​Join us for an evening of great conversations, new connections, and community at Begyle Brewing in Ravenswood. Hosted in partnership with Wintrust Bank, Momento and Stretch PR. this happy hour brings together founders, teams, operators, investors, and creatives shaping the future of sports.

​Whether you're building, investing, or just exploring opportunities in sports, media, and technology, this is a chance to plug into a high-energy network of people doing meaningful work in the space. Limited spots available, grab yours today: https://luma.com/9slv4xxq

​Expect:

​🤝 Quality networking with Chicago's Sports Business community

​💡 Thoughtful conversations around trends, startups, and innovation

​🍻 Drinks and a relaxed, welcoming atmosphere

​No panels, no pressure—just real people, real conversations, and the opportunity to build relationships that move things forward.

​Come through, grab a drink, and tap into the Chicago sports ecosystem.

Event details: https://luma.com/9slv4xxq

Chicago Sports Tech Week is a 3-day, city-wide experience (July 21–23, 2026) bringing together founders, investors, athletes, teams, and brands at the intersection of sports and technology. The week features panels, startup showcases, networking events, and activations across Chicago. It’s quickly becoming a key moment for anyone looking to build, invest, or partner in the future of sports. Check out all the details at ChicagoSportsTechWeek.com Interested in being part of CSTW, email [email protected]

The American Association of Professional Baseball names Catch as its preferred POS and payments platform in a new multi-year partnership.

Chicago’s very own Vince Surdo (CEO) had this to say about the partnership “We at Catch could not be more excited to be partnering with the American Association of Professional Baseball. Today, sports organizations and venues are complex businesses driven by data, operations, and fan transactions. At Catch, our mission is to give those organizations a modern platform—from payments and point of sale to front office operations and real-time data insights."

Check out the full details here

🙈 Burglars steal $100,000 worth of items from Chicago sports card shop If you’re on the NW side in Dunning, driving south on Harlem, you might miss Elite Sports Cards and Comics if going too fast. The modest store has been open in Dunning for three years and has received positive reviews from the local community. It’s just a small mom-and-pop shop trying to make a name for itself in a crowded space. Unfortunately, thieves don’t have much empathy. Surveillance footage unveiled by CBS Chicago shows the burglars knew exactly where to go and what they were targeting. As the sports and gaming card markets continue to explode (the sports card market alone is estimated at $13-$15 billion globally, up from $2-$4 billion 10 years ago), so does the threat of bad actors looking to steal a piece of the pie. In a multi-billion-dollar market, mom-and-pop shops have become high-stakes targets. One positive for Elite Sports Cards owner Ronnie Holloway is that the burglars didn’t try to wipe out the entire store.

⚽️ Chicago Stars get permanent Bannockburn home with new center: ‘It’s their time to have their own’ The Stars have mainly been based on the South side and out west during their 20-year history. Now, they are closer to finding a permanent home on the North Shore. Bannockburn will welcome the team in 2027 once its new performance center finishes construction. Just south of Trinity University’s former campus, the Stars’ new facility will sit on 10 acres and include two full-size fields. It’ll be the first time the club has its own dedicated training space rather than sharing one based on other teams’ schedules. A new training home is huge, but only part of the goal set by club President Karen Leetzow. Its current home at Martin Stadium is just for this season. It raises questions about where the club will play after it’s over. Will it look to stay on the North Shore and build a stadium there? Or will the club pivot three or four times like the Bears? Either way, the announcement of the new training center counts as incredible progress for one of the pioneers of women’s professional soccer in the States. The Tribune covers the plans in detail with quotes from community leaders and club officials.

😇 White Sox losing on field, but finding success through 'Pope Hat' giveaway August has been a cruel month for South Siders. For too many years in a row, with playoff hopes long gone, fans have had nothing to look forward to during the final innings of the MLB season. A winning team makes the marketing dept’s job easier, so the Sox have had to get creative. Thanks to the South Side’s unsung hero, Pope Leo XIV, Sox fans can find some joy and anticipate late-season baseball again this year. Pope Leo XIV, aka Robert Prevost from Dolton, has as much, if not more, appeal than any of the players. What began as a small themed giveaway to the first to arrive at an August game was quickly expanded after it went viral. Tickets along the outfield were already nearly sold out days after the giveaway was announced. He’s the Sox’s biggest star outside of Mune and most popular South Side resident (sorry, President Obama). What has been a painful rebuild suddenly feels less so. There’s been renewed positive interest in the club, which has been sorely lacking. The Athletic dives into how the Pope hat giveaway night became the hottest tickets on the South Side.

😅 PepsiCo Is Overhauling Gatorade to Stay Competitive in a Newly Crowded Market Is Gatorade having a midlife crisis or a much-needed refresh as a brand? Depends on how you look at it. For most of its 60 years in existence, the Chicago-based hydration giant was the de facto choice for athletes as a sports drink. But times have changed. Over 150 brands have entered the hydration space recently. Diminishing market share often leads to innovation. In this case, Gatorade wants to completely transform how it markets itself. It wants to appeal to the everyday person who maybe doesn’t work out regularly and isn’t losing heaps of sweat through games. Everyone still needs to be hydrated, so Gatorade wants to widen its scope. How can it broaden its appeal without losing its base with athletes? That’s a question stockholders will be eager to see answered by its Barrington-based R&D lab. So far this year, parent company PepsiCo has been beating earnings expectations. This provides a strong foundation for Gatorade as it embarks on this transformational journey. Inc has more on what went into the decision and other changes ahead for Gatorade.

🏟️ Park District pushes $630M Museum Campus overhaul as Bears exit nears A post-Bears Soldier Field seemed impossible just a few years ago. It’s closer to a foregone conclusion now. Instead of mourning the loss of its marquee tenant, CPD is imagining an even greater existence. The Museum Campus is the district’s biggest cash cow, attracting over 3 million visitors annually. An overhaul would include improving pedestrian and transit access, likely increasing visitor numbers. Mayor Johnson’s thin hopes of keeping the Bears within city limits are getting thinner by the day. Both CPD and the Bears have moved on. CPD has displayed a level of defiant confidence that it will thrive after the inevitable happens. For the Bears, it comes down to Arlington Heights or Indiana. A decision could be forthcoming by the end of the summer, as Bears CEO Kevin Warren suggests in recent statements. Crain’s explores the scope of the overhaul and implications on CPD, the Bears, and the city of Chicago.

📺 Big Ten Network Expands Super Slo-Mo Replay to More Sports with TVU Networks Any regular play can be made to look great in slow-mo. But in super slow-mo? Great plays become epic, game-changing moments. Super slo-mo can also be crucial when reviewing tricky calls that can impact the outcome of a game. Big Ten Network already uses super slow-mo in football and basketball; thanks to TVU Networks, it can expand into other sports, like volleyball. TVU’s Remote Production System (RPS) units eliminate drift in super slow-mo feeds when transported over standard networks. This drift had been an issue for the Big Ten, especially when using super slo-mo feeds from multiple cameras. The technology will allow fans and officials to see intricate details missed in live action. Unfortunately for refs, fans will have even less grace towards officials for missed calls. National Today lists other sports that will use the super slow-mo feeds and explains how the technology works.

👨‍⚖️ House v. NCAA Class Counsel Asks Court to Rein in CSC’s ‘Overreach’ When the College Sports Commission (CSC) was formed in July 2025, it faced a daunting task. It had to rein in the frenetic NIL landscape that existed before the House vs NCAA settlement. One of its main jobs is to monitor NIL deals over $600 to ensure fairness and compliance. Whether that authority includes regulating a university’s multimedia rights (MMR) partner is the issue at hand. Led by prominent attorneys Jeffrey Kessler and Steve Berman, the class counsel representing athletes argue that MMRs sit outside the CSC’s jurisdiction. NIL collectives and boosters that have an individual school’s best interests at heart should be the focus, according to the counsel. Based on this view, CSC is not authorized to regulate MMR deals involving multiple schools (think college jersey patches). If the NCAA has anyone to fear who could get a ruling in their favor, it’s Jeffrey Kessler. He was crucial in the birth of free agency in the NBA and NFL during the late 80s and 90s. Of course, he was also a key architect of the House vs. NCAA case that led to NIL in the first place. Kessler loves a good court battle, and the NCAA is becoming his favorite new sparring partner. Sportico unveils how the dispute escalated and what other issue from the settlement faces a contentious battle.

🏐 Major League Volleyball Names First Commissioner Ahead Of Expansion To describe the explosive growth of women’s volleyball as a rally would be a major understatement. USA Volleyball has experienced double-digit growth since 2021. Collegiate women’s volleyball has had its most-watched regular season and regional match of all time this year. Three professional leagues provide unparalleled opportunities for star players to play in the U.S. after college rather than go overseas. Major League Volleyball’s (MLV) hiring of Jamie Weston shows it wants to lead the way among the leagues. Weston — a former D1 volleyball player, NFL executive, and most recently, Chief Commercial Officer of USA Volleyball — is the no-brainer choice to oversee MLV’s next phase. MLV will add three expansion teams in three different parts of the country in 2027. It’s crucial for the organization to have an experienced, respected commissioner to chart the course for sustainable growth. Her stated focus is on the fan experience. Weston learned while with the NFL that fan loyalty is earned, not expected. Hopefully, the Bulls heard that statement and are taking notes. Forbes explores Weston’s credentials as the MLV’s first commissioner and tells where the new franchises will be located.

🏀 ShotTracker Launches AI-Powered Transfer Portal Tool Inside Scout ShotTracker’s new AI portal tool may become as familiar to coaches as the classic dry-erase board. Inside Scout aims to centralize the multi-faceted and difficult job of managing transfer portal prospects. For 15 days, starting during the NCAA Tournament, men's and women’s college basketball programs scramble to evaluate thousands of prospects. Inside Scout simplifies that process by consolidating valuable data points and metrics that required multiple resources into a single tool. Key features include its AI Fit Score, which measures a prospect’s fit within a certain college’s system, and its NIL valuation feature, which compares a prospect’s asking price to their market value. Fifteen days go by in a blink when you have thousands of prospects. ShotTracker’s Inside Scout will ensure programs are as efficient as possible during the short window for evaluating prospects. ShotTracker’s PSA details other key features of Inside Scout.

⛹🏽‍♀️ WNBA officially approves expansion to Cleveland, Detroit, Philadelphia As the NBA teams of these three cities battle in the playoffs, the seeds of WNBA counterpart teams were officially planted. Once Philly gets its team in 2030, the WNBA will have more than doubled from its 1997 origins of 8 teams. It technically isn’t new news, since WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert announced expansion plans last June. But it’s an official declaration coming at a marquee time. It comes after the beginning of a new era for the league, after the new CBA was agreed upon in March. The heated negotiations delayed many vital league business matters, such as the expansion draft for the two teams launching this season. Each revolutionary change in the WNBA brings it closer to parity with the NBA, even if that still takes several years to achieve. The Athletic names the two cities that will welcome WNBA teams this season.

💰 Pile of Famous Athletes Quietly Invested in Kalshi Months Ago Surprise! Giannis didn’t pave the way for athlete-prediction market partnerships. He wasn’t even second or third. He announced his partnership in February, but Kalshi had already welcomed other athletes back in December, just quietly. There are several reasons Kalshi may have chosen to conceal the other athletes’ identities. One reason is the controversy surrounding the legality of sports event contracts. Kalshi is fighting court cases in multiple states about this, but it hasn’t stopped them from expanding their partnerships with athletes. Despite the court battles, it still has to compete against Polymarket for sports partnerships. The winner holds the most sway in a nascent market. Now that Giannis has announced his connection with Kalshi, it could drive even more athletes to strike a deal with the current market leader in the U.S. Front Office Sports names other athletes who invested in Kalshi in December through Factory Holdings.

🏦 TPG Agrees to Buy Learfield in Deal Worth Roughly $2 Billion Owning the rights to sell sponsorships for over 100 colleges is valuable, even if the landscape has changed a lot since Learfield began in 2018. TPG’s size and resources can help it capitalize on opportunities where Learfield has struggled since the NIL era began. TPG manages $303 billion in assets, many times the hundreds of millions of dollars in EBITDA Learfield has. As colleges reorganize their approaches after the House vs. NCAA settlement, TPG could help ease the stress of finding recurring revenue. Colleges must stay ahead of the ever-increasing costs of sports while still balancing other responsibilities as higher education institutions. Not an easy job. TPG believes it can restructure Learfield to handle it. Sportico discusses how Learfield’s debt position led to the sale and its EBITDA.