DK

If you want more out life, put more into it

[DK @senordeeeks]

Read all of his books as a youngster. My favourite author. RIP Sir, you impacted generations

[BBC Breaking News @BBCBreaking]

Bestselling author and former politician Jeffrey Archer dies aged 86
https://t.co/61TnrZ6V5p

[DK @senordeeeks]

@ChronosSageX Same for lifapath 28/1 ? It adds to 10

[FrontRowBrian™ 🇺🇸 ₿ @FrontRowBrian]

Saudi Arabia spent five years buying into Western sport. Now it’s starting to privatize its own clubs — and American Private Equity RedBird is circling Cristiano Ronaldo’s Al Nassr-

For years, the Saudi sports story was PIF writing the check: Newcastle, LIV Golf and nine-figure contracts for stars. That isn’t ending, but the financing model is changing. PIF is putting more emphasis on returns, capital recycling and bringing private investors into assets the state helped build.

Saudi football is the clearest example. In 2023, PIF acquired 75% of Al Hilal, Al Nassr, Al Ittihad and Al Ahli, while each club’s nonprofit foundation retained 25%. This August, those remaining stakes began transferring to PIF. Al Nassr’s transfer came Aug. 19, effectively taking PIF to 100%. Officially, it was about governance and investment appeal. Practically, it also created one seller ahead of privatization.

The first major sale is already done. On Sept. 1, Prince Alwaleed bin Talal’s Kingdom Holding bought 70% of Al Hilal for ~$224M, implying roughly a $320M equity valuation and $373M enterprise value. PIF retained 30%, and because it also owns about 16.9% of Kingdom Holding, its look-through economic exposure is closer to 42%. This wasn’t a full exit. PIF moved from majority owner to minority capital partner.

Now attention is turning to Al Nassr. Saudi reporting says a group involving Gerry Cardinale’s RedBird Capital, Al-Wasail and former Al Nassr president Ibrahim Al-Muhaidib has held talks with PIF. Ronaldo’s contract reportedly gives him priority to acquire 20% if the club opens to private ownership, while A Bola has separately reported a broader investment group involving Ronaldo, Cardinale and Saudi investors.

The widely discussed $500M figure is not a confirmed purchase price or valuation. We still don’t know how much would go to PIF, how much would be injected into Al Nassr or how much might refinance existing obligations. That matters because Al Nassr reportedly carries more than $213M of obligations and spent part of the summer under financial restrictions. Fresh capital could be part acquisition, part recapitalization.

The RedBird angle is especially interesting. RedBird committed roughly $2B to the Skydance/Paramount deal; Gerry Cardinale sits on Paramount’s board, and former RedBird executive Andy Gordon is Paramount’s COO and chief strategy officer.

Days after Paramount-Skydance closed, Paramount signed a 7-year, $7.7B UFC rights deal. RedBird also invested in MARI, founded by Ari Emanuel and Mark Shapiro, while TKO invested alongside RedBird in EverPass, where Shapiro joined the board. EverPass has since been sold to DAZN which PIF holds a stake in. TKO also has DAZN equity after the EverPass transaction.

So RedBird isn’t a random American investor showing up in Saudi football. It already sits inside the same business network as Paramount, Ari Emanuel, Mark Shapiro and $TKO.

The bigger story is the Saudi funding model. Saudi clubs have spent roughly $2B on transfers since 2023 while generating a fraction of major European-league revenue. PIF now says privatization is about maximizing returns, recycling capital and increasing private-sector participation.

Saudi Arabia isn’t abandoning sports. It still owns Newcastle, is hosting the 2034 World Cup and continues to treat sports as strategically important. Not to mention their boxing related ventures.

What’s changing is who pays the bill.

Phase one was state-funded acceleration: spend aggressively, import stars and build global relevance.

Phase two is increasingly about selling control, retaining minority upside and making private capital carry more of the cost. $PSKY

[Tim Denning @Tim_Denning]

It takes a psychopath to want greatness. You must violently be disgusted by mediocrity.

You must embrace your dark side. You must be a dark horse in your field.

You must use the darkness within you as a reason to move forward, not to stop. Risk is opportunity. Stress is growth.

Love is obsession. Growth is oxygen. High performance is the only way to live.

To succeed, you must murder the version of yourself that is lazy and scared.

Continuously. 99% of people hate killing that version of themselves.

But it's what makes you live at the intersection of obsession and pure chaos.

And you figure out all you have to do is stay at that intersection for the rest of your life and you can have whatever you want.

[FrontRowBrian™ 🇺🇸 ₿ @FrontRowBrian]

Ari Emanuel's new memoir has his inside account of buying WWE from Vince McMahon. He calls Vince a friend and client, and he still pushed him out entirely.

When the WSJ reported Vince's secret payouts to settle misconduct claims, Ari was at Wimbledon. He put his phone away for the rest of the match while people kept asking what it meant for him. He says he didn't know then and still doesn't. Vince called to say the charges were false and that he'd step aside for his daughter, then reversed course and took WWE back. Ari saw a mess with only one fix: sell to us.

His read on Vince going in was blunt. Vince was in his 70s, dealing with health problems, had damaged his brand through his own choices, and didn't fully grasp that the company was teetering. As Ari puts it, "We're his best option, possibly his only option." He pitched the deal as a rescue, not a takeover: WWE would merge with UFC, and Vince would stay on as chairman emeritus.

The negotiation was a culture clash. Ari keeps meetings to 15 minutes, while Vince wanted to go over details again, tell stories, run past midnight and order more food. Ari says he needed breathwork and meditation to get through it. The signing still got emotional. Vince talked about trusting Ari with his company, and Ari talked about watching wrestling with his grandfather and how it calmed his anxiety as a kid. The price was roughly $9B.

Then the Janel Grant lawsuit hit in January 2024, months after TKO closed. Shapiro told Ari that Vince had to go completely, with no emeritus role. Ari agreed but was uncomfortable, so he had Shapiro make the call, and Vince agreed that same day.

The takeaway is real affection paired with a cold read on leverage. Ari never says whether he believes the allegations, only what they meant for the business, and the one discomfort he admits is about that final phone call.

[DK @senordeeeks]

@FrontRowBrian Absolutely spot on. What is your prediction for PFL?
- Regional leagues wound up?
- Consolidation of Europe/North America?
- Broadcast deal with ESPN ressurected and one off events on Netflix?
Can't see how the status quo at MVP/PFL remains the same

[DK @senordeeeks]

@FrontRowBrian Why? Would be interested to know your thesis

[FrontRowBrian™ 🇺🇸 ₿ @FrontRowBrian]

In combat sports the durable asset isn't the fighter. It's the date.

Fighters age out. Contracts expire. Calendar slots compound.

UFC ran 24 events in 2010. It runs ~45 now. A Saturday it doesn't own is rare. That's the source of its rights leverage — a streamer isn't buying fights, it's buying 45 guaranteed programming nights with a floor on each one.

Boxing never had this. Top Rank, Matchroom, Golden Boy, PBC — each has rights to fighters, nobody owns the schedule.

Supply is feast-or-famine, fans never form a habit, no one can underwrite a subscription against it. HBO out 2018. Showtime out end of 2023. ESPN out July 2025. The sport didn't run out of talent. It ran out of anyone who could promise a slate.

Zuffa Boxing is the correction It launched January 2026, guiding to 12-16 cards, Paramount+ deal signed before the roster was full. Dates first, stars second. Riyadh skipped the build and bought the calendar outright.

[DK @senordeeeks]

@Cecilia90311652 @mexingadireito She did go on a rampage in Season 1 when the boxing promoter hospitalised her brother. She went scortched earth eliminating the boxer, refree and decapitating one of the bankers. Bobby had to calm her down.

[DK @senordeeeks]

Sensational and very accurate deductions from The Gentleman

[Cecilia Walker @Cecilia90311652]

So hear me out. The more I rewatch this season, the more I am convinced that Eddie's proposal & subsequent marriage to Bella was all part of a long term plan to take over the Glass empire & more importantly, do so with Susie at his side. Settle in, dear reader, & I'll explain...

[Cecilia Walker @Cecilia90311652]

So hear me out. The more I rewatch this season, the more I am convinced that Eddie's proposal & subsequent marriage to Bella was all part of a long term plan to take over the Glass empire & more importantly, do so with Susie at his side. Settle in, dear reader, & I'll explain...

[FrontRowBrian™ 🇺🇸 ₿ @FrontRowBrian]

While the $9.6 Billion Seattle Seahawks sale and Stan Kroenke buying the Angels are getting most of the U.S. sports-business attention, there’s been a lot happening in European football too.

West Ham. Everton. Northampton. Serie A.

Different deals, same direction: more institutional capital is moving into football. 🧵

[DK @senordeeeks]

Seeing this live was incredible.
What sport can do and inspire is limitless

[Herman ⚡ @hermux]

Another angle. As received.

[Airlink @Fly_Airlink]

Planning. Precision. Performance. ✈️✈️

Spectacular scenes of Airlink’s double Embraer flyover at the DHL Stadium.

Airlink is Proud Official Sponsor of Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry, presented by Castle Double Malt 🏉

#Airlink #FlyAirlink #FlyTheLink #Skybucks #RugbysGreatestRivalry

[Reece Wabara @ReeceWabara]

Sometimes reaching your potential means going backwards a year or two to re-strategise & rebuild

Protecting where you are, often stops you reaching where you could be.

[EFC Worldwide @EFCworldwide]

The day has arrived 🙌 #EFC136 is LIVE from the WSB EFC arena today.

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Watch from anywhere in the world 🌍 visit https://t.co/Pn7uzIB9Dd for more broadcast info.

[FrontRowBrian™ 🇺🇸 ₿ @FrontRowBrian]

The financials aren’t pretty. They’re not supposed to be.

If you’re trying to build a global sports league, you have to spend aggressively. If you don’t, you’re not even in the conversation.

You don’t raise nine figures to become a profitable regional promotion. You raise nine figures to take market share from a global incumbent generating roughly $1 billion in annual cash flow.

[DK @senordeeeks]

@FrontRowBrian Spot on. There has to be UNIFIED opposition to their market position. Imagine Scott Coker/MVP/PFL and say ONE championship or RIZIN merge then a MASSIVE North American distribution on NETFLIX or Amazon. You have distribution, vision and talent.

[DK @senordeeeks]

@FrontRowBrian I don't think (the market) they see MVP/PFL as a threat to UFC. The only way the needle moves is if they have a MASSIVE North America broadcast deal with Netflix or maybe YoutubeTV or Amazon.

[DK @senordeeeks]

@nojikoskiMMA @igorserafini_ Interesting perspective.
Do you think PFL Africa and PFL MENA will remain post merger with MVP?

Or are they more likely to have co-promotion events and partnerships with other regional promotions to funnel talent to the PFL/MVP umbrella?