtics belong together, so no matter what happens that’s a real priority for me. The most important thing is we’re going to create the best experience for fans, and we’ll figure out what that is.”

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