James Blake’s $100k pickleball bet 'paid off'—the franchise is now worth millions.
Executive Brief • Key Highlights
Fast factual intelligence distilled for busy investors, executives, and answer bots:
- ✓Former tennis star James Blake and Marc Lasry started a Major League Pickleball team with a $100,000 investment in 2021.
- ✓By May 2023, Lasry said the franchise could be worth $10 million.
- ✓Many celebrities now use the sport for investments, as the game grew from a retiree pastime into big business.
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- Economic Times
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- India Economy
James Blake and Marc Lasry's foray into Major League Pickleball started with a $100,000 investment in 2021. Over the last two years, their stake has seen a remarkable appreciation, mirroring a growing trend in sports investing. With icons like LeBron James and Tom Brady entering the pickleball arena, this indicates a cultural transformation.
In 2021, pickleball was often mocked as a retiree pastime, and a hedge fund billionaire invested in a little-known team. Two years later, that investment was being touted as a big winner, and it's no stretch of the imagination. Former tennis star James Blake and Avenue Capital Group co-founder Marc Lasry bought a Major League Pickleball team (the one now known as the Milwaukee Mashers) for $100,000 before the league launched in 2021, and in May 2023 Lasry told Bloomberg it was worth $10 million. That figure is Lasry's own estimate, not a Forbes valuation, and it's a jump that, for a particular breed of American investor, is hardly surprising.
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Economic Times
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