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Morning! There’s something about midweek. Big Champions League games, even bigger newsletters. The Sports Road.
Here's what we got for ya today:
- The Funniest Stadium in Sport
- A MASSIVE FIGHT
- La Liga’s new Netflix Deal
- Luka Doncic and Chess?
Most valuable public market sports teams
Let's get into it!
Don’t Like it? Toughsheet.
Bolton’s New Stadium Name Will Have You in Stitches
Bolton Wanderers, a name all English football fans recognise.
Being a mainstay in the Premier League during the early 2000’s and even venturing into Europe, recent years have seen things take a turn for the worse.
Facing administration and dropping multiple leagues in the last decade, it felt like things couldn't get worse for Bolton fans. Well, that is until they renamed their stadium this week.
What is it you ask? Toughsheet Stadium. Yep, a name that – in many ways – best describes the club's recent history.
While seemingly pretty absurd, this deal actually represents pretty good business for Bolton. In fact, this is the largest sponsorship deal in the club’s history!
“We’re happy to have a bit of fun with it… Obviously the brand name is a bit tongue-in-cheek, a bit schoolboy humour. But I can’t wait to see them try and make each other say it on Sky Sports, it’ll be a great laugh!”
A long cry from the golden days of Jay-Jay Okocha and the UEFA Cup, but it’s good to see they’re still having fun 😂😂
Bolton fans: Please do not name our ground 'The Toughsheet Community Stadium'. We'll be a laughing stock.
Bolton:
— Paddy Power (@paddypower)
Feb 20, 2023
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It's Fight Week
It’ll never get old, will it? Jake Paul being Boxing's biggest draw and the face of the Sport 😂😂
Next weekend see’s one of the biggest fights of the year - Jake Paul vs. Tommy Fury. So, how did we get here?
With both fighters having a huge social following, it wasn’t easy…
This isn’t the first time that these two have been scheduled to fight. Originally planning for the bout for late 2021, Fury pulled out due to injury. In many ways, this acted as a blessing in disguise for the ‘Problem Child’, who rescheduled to fight former UFC Champion, Tyron Woodley. A reminder as to how that went:
This win allowed for the rescheduling of another huge bout with Fury that, you guessed it, fell through 🙄This time, Fury couldn’t because of travel issues. Let’s just say, all of these cancellations just fuelled the fighters’ disdain for one another…
“You’re fumbling the f*****g bag again! F*****g idiot!
Say what you want about either of them, but you cannot deny that this is bound to be great entertainment!
La Liga x Netflix
Football fans, it’s time to get excited.
Covering the 2023/24 season, Netflix have announced it will create a docu-series following La Liga, Spain’s top division. Allegedly inspired by ‘Drive to Survive’, this comes following the release of the F1 show’s second season.
In an effort to engage fans within what goes on at the highest level of European football, the show is bound to include:
- A format similar to pre-existing Sport docu-series
- Personalised player stories
- Exclusive ‘behind the scenes’ content
- A dramatised run through of the league’s events
President of La Liga, Javier Tebas' desire to increase the league’s reach is well documented. Wanting to even the playing field with divisions such as the Premier League, this could act as a turning point in the league’s global viewership.
”For La Liga, to be the star of Netflix’s first sports series in Spain is a unique opportunity to take our football beyond the fans, to share with the world the excitement of the sport we love, and the chance for all our fans to see LaLiga from a totally different angle.”
Luka Doncic x AI x Chess
Wait, what?
Yep, that was our reaction too. How on earth could these three things be related?
Once stating, “I play [chess] online… I win, mostly”, Luka Doncic is an avid chess player. In a partnership created with chess.com, fans will now be able to play against him… kind of.
Play against the bot!
— Chess.com (@chesscom)
Feb 17, 2023
This is how it works:
Well, you may have heard of Luk.AI. If not – to put it simply – it’s the NBA great’s AI alter-ego. I wish I had one of those…
- Modelled off of Luka Doncic, Luk.AI is a self learning AI system
- The more games the AI plays, the stronger he grows
This comes soon after Chess.com experienced a boom in their users at the start of 2023. In fact, so many people were playing that the servers found it difficult to keep up! While on the final day of 2022, there was 7 million active players, ten days later it was at 10 million 🤯🤯
Quick bites
- Sorry Liverpool fans: FSG announce club is not for sale
- This weekend saw the NBA All-Star game: Here are the winners and losers
- F1: Could Honda be making a return?
Meme of the day
Show this somebody 9 years ago and they'd collapse
— Goat (@Goatisgone)
Feb 19, 2023
Quote of the day
“I’ve failed over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.”
Photo of the day
Guess Who's Back! Henry Cejudo's Return to MMA Announced
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Chat to ya on Friday! ☮️
