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On the latest Sporticast episode, hosts Scott Soshnick and Eben Novy-Williams discuss some of the biggest sports business stories of the week, including beef in the world of competitive eating. Joey Chestnut, the sport’s biggest star, says he was recently banned from the Nathan’s hot dog eating contest because of a commercial sponsorship he signed with a different food company.
Chestnut, who holds the Nathan’s contest record of 76 hot dogs in 10 minutes, recently signed an endorsement deal with Impossible Foods, the maker of fake meat products. Major League Eating, which helps run the July 4 event, said the deal violated the contest’s “basic hot dog exclusivity provisions.” One day after the ban, Netflix announced it would stream a live showdown in September of Chestnut vs. Takeru Kobayashi, the sport’s second most famous star. The two haven’t faced each other since 2009, when the latter entered a contract dispute with MLE.
Next the hosts talk about athletes as investors. The NFL’s Kelce brothers just became the biggest shareholders in Garage Beer, an Ohio brand. Sportico‘s Eric Jackson recently wrote a piece about how NBA players share investment opportunities amongst each other. As athletes make more money—and get savvier with it—their deal flow becomes a currency of sorts in the locker room and clubhouse. The hosts talk about different sports and how this may vary by league, and also about which athletes stand out from an investment standpoint.
Lastly, they discuss two other pieces of news. CBS Sports is exploring a sale of MaxPreps, the popular high school sports website; and NBA icon Jerry West died this week at the age of 86.
(You can subscribe to Sporticast through Apple, Google, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever else you get your podcasts.)