Webinar: Business Beyond the Game by Sportico

About this Online Event

Recognizing their cultural value, players are increasingly leaning into entrepreneurial endeavors, shifting their on-field personas to become media moguls, fashion icons, investors, tastemakers, business leaders and cornerstones of their communities.

SporticoLive is bringing together the athletes, the visionaries and business leaders who are paving the way for future generations of multi-hyphenates.

Trevor Bauer

MLB All-Star Pitcher, Cy Young Winner, and Entrepreneur

Trevor Bauer is an All-Star pitcher and entrepreneur who just finished his eighth MLB season and second with the Cincinnati Reds. On the field, the reigning NL Cy Young winner is an elite pitcher changing how players approach the game by embracing advanced data; off of it, he is progressing the game through a significant investment in content and access.

Known for his lethal pitch repertoire and data-driven approach to performance, Trevor has dedicated himself to weaponizing data, computing, engineering, robotics, and science to usher in a “new school” of thinking and approach to training. The son of a chemical engineer and a former UCLA mechanical engineering student himself, Trevor approaches baseball with the same mindset. He set the trend for players to use high-speed cameras, which he uses to analyze his release of the baseball, weighted-ball training, long toss, precision pitch design, and more. In 2020, Trevor led the National League with a 1.73 ERA, ranked second in strikeouts with 100 Ks (first pitcher in the NL to hit this milestone in 2020), and led Major League Baseball with a 0.79 WHIP.

Trevor is quick to speak his mind and even quicker to go viral. He is passionate about building baseball’s popularity and reengaging a young fanbase often cast aside by traditional MLB marketing. In January 2019, Trevor co-founded Momentum, a media company aimed at connecting fans and athletes on a human level and going behind the scenes of the lives, training, and game days of MLB stars – all to shift the game’s perception among younger fans. Momentum is the first player-owned media company credentialed by Major League Baseball. Trevor fully funds the venture and employs a full-time staff as well as a network of consultants for Momentum, which has produced 500+ pieces of short-and-long-form content and worked with 110+ athletes to date. On YouTube alone, Momentum has logged over 13.5 million views and 1.5 million hours of watch time in its first 22 months. Momentum has distribution partnerships with FOX Sports and PlayersTV, the first-and-only multi athlete-owned TV network and media company where Trevor became an equity partner earlier this year and co-leads the baseball vertical alongside HOFer Ken Griffey Jr.

Trevor’s investment in content is also evident across his personal social channels, where he produces several original series: Breaking Point, Tips with Trev, and The Trevor Bauer Show. Follow him on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube @BauerOutage.
Rick Burton

David B. Falk Endowed Professor, Syracuse University

Rick Burton is the David B. Falk Professor of Sport Management at Syracuse University and SU’s Faculty Athletics Representative (FAR) to the ACC and NCAA. He is the former Commissioner of Australia’s National Basketball League and was CMO of the U.S. Olympic Committee for the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics. He is the co-author of 20 Secrets to Success for NCAA Student-Athletes.
Mike Cammalleri

Co-Founder and Co-CEO, BioSteel

Michael Cammalleri has played 16 years of professional hockey in the NHL with five teams; Los Angeles Kings, Calgary Flames, Montreal Canadiens, New Jersey Devils, and Edmonton Oilers. He has represented Canada in the World Championships five times winning two gold medals, two silver medals, and a bronze medal.

Prior to his professional hockey career, he attended the University of Michigan where he studied Sports Business. He has also been an active member of the National Hockey League Players Association, where he served as a member of the negotiation committee, and competition committee.

Michael is an entrepreneur. He founded BioSteel Sports Nutrition Inc. in 2009 with childhood friend, John Celenza. In October 2019 he joined BioSteel on a full-time basis as Co-CEO. He is also actively involved in numerous business ventures and investments
Gerry Cardinale

Founder & Managing Partner, RedBird Capital Partners

Gerry Cardinale is the Founder and Managing Partner of RedBird Capital Partners, an investment firm focused on building high growth companies with flexible, long-term capital in partnership with entrepreneurs and family offices.

Since its launch in 2014, RedBird has led over $4 billion in equity and co-investments across 26 portfolio companies in its key industry verticals of Sports, TMT and Financial Services. The firm’s investment mandate is predicated on a highly entrepreneurial, company-building mentality, with an emphasis on long-term capital appreciation and compounding equity returns over longer holding periods to maximize superior risk-adjusted returns.

In Sports, Gerry has had a prolific investment career in building several multi-billion dollar sports platforms in partnership with some of the most iconic rights holders in sports globally. Current and prior sports-related investments include the Yankees Entertainment & Sports (“YES”) Network; Legends Hospitality; On Location Experiences; OneTeam Partners; Toulouse Football Club and Zelus Analytics through the RedBird Football Club platform; RedBall Acquisition Corp; and the XFL with Dwayne Johnson and Dany Garcia.

Prior to founding RedBird, Gerry spent 20 years at Goldman Sachs where he was a Partner of the firm and a senior leader of the Merchant Bank's private equity investing business, which managed over $100 billion of private capital across equity, debt, real estate and infrastructure investment strategies.
Rudy Cline-Thomas

Founder & Managing Partner, Mastry Inc

Rudy Cline-Thomas is the founder and managing partner of Mastry, Inc. (www.mastryinc.com), which brings together world-class athletes, leading technology, media and consumer products companies as well as entrepreneurs and investors to create top-tier platform-building opportunities. Mastry has invested in more than 60 companies including Lime, Allbirds, Uber, PagerDuty, Zoom, Cloudflare, Jumia, Qualtrics, Zuora, MyHippo, Carta, HIMS, DataDog, GOAT, Thrive Global, Lambda School and Casper.

Most recently Rudy was an executive producer of “The Scheme,” HBO’s riveting look at the underbelly of college basketball. The revealing and no-holds-barred documentary, which focused on the federal government’s three-year investigation into college basketball corruption, premiered on March 31, 2020.

In 2017 Rudy founded the The Annual Players Technology Summit, with Bloomberg as a presenting partner, which brings together leaders in the technology, venture capital and sports communities to discuss tech investing, trends, partnerships and future sports/tech initiatives.
Jacob Feldman

Sports Business Reporter, Sportico

Jacob Feldman is a sports business reporter with a focus on technology, media and fan experience. He was previously a staff writer at Sports Illustrated, where he wrote multiple cover stories while reporting on the NFL and the media industry. His work has also appeared in The Washington Post, The Boston Globe, and Popular Science. Jacob is a graduate of Harvard University and a co-founder of The Sunday Long Read. He currently lives in Boston.
Victoria Hayward

Player Executive Committee, Athletes Unlimited

Hayward grew up in Toronto, Canada and her biggest inspiration growing up was her parents. Her proudest athletic moment was qualifying for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics with Team Canada. She is motivated by her teammates and striving to be the best version of herself. If she wasn't playing softball she'd be pursuing a career in business management. Some of her favorite hobbies include cooking, working out and traveling.

Hayward played her first two years professionally with the Pennsylvania Rebellion. In 2019 she earned All-NPF honors for outfield and she was named the Jennie Finch Award winner. Hayward is now a member of the Canadian Wild.
Isaiah Kacyvenski

Co-Founder & Managing Partner, Will Ventures

With two degrees from Harvard, several technology patents, and an 8-year career with the National Football League to his name, it’s safe to say Managing Partner Isaiah Kacyvenski took an uncommon path to success as an entrepreneur and investor.

Following his career with the Seattle Seahawks, Isaiah acted as Global Head of Business Development at MC10 and co-founded the premier sports tech research and advisory firm, Sports Innovation Lab. Prior to founding Will Ventures, Isaiah was the Managing Partner at Blue Star Innovation Partners, where he led the firm’s sports technology investment practice. His personal investment ethos is rooted in a wide range of experience that stretches from product conceptualization/development to business development/operations.

Isaiah is an investor and advisor to more than 25 companies across sports, technology, biotechnology, consumer, media and, sports medicine.
Lawson McDonald

D3 College Hockey Player & Content Creator

Lawson is a college hockey player and content creator with over 150 thousand followers. He started his college hockey career playing Division-1 at the University of Nebraska-Omaha and is now currently in his senior year playing Division-3 at the University of Wisconsin-Superior. Playing at both the Division 1 and Division 3 levels has given him a unique perspective on college hockey and motivated him to start his YouTube channel. His channel focuses on vlogs of what it is like to be a college hockey player.

Since starting his channel in early 2020, he has built up many connections with younger athletes and focuses on using his experiences to motivate them to the next level. He has used his passion for hockey, fitness and videography to shine light onto the world of college hockey which he hopes more athletes can do as well. He is most active on TikTok and YouTube and feels they are the best way to grow his personnel brand. He will be graduating in Spring with a degree in Kinesiology and hopes to either play professional hockey or work with athletes off the ice as a PT or Strength Coach.
Jessica Mendoza

ESPN Broadcaster, Olympic Gold Medalist, Athletes Unlimited Advisory Board Member

A four-time, first-team All-American softball standout and two-time Olympic medalist, Jessica Mendoza joined ESPN in 2007 as a softball analyst and college football sideline reporter. Since then, she has become a leading voice and trailblazer in ESPN’s Major League Baseball coverage.

In 2020, Jessica became the first woman to serve as a solo analyst for a national package of MLB game telecasts including weeknight games and holiday baseball. She appears regularly on ESPN’s Baseball Tonight, SportsCenter, Get Up, and First Take. Jessica was also the first woman to serve as a World Series game analyst on national radio as she joined the MLB on ESPN Radio team for the 2020 World Series.

She has continuously made history with a long list of firsts, becoming the first female ESPN MLB game analyst on television during the August 24, 2015 edition of Monday Night Baseball. A few months later, Jessica became the first female analyst for a nationally televised MLB Postseason game, calling the American League Wild Card Game on ESPN. That year, she also became the first female analyst for a Men’s College World Series telecast.
Eben Novy-Williams

Sports Business Reporter, Sportico

Eben Novy-Williams is a sports business reporter and podcast host at Sportico, a news venture launched earlier this year by Penske Media.

Prior to joining Sportico, Novy-Williams spent nine years covering the intersection of money and sports at Bloomberg News. His writing has appeared online, in Businessweek magazine and in newspapers across the country. He was also co-host of the Bloomberg Business of Sports podcast.
Jon Patricof

CEO & Co-Founder, Athletes Unlimited

Jon Patricof is CEO and Co-Founder of Athletes Unlimited, a new pro sports venture launching in 2020. He was most recently President of Major League Soccer’s New York City Football Club, co-owned by City Football Group and the New York Yankees, where he currently serves on the Board of Directors.

Prior to NYCFC, Patricof spent 11 years as President and COO of Tribeca Enterprises, the owner and operator of the Tribeca Film Festival and related business ventures. He was the first employee at Tribeca and helped build the company into a multi-dimensional business with a globally recognized brand. Among his accomplishments was the creation of the Tribeca/ESPN Sports Film Festival as well as the company’s landmark branded content partnerships with Dick’s Sporting Goods and American Express.

Patricof started his career at Disney where he worked as a member of the strategic planning department helping grow the Disney, ESPN and ABC brands across video, audio and digital platforms. Between these companies he has executed investments and strategic partnerships, launched multiple new businesses and overseen sales, marketing, digital and content, legal, finance and operations. Jon received an M.B.A. with distinction from Harvard Business School and graduated magna cum laude from Harvard College where he was a member of the baseball team
Paul Rabil

Co-Founder, CMO, Player, Premier Lacrosse League

Paul Rabil is a professional lacrosse player and co-founder of the Premier Lacrosse League – Ranked a Top 10 Most Innovative Company in Sports by Fast Company, the PLL features 200 of the world's best players, a tour-based model, a regular season and playoff schedule that's televised on NBC, and major corporate partners that include Ticketmaster, Adidas, Capital One, Gatorade, and others.

This year, due to COVID-19, the league orchestrated the PLL Championship Series Powered by Ticketmaster, which will featured the league's seven teams competing in a fourteen-game group play format to determine seeding for the following week’s single-elimination tournament.

Paul has influenced the sport at every level, winning championships and MVP’s both collegiately and professionally, as well as becoming a two-time World Lacrosse Champion with Team USA.

Off the field, Paul’s leveraged his sophistication in media and tech to build a robust multi-channel influencer network. In 2017, SportTechie awarded Paul as “Most Tech-Savvy Athlete on the Planet”, and in 2018 the Cynopsis Sports Media Award named Paul “Best Athlete in a Web Series”.
Alex Rodriguez

Chairman & CEO, A-Rod Corp

Alex Rodriguez invests in world-class startups and partners with leading global companies in a variety of industries. While best known as one of the world’s greatest athletes (a 14x MLB All-Star and a 2009 World Series Champion with the New York Yankees), Alex now leads a team of experts who work with him to build high-growth businesses and enhance the value of more than 30 companies in the A-Rod Corp portfolio.
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Alex founded A-Rod Corp in 2003, purchasing a duplex apartment on the theory that investing his MLB earnings wisely would protect him from the kinds of financial struggles that afflict too many professional athletes. While he racked up extraordinary stats on the field (696 home runs and more grand slams than any other MLB player in history), Alex simultaneously assembled an impressive team at A-Rod Corp, bought apartment units across the southeastern U.S., and built a fully integrated real estate and development company. Following his success in real estate, where A-Rod Corp’s annual returns on investment have exceeded 20%, Alex has invested in a variety of sectors where he has expertise, including sports, wellness, media and entertainment, and technology. He looks for long-term opportunities to provide financial capital and unlock value for stakeholders.
Angela Ruggiero

CEO, Sports Innovation Lab

Angela Ruggiero is a global sports leader, advocate, entrepreneur, author, brand ambassador, investor, motivational speaker, podcaster, and advisor whose work has been featured in top global and national media publications.

Angela is a four-time Olympian and gold medalist in ice hockey for Team USA and was the first female non-goalie to play in a men’s professional hockey league. She has been named the Best Player in the World by The Hockey News and is a member of the 2015 US Olympic Hall of Fame, 2017 IIHF Hall of Fame, and 2015 Hockey Hall of Fame (4th woman).

As the visionary Co-Founder & CEO of Sports Innovation Lab, a technology-powered market research firm, Angela and her team empower industry-leading sports brands to identify the trends, products, and services that will fuel the future of sport. Angela spearheaded groundbreaking research which defined and coined the term "Fluid Fan" for the industry, and leads clients, including the NFL, NHL, FIFA, Coca-Cola, DraftKings, and CLEAR, to develop innovative strategies for connecting with these evolved fans.
Scott Soshnick

Editor-In-Chief, Sportico

Scott Soshnick joined Sportico in April of 2020 as its editor-in-chief and head of content, bringing decades of editorial experience to Penske Media’s sports business platform.

Prior to joining Sportico, Scott spent 27 years at Bloomberg News, spearheading the global news service’s sports business coverage across a variety of platforms. Scott also founded and co-hosted Bloomberg’s Business of Sports podcast, while creating and hosting a variety of live events with leading industry executives.

Scott graduated from Syracuse University’s Newhouse School of Public Communications with a degree in broadcast journalism. He resides in Glen Ridge, NJ, with his wife and son, who aspires to be an NHL goaltender. As such, Scott spends an inordinate amount of time in hockey rinks.