Bloomberg Power Players hosts Athletes, Investors, Leaders in International Sports

Carol Massar (0:02)

Bloomberg Audio Studios, Podcasts, Radio, News.

This is Bloomberg Businessweek Daily, reporting from the magazine that helps global leaders stay ahead, with insight on the people, companies, and trends shaping today's complex economy, plus global business, finance, and tech news as it happens. The Bloomberg Businessweek Daily podcast with Carol Massar and Tim Stenovec on Bloomberg Radio.

Tim Stenovec (0:32)

Jason Kelly needs no introduction.

Carol Massar (0:34)

He doesn't.

Tim Stenovec (0:35)

He's longtime co-anchor with Carol Massar of Bloomberg Businessweek.

Matt Miller (0:40)

Anybody who can put up with me for that long. You're getting close.

Tim Stenovec (0:43)

Oh, we're just so happy to have you here, Jason. Welcome back.

Jason Kelly (0:46)

Great to be here.

Matt Miller (0:47)

So talk to us about what you're going to be doing up on stage. Someone well-known to the Bloomberg community, his wife well-known to the sports community.

Jason Kelly (0:56)

Exactly right. Alexis Ohanian. So this is the first husband-wife duo we have had on The Deal across a couple of years. Alexis Ohanian, of course, co-founder of Reddit. I would say, and I'll say this on stage in a little while, so quick preview of that. I mean, arguably one of the most influential sports investors of the modern era, and not because of buying huge stakes in the Lakers, or the Celtics, or the Commanders, or something like that. But founding investor of Angel City Football Club, which obviously really moved the needle for that league, the NWSL, has been a huge proponent of some of these up-and-coming leagues around track and field. He's been involved in collectibles.

He really does an amazing job of looking around corners. We're going to talk a lot on stage about his purchase of the Chelsea women's side, which was a big deal, again, as women's soccer gets more and more global and more and more competitive.

Tim Stenovec (1:57)

I'm curious about what drives them or who helps drive their decisions and where that comes from. Because if you look at the landscape where Serena is, we were speaking to Maggie Timoney of Heineken last week. She's US CEO doing a huge thing with Serena Williams. She does Roe. They're investors in different types of companies that are unrelated to sports also. Who's behind this sort of empire?

Jason Kelly (2:19)

What's interesting is, and we learned this from Serena, which is an episode of The Deal I would highly recommend. And we actually just re-upped it last week in recognition of her and Venus playing back in the US Open.

I'm sort of interested at how much they do on their own. That Alexis and Serena, obviously, they do some things together. But they really have pretty individual approaches. And I'll give you an example.

Last week on our show, we had a woman named Jenny Nguyen, who is the founder of a bar in Portland, Oregon called the Sports Bra. Yeah. And Alexis Ohanian, a backer of that on his own. And it was interesting. And you asked him sort of how he does these deals. She tells the story and we'll probably talk to him about it today. He literally like put something on X was like, hey, Sports Bra, when you're interested in leveling up, hit me up. And she, like, she thought it was a prank and like thought one of her friends had sort of set her up on this. And then over about a year cultivated this relationship. And ultimately he went in a very big way along with Renee Montgomery. And so I do think, again, to more fully answer your question, Tim, I think part of what Alexis sees, and again, we'll get into this with him today, is a lot of this is about building the ecosystems. And as the valuations for teams go up and up and up, you know, $12.5 billion for the Lakers, as you alluded to, Carol. You know, that's a check almost no one can write.

And yet there are massive opportunities around the, you know, whether it's technology, whether it is real estate, whether it's other elements of, again, that sort of sports ecosystem. So it's a very ecosystem minded approach is what he takes.

Matt Miller (4:08)

So I'm curious, so does he own certain things and she owns certain things and they own certain things together?

Jason Kelly (4:13)

Yeah, that's right. They invest together sometimes, but largely what they're doing is on their own. Like Serena Ventures, you know, I interviewed, I think you and I talked about it. I interviewed Serena at the Milking Conference earlier this year at Beverly Hills. And Serena Ventures, that's her thing. So, you know, and it is interesting to see, you know, a family or a couple or whoever. And, you know, they have their individual interests and sometimes they do things together. And sometimes they do things on their own. And, you know, Alexis, I think, has such a different and complex network, you know, really through the technology world.