Wayne Kimmel 14:41
Well across the whole SeventySix Capital network, whether it’s our investment arm, our sports advisory business, our media business, as we’re constantly trying to market and try to find the next great sports entrepreneur. So we’re constantly going out there and that and that’s everything. From doing shows like yours, Chad, going out and running conferences, we have our this week in sports business, which is our weekly newsletter that we talk about all the different things that are going on across the sports industry. We have our SeventySix Capital Sports Leadership show, which is our podcast and our video show where we interview entrepreneurs, athletes and executives, on who are literally creating, creating, and many times doing the next next thing in the world of sports, whether we’re investors in their company or not, we love to promote and try to be in the conversation. So we’re constantly trying to put ourselves out there to be able to attract and connect with and find the next great sports entrepreneur, entrepreneur, we go to lots of events, we you know, and not only just in the United States all over the world, I mean, this is not something that’s just us, we have investments all around the world, we are looking for entrepreneurs that are really looking at the sports industry on a global scale. So this is something that we really, it’s it’s such a great question. I mean, it’s something that we spend so much time on, because we really do want to find and identify, you know, people that may or may never have heard of SeventySix Capital may never heard of Wayne Kimmel may not have heard of what we’re doing. But then when they’re like what we’ve been looking for something like this, we’ve been trying to find an investor to help us move our business for we’ve been trying to find an advisor on our sports advisory business where we work with Team teams and leagues and brands and family offices, and helping them basically understand all the new things that are coming down the pike in the sports industry, because just like every other industry, the sports industry is changing. It’s it’s, it’s taking in and it’s it’s starting to use technology at a whole nother level, it’s using data and analytics to make the business better, not only just to make your, your team better on the court, or on the field or on the pitch, but it’s all about being able to know also how do you engage your fans? How do you make, you know, how do you build your brand as a as a team and as a league, so we’re able to help on that side of the world. And so we try, you know, as much as we can, to, to be out there, and to be a really big part of the overall sports, overall ecosystem. And we love bringing together that industry, we do lots of meetups in different spots around the around the country, where we just, we just bring together the community. And it’s, it’s pretty magical to see when you bring all different types of people together. And you know, and we try to if it helps, if it helps us, that’s great. But if it helps the overall sports industry, it’s even better.
Chad Franzen 17:53
Sure. Is there a in the course of investing in not only investing in these companies, but working with them? Is there maybe a lesson that you have learned along the way that I don’t know, maybe you wish you had known 10 years ago or 20 years ago?
Wayne Kimmel 18:08
Well, I think you know, one of the big things that I talk about a lot is, is just you got to just go make it happen. Like you just got to get out there and try to make things happen. And I think that’s the one one thing you just, you constantly have to think about. You can read all you want, you can scour every type of social media, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, and, and you think you know everything about a person, a company, until you actually meet that person, you could zoom in zoom with that person, right? I mean, you think you know everything about them, and you know what they want and what they’re looking for, and what types of companies they’re involved with. But until you really spend some time with somebody in person, it it’s amazing what you can learn in those situations, patients. And so we try as a team here at SeventySix Capital to be out there to be in the mix, meeting people and learning about things that I mean, you just you may not you just may not know, I mean, you know, looks exactly as if this company is going in one direction. And this is all they’re thinking about. But in their own private meetings and everything that they’re doing. They’re actually thinking about it completely different, they just haven’t told anybody yet. They haven’t told the world yet. And that’s where we want to be we want to be in that area where we’re doing something that’s and that’s why I always use this term, the next next thing, right, so we want to know what’s we want to we want to look out and think about that and to do that many times. It’s really about spending time with people and getting a chance to see if and learn a lot more than what you can just see. That’s all that’s on the surface.
Chad Franzen 19:55
But I only have a couple more questions for you. Is there anything that you have going on? Right, I mean, you’re very enthused Yeah, stick about what you do. Is there anything you have going on that you’re that you’re particularly excited about right now?
Wayne Kimmel 20:06
Well, you know, for us right now, we have some amazing companies. In the sports betting industry, we think that, you know, the world of the world of sports in the world of, of casino gaming, and sports betting have really come together. And they’ve converged in this in an amazing way. And we’ve made investments across the technology side of that industry, the data, the analytics, the media side of it, the compliance side of it, the integrity side of the industry, the customization and personalization side of the sports betting. I mean, there’s so many opportunities across the industry, there’s so many opportunities for young people, or just quite frankly, anybody that understands sports, as well as understands the world of sports betting, to come together. And that really helped connect those two worlds. That’s something that we find is really exciting. We have incredible companies like us integrity and Azaan compliance and epoxy, across this, across this, these these industries industry, we’ve we’ve, as I mentioned earlier, selling V sin and victory and victory, we sold to fubo. TV, that was an amazing technology platform that we were behind. So like, though, these types of companies that are really changing the way people are, not only just, you know, interacting with sports books, but also the the infrastructure side of the industry is incredible. And then you think about, you know, augmented reality, and how that’s being used in the world of sports. We have an amazing company called Quinn, thar, which is the official augmented reality provider for the PGA Tour, they work with the the G league in the NBA and doing some amazing things with AT and T around that. So loving what they’re doing there, you think about how much AI is being used across many, many of the companies we’re invested in, we have incredible fitness technology companies. And you know, a big another big thing that we really believe here, and part of our thesis here at SeventySix Capital is that every bat, every ball, every stick, every racket is going to be smart in the future. And those those and that’s through embedding technology inside of the actual physical products, as well as the use of different types of cameras, and vision systems and things like that, that are out there today, which is going to make the game even better make all the games like all the sports even better, we have an amazing company that works. It’s an official partner with Major League Baseball called Diamond kinetics, they have an incredible products across baseball and softball, love what they’re doing. And just it’s, it’s, it’s just so exciting to see the the, the imagination, the creativity of entrepreneurs, who are truly innovating the world of sports, and we want to get behind them all we want to learn more, we want to have even more, you know, investments across many of these, these companies and there’s just there’s so much to do. There’s such an opportunity for for entrepreneurs in sports. And you know, it’s something that we were so excited. I mean, we’ve, we’ve gotten to the point now where we’re seeing, you know, close to 170 new business plans and ideas a month, that are just coming our way and we want more, we want to get over 200 We want to get over 300 We want to see all these opportunities so that we can, you know, help and invest in and back these entrepreneurs who are doing incredible things in sports.
Chad Franzen 23:51
I have one more question for you. But first, tell me how people can find out more about SeventySix Capital about your podcast, your book. Anything?
Wayne Kimmel 23:59
Yeah, thank you, you know, you can find out a lot about us all over the internet. I mean, SeventySix Capital is the is probably the best way on our website to find out everything about us. And you can find out about me Wayne Kimmel. You just search me whether it’s LinkedIn, whether it’s Instagram, whether it’s Twitter, you know, at Wayne Kimmel is is where you can find me. And you could find more about you know, my book, which is Six Degrees of Wayne Kimmel there as well. But just you know, for us, it’s in subscribe to our newsletter, our weekly newsletter this week in sports business, if this is an area that you want to learn about, this is an area that you want to potentially work in because we have an area, you know, a section in there with really exciting jobs, you know, that that are you know, many of the companies in the sports industry, as we were saying earlier are looking for talented people, whether it’s a technology side of the business, whether it’s you know, understanding the sports betting side of things, there’s lots and lots of opportunities and it’s pretty cool to work in a in a company when you know that, you know, part of what you do is you have to watch game, right? You have to understand the sports world. So it’s a lot of fun. If you’re a sports fan, to be in this in this industry, and every single day, there are more and more jobs. The sports books themselves are all looking for talented people that understand the world of sports, betting and understand sports. So there’s a lot a lot happening out there. And, you know, just we’re excited to, you know, help people. So find us at SeventySix Capital, find me at Wayne Kimmel reach out, we’re happy to connect you and, and and come to some of our events as well. I mean, we’re gonna have you know, we’re having, you know, all over the country.
Chad Franzen 25:40
Hey, last question for you. You mentioned you went to law school, what was your goal? When you first started law school? What did you want to be? Well,
Wayne Kimmel 25:47
you know, my whole life, I was, I was supposed to be a lawyer and follow in the footsteps of my of my dad, that’s the that was the whole plan. So I’ve kind of just I laid out everything I knew if I wasn’t going to be professional athlete, which that didn’t work out. So the, you know, for me, it was always to go and take over my dad’s law firm, that was the plan. But for the fact of this, this create these crazy entrepreneurs in the world of tech, in the late 90s, I would have, I would have just gone in practice with him. My brother did, who’s younger than me, Larry took over my dad’s law firm, and he’s doing a heck of a job doing that. But um, you know, for me, it was it. I couldn’t, I just couldn’t get away from this, you know, the, the idea of really going out there and, and working with entrepreneurs and helping build businesses. And it’s amazing. It’s something again, as I tell, as I tell everybody, I mean, you got to follow your passion, you got to follow what you’re what you’re really excited about. And something that makes you want to jump out of bed every day. That’s something that’s, that’s, that’s amazing. It’s, it’s what you know, I feel so lucky, you know, that, you know, going going to work is not even, it’s not even work, right? It’s just what we do, it’s what we love. So we’d love to do, it’s amazing to go and work in an industry that we love, work around entrepreneurs, that have just such amazing ideas that are so smart, that are such good people that we just enjoy being around. So we’re just so lucky to to do that. And, you know, again, it’s it’s going to work is going to games. I mean, like that just almost doesn’t even make sense. But we’re lucky to do that. And but in as they say it’s not something that is this closed wool world, this industry, the sports world is looking for so much talent right now. We’re looking for people, there’s, you know, the teams, the league’s the tech companies. Everybody’s looking for talented people to come in. And be part of this because the sports industry over the last several years has truly become an asset class. Just like any other asset class that’s out there, whether it’s the financial services industry, whether it’s healthcare, it’s an asset class, it’s a major growing asset class, the money that’s coming into the world of sports is unbelievable. You see the the values of these of these sports franchises are just in the billions today. The numbers have just have gone up and incredibly, you know, the amount of money that people are, are betting on sports. $220 billion, has been bet legally in the sports industry. In the last five years. We’re only five years into the into the legal sports industry. So there’s this whole legal sports betting industry is in its infancy right now. So there’s really, really great opportunities to work, to to innovate to be a leader right now. I mean, this is we’re just getting going. So I love to see and hear, you know, the new ideas that are coming into this industry. And we’re, we’re all everyone’s kind of open arms, you know, waiting for the next, the next great thing and we’re excited to be part of that.
Chad Franzen 29:16
Yeah, very exciting. That’s awesome. Hey, Wayne, it’s been great to talk to you. Thanks so much. Really appreciate your time and all of your insights today. Thank you.
Wayne Kimmel 29:23
Appreciate it. Thanks, Chad. So long, everybody.
Outro 29:26
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