Episode #264
Why the Attention Economy Is the Best Lens for Sports Tech Investing- Chris, Ten Squared Capital #264
In this episode of the Sports Tech AllStars Podcast, we present Chris, Partner at Ten Squared Capital, a seed to Series A fund investing across the attention economy- media, entertainment, live experiences and sports. The conversation explores why live sports and live events become more valuable as AI floods the world with content, how fandom is one of the most undermonetised assets in sport, and why athletes as individual brands are still massively undervalued relative to the teams they play for. Takeaways The attention economy covers everything competing for your time and money outside of work Live sports become more exclusive and more valuable precisely because AI makes everything else abundant Fandom is severely undermonetised — fans paying twenty dollars a month for Spotify consume hundreds of hours of music and there is a massive willingness-to-pay gap waiting to be unlocked Ten Squared backs infrastructure and platform companies powering the attention economy rather than individual creators or specific IP Tokenization has three genuinely strong use cases in sports: payment rails for direct athlete-to-fan transactions, financing junior sports careers and creator revenue factorization Proof of attendance and digital collectibles done right can reward loyal fans and create meaningful data for teams and athletes The biggest athletes arguably have larger fanbases than the biggest teams NIL legislation is only a few years old — a generation of athletes born into that infrastructure will fundamentally change how sports commerce works Formula One is the best existing example of how to tier fandom across multiple segments and price points To learn more, visit: https://tensquared.com/ Get in touch with Chris at: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christophercheung93/ Hosted by Rohn Malhotra from SportsTechX - Leading source of Investment and Innovation insights in sports. STX Intelligence Hub: sports tech company, investor, and deal database: intelligence.sportstechx.com As promised, here's your small surprise: Unlock your 30-day growth plan (worth €49) on the SportsTechX Intelligence Hub for free! Simply verify your company details and you get access to 1,500+ investors, programmes, initiatives and events in the sportstech ecosystem. Here's how to get set up and if you'd like a walkthrough of the platform, feel free to book a call here. Download the latest Industry Reports here: https://intelligence.sportstechx.com/reports/gster26 Sign Up for the Sports Tech Weekly Newsletter for more news, features & insights on Sports Tech: https://newsletter.sportstechx.com/ Chapters 00:00 Introduction 00:36 From Toronto to LA Investment Banking — How Sports Shaped Chris's Career 02:30 Joining Ten Squared Capital and What the Attention Economy Actually Means 03:59 Why Live Sports Become More Valuable in an AI-Abundant World 06:52 The Challenge of Picking Winners in the Attention Economy 08:05 The Picks and Shovels Approach 10:29 Web Three, Blockchain and What Still Applies to Sports Today 11:58 Three Tokenization Use Cases That Actually Work in Sports 14:27 Proof of Attendance Protocols and Digital Collectibles Done Right 15:26 How Ten Squared Invests 17:09 Portfolio Spotlight 18:25 The Tiering of Fandom 19:44 Formula One as the Best Example of Multi-Tier Fandom 20:31 Formula One's Half a Million Fans at Silverstone 21:33 Athletes as Their Own Brand — The Most Undervalued Asset Class in Sport 23:20 How Technology Has Changed What an Individual Athlete Can Build 24:24 NIL, the Next Generation of Athletes and What Comes Next 25:13 What the Next 12–18 Months Look Like for Ten Squared Capital 26:29 Favourite Sporting Moment Stay Connected with SportsTechX Spotify: https://creators.spotify.com/pod/profile/sportstechx/ Apple Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/in/podcast/the-sports-tech-allstars-podcast/id1271329751 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/sportstechx YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@SportsTechX
