NEW YORK, June 24 (Reuters Breakingviews) - Last year was a tough one for sports arenas . But the U.S. National Football League’s playbook is full of moves to maximize its value. The NFL hired Goldman Sachs (GS.N) to help sell stakes in media holdings including its pay-TV channels, according to the Wall Street Journal. The newspaper separately reported that JPMorgan (JPM.N) bought a slice of New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft’s sports-analytics firm.
The NFL and Kraft are making opportunistic plays, capitalizing on the soaring value of sports rights and associated data. The league is on track to collect an aggregate $10 billion annually for the next 11 years from TV rights holders including Amazon.com (AMZN.O) , an 80% increase on average from the last contract negotiations roughly a decade ago, according to MoffettNathanson.
Meanwhile, JPMorgan fancied Kraft’s business because its wealthy clients are clamoring for information that aggregates legal betting, concession sales and the like when they are looking to buy trophy sports franchises. With stocks and other markets hitting new highs, the NFL should have no trouble getting itself into the endzone. (By Jennifer Saba)
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