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Vlatko Andonovski has resigned as head coach of the U.S. women’s national soccer team, according to multiple reports Wednesday, following a disappointing early exit from the Women’s World Cup.
The soccer blog 90min first reported Andonovski’s departure, and the news was confirmed by ESPN and The Athletic late Wednesday. ESPN reported the U.S. Soccer Federation is expected to make an official announcement Thursday.
Assistant…
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“‘I never bet on the Ryder Cup. While it is well known that I always enjoy a friendly wager on the course, I would never undermine the integrity of the game.’”
That was golf star Phil Mickelson responding to allegations he wagered more than $1 billion on football, basketball and baseball over the past three decades, and attempted to bet on the Ryder Cup, too.
The claims were made by professional gambler and Las Vegas businessman Billy Walters in a book due out on Aug. 22, “Gambler: Secrets from a Life of Risk.” Walters said Mickelson placed hundreds of bets with him for exactly $220,000 and 1,115 bets for precisely $110,000 over the span of three decades. Walters claims that Mickelson also asked him to place a $400,000 bet on the U.S. team to win the 2012 Ryder Cup, a request that Walters said he declined, according to excerpts of the book reported by The FirePit Collective.
PGA Tour players are prohibited from wagering on events under the organization’s Integrity Program.
“I have also been very open about my gambling addiction,” Mickelson continued in his statement shared on social media. “I have previously conveyed my remorse, took responsibility, have gotten help, have been fully committed to therapy that has positively impacted me and I feel good about where I am now.”
Mickelson did not specifically address Walters’s claims that he wagered over $1 billion on sports, or that he lost more than $100 million on his bets during the multi-decade span.
Walters is viewed as one of the more successful professional gamblers in recent memory, with sportsbooks limiting the amount he could wager at their establishments. He was convicted of insider trading in 2017 and served five years in federal prison. Mickelson was named in that insider-trading case; he was not accused of wrongdoing but agreed to pay back close to $1 million earned on a stock tip he received from Walters.
Representatives for Mickelson did not respond to MarketWatch’s request for comment for this story.
Mickelson was one of the first professional golfers to leave the PGA Tour for LIV Golf last year. He was offered roughly $200 million to join the Saudi-backed league, according to the Golf Channel’s Brentley Romine. The PGA Tour, the DP World Tour and the Saudi-backed LIV Golf circuit reached a landmark merger agreement in June that aims to create a single operation that would “unify” golf.
See also: PGA Tour head: it will be ‘difficult’ to earn players trust after LIV merger
And: Tiger Woods turned down LIV Golf offer in the ‘neighborhood’ of $700 million, says Greg Norman
Some fellow professional golfers reacted to the alleged gambling issues by taking a few swings at Mickelson.
“At least he can bet on the Ryder Cup this year because he won’t be a part of it,” golfer Rory McIlroy said on Thursday. McIlroy, one of the PGA Tour’s staunchest defenders in its battle against LIV Golf, has been critical of Mickelson and LIV on multiple occasions.
Golfers including Mickelson and Dustin Johnson have been criticized for joining LIV Golf and turning a blind eye to Saudi Arabia’s human-rights record. According to the U.S. State Department, Saudi Arabia has in recent years been linked to multiple human-rights violations, including unlawful killings; executions for nonviolent offenses; forced disappearances; torture and cases of cruel and inhuman or degrading treatment of prisoners and detainees by government agents, among other offenses.
Golfer Jordan Speith, a three-time major championship winner, said people in the golf world were “surprised” by the recent headlines about Mickelson.
Mickelson’s alleged gambling predates the summer of 2018, when the Supreme Court lifted a U.S. ban on sports betting, allowing states to create legislation to legalize gambling. Since then, 34 states allow some form of legal sports betting, according to the latest tally by the American Gaming Association.
It’s estimated that between 1% and 3% of the American adult population has some sort of gambling issue, although some groups believe the actual number could be even higher.
“We didn’t have a good problem-gambling infrastructure in place prior to the expansion of sports betting, and we still don’t,” Keith Whyte, executive director of the National Council on Problem Gambling, was quoted as having told the Charlotte Observer in February.
U.S. sportsbooks accepted $93 billion in sports bets in 2022, according to the American Gaming Association’s Tracker, a massive jump from the $57.22 billion wagered in 2021.
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Robert Pagliarini, author of “The Sudden Wealth Solution,” has been guiding lottery winners for decades. And he has seen plenty of people run through their winnings faster than you can say “jackpot!” Or, friends and family (and certainly office lottery pool players) can see their winnings tied up in legal battles for years, as the parties argue over who gets how much. About 70% of lottery winners lose or spend all the money in five years or less, after all.
“Money — especially when you’re talking about this level of money — absolutely upends people’s lives,” Pagliarini, the president of Pacifica Wealth Advisors, told MarketWatch. “You should be excited, but you should also be prepared, for sure.”
These are his five tips for what to do if you win the lottery or get another windfall.
Sign your name on the winning ticket, take a picture of yourself holding the winning ticket — in fact, take a video of yourself holding the signed, winning ticket, for good measure.
“The first step is really all about securing the ticket … because whoever has it is the owner,” says Pagliarini. “There’s no record of you having purchased that ticket with those numbers. So having that ticket is everything.”
Related: Hoping to win Mega Millions? This woman hit a $112 million Mega Millions jackpot.
You have to document that this ticket is yours, which is why Pagliarini says legal experts recommend signing it. “I would absolutely sign it myself,” he adds.
And then put that ticket in a safe place, like a home safe or lockbox.
You may want to sing the good news from the rooftops that your financial troubles are over. Problem is, everyone else’s troubles aren’t — and Pagliarini warns that, for your own personal safety and peace of mind, it’s better not to let the world know you’ve just become a billionaire overnight — if you can help it. Unfortunately, most states make you disclose that you’ve won.
“We’re used to seeing people with the big check on TV, which looks pretty cool — but now everybody in the entire world knows that you’re worth $1 billion. And that’s not really the kind of publicity that you want,” says Pagliarini. “You’re going to be hit up for lots of money requests as people come out of the woodwork. And that adds such a huge amount of stress when you’re in a situation that is already stressful.”
You generally have 180 days to collect the winnings, and you’re going to have to make some big, life-changing decisions during that time. Staying anonymous, if you can, will give you the space to make those decisions with a clear head.
Unfortunately, as noted, most states compel lottery winners to come forward publicly. If you have to reveal yourself and do press interviews, protect your personal information. Some past Powerball winners didn’t answer questions about any meaningful or personal significance associated with the winning numbers that they played, for example, or they refused to share details about their children. One couple simply moved out of their house and refused to speak with the media at all while they settled their affairs.
“My rule is basically, you tell one family member, and then you immediately try to get professional help,” Pagliarini adds. Which leads us to….
Bring in the professional help as soon as you can. An attorney can help you decide the best time to claim your lottery prize, and offer more advice on keeping your ticket safe. They can also help navigate your rights and protect your best interests with regards to how much you need to present yourself publicly. And they can also help you manage your safety.
Meanwhile, a financial adviser can assess your financial situation and help you decide whether it makes sense to take a lump sum of cash, or to collect your winnings over annual payments. A financial adviser can also help you manage your money so that you can check things off your bucket list without overspending.
“You know you’ve won, and then typically you have about 180 days to collect the winnings,” says Pagliarini. “So you’ve got to do some serious planning.” You need all the help you can get.
Pagliarini considers staying anonymous as the first big decision a lottery winner makes. The second most important question, however, is how they collect their winnings. Do you want to take a lump sum, or do you want to take the annuity (aka, a payout over time)?
“This is really the biggest financial decision you’ll ever make in your entire life,” he says. (Granted, it’s one that most of us will never have to make, since the odds of winning the lottery, let alone a jackpot of this size, are infinitesimal.)
He notes that most people take the lump-sum payment, and in some circumstances this can be a better decision. But keep in mind that if you win a $1 billion Powerball jackpot, for example, you are not getting $1 billion.
“They send you about 60-ish percent of whatever the lump sum is,” Pagliarini notes. So for a $1 billion prize, for example, “you would get around $600 million instead of $1 billion,” he said. And after state taxes, depending on where you live, and federal taxes, that jackpot may be closer to $300 million in the end. Whereas, the annuity is given as 30 payments over 29 years, which will come closer to hitting the advertised $1 billion jackpot than lump-sum takers would get. So being patient can pay off in the long run, especially with a bigger prize like this.
As far as taxes are concerned, Pagliarini still leans toward annuity — especially for a smaller jackpot, like if it was $1 million. That’s because you would get a lump-sum payment of about $600,000, which would put you in the highest federal and state income tax bracket (for single filers anyway) that year — versus taking an extra $30,000 a year for 30 years. “That annuity payment is probably not going to catapult you into the highest tax bracket,” he says. But for a $1 billion-plus jackpot like this, you’re going to be in the highest tax bracket whichever payout you choose, he says.
But there’s another reason to consider going the annuity route, Pagliarini says — it can save you from yourself.
“The biggest advantage of the lump-sum payout is that you get most of the money up front, and then you can do whatever you want with it,” he says, such as pay off debt, invest it, buy a house, etc. “But that actually happens to be the biggest disadvantage of the lump sum,” he continues. And that’s because, if you overspend your winnings and run out of cash with your lump sum, then you are out of luck. But the annuity payments are almost like a do-over each year, he says, because you can learn from your mistakes and spend the next annual windfall more wisely. “I’ve advised most people honestly to take the annuity,” he says. “It just allows you to really make mistakes, but have them not be a total derailment.”
If you still can’t make up your mind, he also has a free online quiz to help you decide whether you should take a lump sum or an annuity payment.
So you’ve secured your ticket, tried to keep it quiet, hired some professional help, and decided how you are going to collect your winnings. Then what do you do with all of this cash?
Every financial situation is different, of course, which is where a financial adviser can help you sort out the nuances to make this lottery win a real dream come true for you. But in general, Pagliarini recommends keeping things simple — even considering that this $1 billion jackpot (even whittled down after taxes) would allow you to do basically whatever you wanted to do.
“If I were meeting with you, we would sit down and make some serious decisions, and prioritize what you want to do,” he says, “such as paying off debt, and discussing what is on your wish list. Do you want to buy a new house or a second house, or buy your family houses?” He suggests pricing out your wish list together with your adviser to see whether you could afford to do everything you want.
But you still want money left over to live on. “We want to make sure the money left over is generating enough income so that they could survive on that for as long as they wanted — and particularly in this case, I’m sure generations would be able to survive on this amount of money,” he says. “I would invest in index funds. I wouldn’t get esoteric with limited partnerships and venture capital. Just go for a diversified portfolio, because as soon as you start deviating from ‘simple’ you can really increase your chances of just losing it all.”
He notes that because lottery winnings don’t feel “earned,” the prize may not feel like “real” money — which is one of the reasons so many lottery winners don’t manage their newfound wealth well. Again, about 70% of lottery winners lose or spend all that money in five years or less. “If the money doesn’t feel earned or real, you’re going to make decisions with that money that are probably not going to be in your best interest,” he adds. “You’re giving it away more freely, spending more freely, or freely investing in things a lot riskier than you would have done if you had to sweat and earn that money.”
So keep it simple. “Don’t think just because you have x-millions of dollars now that you really have to get ‘sophisticated,’” he adds.
This is more of an extra, hindsight tip for before you and your co-workers start throwing in a buck apiece for a long-shot bid at a jackpot like this. Pagliarini warns that office pools can get “tricky,” so it’s good to sign a contract setting some ground rules before you all pool together.
“There’s been a lot of litigation around office pools, because maybe somebody forgets to play one week, and that’s the week everyone wins. Or someone thought they played this week, but on this particular week they didn’t,” he says. “So loosey-goosey situations can end up in court to battle it out.”
A much simpler solution to avoid this is to have an office pool contract that spells out who is in this pool, how much they are contributing, and it also determines in advance whether the group will take the lump-sum payment or the annuity payment.
“Because the last thing that you want is to win $1 billion or $100 million dollars, and then to be tied up in court for four years,” says Pagliarini. “That’s no fun.”
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Online sports-betting company Penn Entertainment Inc. sealed a $1.5 billion deal with Walt Disney Co.’s
DIS,
ESPN to launch ESPN Bet, a branded sportsbook for fans in the U.S., and pivoted away from Barstool Sports on Tuesday, selling the platform back to founder Dave Portnoy.
Penn Entertainment
PENN,
will rebrand its current sportsbook and relaunch as ESPN Bet in the fall in 16 legalized-betting states where Penn is licensed.
The rebrand — which includes the mobile app, website, and mobile website — sent Penn’s stock soaring 13% in after-hours trading Tuesday. ESPN Bet will benefit from exclusive promotional services across ESPN’s platforms, including access to ESPN talent, the companies said.
Penn will pay ESPN $1.5 billion over 10 years as part of the strategic partnership, and will grant ESPN $500 million of warrants to purchase about 31.8 million Penn common shares, with additional bonus warrants possible.
“Together, we can utilize each other’s strengths to create the type of experience that existing and new bettors will expect from both companies, and we can’t wait to get started,” Penn Entertainment Chief Executive Jay Snowden said in a release.
Penn also said it has divested 100% of its stake in Barstool Sports to Portnoy, allowing the sports media platform “to return to its roots of providing unique and authentic content to its loyal audience without the restrictions associated with a publicly traded, licensed gaming company.”
For Penn, the ESPN partnership represents “a clear step up from Barstool in terms of mass appeal…and minimal regulatory risk,” according to Wells Fargo analyst Daniel Politzer, who said it was a “nearly impossible challenge for a publicly traded, licensed gaming company” to own “a media platform that thrived on viral/provocative content.”
Still, he said in a note to clients that “it’s premature to conclude this is a game change” since past partnerships between online sports-betting companies and media players have come up short of what initial fanfare would’ve suggested.
The news sent rival DraftKings Inc. shares
DKNG,
sinking about 5% in after-hours trading.
The decline in DraftKings shares comes as they’ve advanced 178% so far in 2023, through Tuesday’s close. Two analysts upgraded DraftKings’ stock just this week.
See more: DraftKings’ stock has nearly tripled this year — and it just won a new fan
Disney shares rose fractionally in after-hours trading.
Mike Murphy contributed to this report.
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Shares of Starbucks Corp. fell after hours Tuesday after the coffee chain reported third-quarter same-store sales that missed expectations, despite a big rebound in China.
The coffee chain reported fiscal third-quarter net income of $1.14 billion, or 99 cents a share, compared with $912.9 million, or 79 cents a share, in the same quarter last year. Adjusted for restructuring and impairment costs, Starbucks earned $1 a share.
Revenue rose 12.5% to $9.17 billion, compared with $8.15 billion in the prior-year quarter. Same-store sales rose 10% worldwide, with a 7% gain in North America. Those same-store sales jumped 24% internationally, with a 46% gain in China.
Analysts polled by FactSet expected Starbucks
SBUX,
to report adjusted earnings per share of 95 cents, on revenue of $9.29 billion and same-store sales growth of 11%.
Operating margins rose to 17.3%, from 15.9% a year ago, with higher prices and productivity offset by greater spending on employee wages and benefits.
Shares slipped 1.2% after hours on Tuesday. Shares of Starbucks are roughly where they were at the beginning of the year.
Starbucks executives over the past year have said that amid stubborn inflation, customers see coffee as an affordable luxury worth treating themselves to. But Wall Street has struggled to find a reason to push the stock higher amid questions about trends in North America and slowing same-store sales in the years ahead, as well as China’s uneven economic recovery as it shakes off pandemic restrictions.
UBS analysts said that demand in the U.S. was likely still “solid.” But they said that the focus would be on demand in China. Quo Vadis analyst John Zolidis, meanwhile, said that along with China, investors had been focused on the chain’s efforts to set up more drive-through locations in the U.S., and any benefits from higher-priced cold drinks and customizable orders.
The coffee chain also continues to fight with its unionized employees. Bargaining has stalled. Last month, unionized workers accused Starbucks of banning Pride-themed decorations. Starbucks aggressively denied those allegations.
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Banc of California Inc.’s proposed agreement to acquire PacWest Bancorp. helped send regional-bank stocks considerably higher on Wednesday. But even after a two-day increase of 12% for its shares, the acquiring bank remains the favorite name among analysts covering regional players in the U.S.
The merger agreement was announced after the market close on Tuesday, but the rumor mill had already sent Banc of California’s
BANC,
stock up by 11% that day. Then on Wednesday, shares of PacWest Bancorp
PACW,
shot up 27% to $9.76, which was above the estimated takeout value of $9.60 a share when the deal was announced. The merger deal, if approved by both banks’ shareholders, will also include a $400 million investment from Warburg Pincus LLC and Centerbridge Partners L.P.
A screen of regional banks by rating and stock-price target is below.
Deal coverage:
With PacWest closing above the initial per-share deal valuation, it is fair to wonder whether or not its shareholders will vote to approve the agreement. In a note to clients on Wednesday, Wedbush analyst David Chiaverini called Banc of California’s offer “fair, but not overwhelmingly attractive,” and wrote that PacWest was “a likely seller before the mini banking crisis occurred in March.”
While Chiaverini went on to predict the deal’s approval by PacWest’s shareholders, he added that he “wouldn’t be surprised if there were some dissent among a minority of shareholders [which could] possibly open the door to the potential emergence of a third-party bid.”
More broadly, Odeon Capital analyst Dick Bove wrote to clients on Wednesday that the merger deal, along with increasing involvement of private-equity firms in lending businesses, the expected enhancement of regulatory capital requirements for banks and other factors could lead to more consolidation among smaller banks.
He went on to write that we might be entering a period for the banking industry similar to the 1990s, “when rules were being changed and acquisitions were rampant,” which “created new investment opportunities.”
The SPDR S&P Regional Banking exchange-traded fund
KRE,
rose 5% on Wednesday but was still down 17% for 2023, while the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust
SPY,
was up 19%, both excluding dividends.
KRE holds 139 stocks, with 98 covered by at least five analysts working for brokerage firms polled by FactSet. Out of those 98 banks, 45 have majority “buy” ratings among the analysts. Among those 45, here are the 10 with the most upside potential over the next 12 months, implied by consensus price targets:
| Bank | Ticker | City | Total assets ($mil) | July 26 price change | Share buy ratings | July 26 closing price | Consensus price target | Implied 12-month upside potential |
| Banc of California Inc. |
BANC, |
Santa Ana, Calif. | $9,370 | 1% | 71% | $14.71 | $18.58 | 26% |
| Enterprise Financial Services Corp. |
EFSC, |
Clayton, Mo. | $13,871 | 2% | 80% | $41.75 | $49.25 | 18% |
| First Merchants Corp. |
FRME, |
Muncie, Ind. | $17,968 | 4% | 100% | $32.38 | $37.33 | 15% |
| Amerant Bancorp Inc. Class A |
AMTB, |
Coral Gables, Fla. | $9,520 | 3% | 60% | $20.26 | $23.30 | 15% |
| Old Second Bancorp Inc. |
OSBC, |
Aurora, Ill. | $5,884 | 3% | 100% | $16.15 | $18.50 | 15% |
| F.N.B. Corp. |
FNB, |
Pittsburgh | $44,778 | 3% | 75% | $12.91 | $14.50 | 12% |
| Columbia Banking System Inc. |
COLB, |
Tacoma, Wash. | $53,592 | 4% | 55% | $22.63 | $25.32 | 12% |
| Wintrust Financial Corp. |
WTFC, |
Rosemont, Ill. | $54,286 | 3% | 92% | $86.05 | $95.33 | 11% |
| Synovus Financial Corp. |
SNV, |
Columbus, Ga. | $60,656 | 6% | 75% | $34.06 | $37.73 | 11% |
| Home BancShares Inc. |
HOMB, |
Conway, Ark. | $22,126 | 5% | 57% | $24.09 | $26.67 | 11% |
| Source: FactSet | ||||||||
Click on the tickers for more about each bank.
Any stock screen can only be a starting point when considering whether or not to invest. If you see any stocks of interest here, you should do your own research to form your own opinion.
Don’t miss: How you can profit in the stock market from an incredible financial-services trend over the next 20 years
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U.S. prosecutors have called an offsides on the British billionaire owner of Tottenham Hotspur soccer team, charging him with a “brazen insider-trading scheme,” in which he passed secret stock tips worth millions to his girlfriends, private pilots and assistants for years.
Joe Lewis, 86, who is one of the richest people in the United Kingdom, is accused of taking inside information about companies in which he was a large investor and handing it out to people around him for them to use to get rich.
“Notwithstanding his vast personal wealth, Lewis provided the inside information to his employees, romantic partners, and friends as a way to give them compensation and gifts,” federal prosecutors wrote in an indictment filed in New York.
Prosecutors say Lewis, who Forbes has estimated to be worth $6.1 billion, carried on with the scheme from 2013 through 2021, helping his employees and friends make millions of dollars in illicit gains.
Some people who benefited from Lewis’ loose lips included staff on his private, $250 million super yacht, the Aviva.
In some cases, prosecutors allege Lewis gave his pilots short-term, $500,000 loans to buy stock and then pay him back after they scored big based on his tips.
“Thanks to Lewis, those bets were a sure thing,” said Damian Williams, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York. “That’s classic corporate corruption. It’s cheating and it is against the law.”
Lewis’ private equity company, Tavistock Group, has investments in hundreds of companies ranging from agriculture, sports, resort properties and life-sciences businesses. The firm owns works of art by painters like Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse and Gustav Klimt.
Investigators say Lewis shared information about publicly-traded life-science groups Solid Biosciences
SLDB,
and Mirati Therapeutics
MRTX,
as well as beef producer Australian Agricultural Co.
AAC,
and a special purpose acquisition company, BCTG.
Prosecutors also allege that he hid how much of a stake he owned in cancer therapeutics company Mirati “through a pattern of false filings and misleading statements” in order to manipulate markets.
A message sent to representatives of Tavistock wasn’t immediately returned.
Making his fortune as a currency trader, Lewis became more widely known when he acquired the Tottenham football club in 2001 for $35.5 million.
He has lived as a tax exile in the Bahamas for years.
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This copy is for your personal, non-commercial use only. To order presentation-ready copies for distribution to your colleagues, clients or customers visit http://www.djreprints.com.
https://www.barrons.com/articles/stock-market-movers-2b3602a5
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I’ve read your previous responses to letters on tipping, and my thoughts are simple: Tipping is dependent on the service given. I won’t tip at a deli counter, but I will tip more in a diner. I see no reason to tip a deli counter person on a regular basis. The person who rings up my groceries isn’t allowed to accept tips, and they do a lot more than put a sandwich in a bag.
As far as restaurants go, 15% is the starting point and I will go up from that as warranted. I do tend to tip a high percentage in diners. The waitstaff there are generally fabulous, deal with lower price points and a varied clientele. I feel they also suffer from customer bias where some people seem to think it’s only a diner not a fancy restaurant.
“‘Helping others is not always through money. I volunteer my time with several charities and donate blood.’”
The job is the same whether my meal is $10 or $100. I try to pay in cash to ensure the waitstaff is promptly getting their tip, and to ensure that the money does indeed go to the wait staff. Are we expected to tip on a total that includes credit-card charges? What’s more, helping others is not always through money. I volunteer my time with several charities and donate blood.
What troubles me is that throughout the New York City metro area, tipping recommendations in restaurants are based on faulty calculations. My friends and I all agree that tips are supposed to be based on the price of the meal — that is the subtotal or pre-tax figure. Restaurants frequently encourage people to tip on the final amount.
A Fair Tipper
Yes, yes, yes, and yes.
Yes, wait staff in diners work as hard as any restaurant worker, and they deserve whatever your optimum tip — 15% or 20% — and as much as you would tip in a white-tablecloth restaurant. Yes, consumers should not be expected to tip in a deli — unless you have a good relationship with the staff, and you tip occasionally for goodwill. If you choose to “skip” the charity donation in a pharmacy, that’s OK too. Yes, donations and tips are increasingly being conflated, and that’s not always a good thing. We should be comfortable with the charity and 100% sure that the donation is going to the charity in question.
And your main point: Yes, tipping on the subtotal before tax and before credit-card charges is absolutely fair, although a lot of people — especially when calculating the tip among friends — tip on the after-tax total. Why? Perhaps we don’t want to be seen splitting hairs over the tax among friends and/or in front of a service worker who has given us exemplary service. Calculating tips is often done under pressure, and no one likes to be seen as a cheapskate. I almost always tip on the total amount, knowing that the sales tax is included, primarily because I figure that extra $1 or more is going to the person who served my table.
My colleague, MarketWatch news editor Nicole Pesce, put together a guide for how much you should tip everyone, and who you should NOT tip. She also cited three reasons why tipping has become such a note of contention, and why it appears we are tipping more: people tipped staff more during the pandemic (they were, after all, putting their health and lives at risk with their jobs); 40-year high inflation over the last 12 months has increased the cost of everything and, as such our tips rose in tandem with prices; and, finally, digital tipping appears to be ubiquitous, and people have been suffering from tipping fatigue.
“‘You’re not the only one: Americans are souring on tipping.’”
You’re not the only one with tipping fatigue, though: Americans are generally souring on tipping. A large majority (66%) of U.S. adults have a negative view about tipping, according to a poll released by the personal-finance site Bankrate last month. The bottom line: consumers feel they are being forced to compensate employees for low pay (41%) and they don’t appreciate all that digital guilt tipping (32%) and, as a result, they believe that tipping culture has gotten out of control (30%). Respondents also said they were confused about how much to tip (15%), but a small minority (a paltry 16%) said they would be willing to pay higher prices in lieu of tipping.
People appear to be less generous with their tipping amounts, and they also appear to be tipping less often. What’s perhaps most surprising from Bankrate’s research is that only 65% of diners actually tip when they eat out (that’s down from 73% last year). After restaurants, people are most likely to tip barbers/hairdressers (53% of those polled) and food-delivery workers (50%). From thereon, only a minority of people say they tip taxi or rideshare drivers (New York City cabs, which give tipping options upon payment, may be an outlier here), hotel housekeepers, baristas and food-delivery workers.
It’s important that we have this conversation about tipping because expectations and digital tipping methods are evolving all the time. On the one hand, people are facing higher prices and they are understandably feeling under pressure to tip. On the other hand, this conversation naturally overlaps with the working conditions and pay of service workers. Americans are tipping less than they did during the worst days of the pandemic. Service workers — along with medical personnel, bus and train drivers and first responders — were among the heroes of the pandemic. That is something I hope we never forget.
MarketWatch illustration
Also read:
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AMC Entertainment shares soared 70% after-hours Friday after a judge rejected a proposed court settlement that would have cleared the way for the movie-theater giant to complete a set of equity transactions enabling it to issue substantially more shares.
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The 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup kicks off this week in what is expected to be the biggest sporting event of the summer.
The tournament favorite, the United States Women’s National Team, plays its first game on Friday against Vietnam at 9 p.m. EST.
Here’s everything you need to know about this year’s highly anticipated World Cup:
The tournament started on July 20 and ends on Aug. 20.
The first games took place on Thursday when host nations New Zealand and Australia each won their matches.
See also: The top 5 highest-paid women’s soccer players at the 2023 Women’s World Cup
The 2023 Women’s World Cup is being co-hosted by Australia and New Zealand.
Matches will be held in nine cities including Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide, Perth, Auckland, Wellington, Dunedin and Hamilton. The championship match will be held in Sydney.
The tournament’s location presents a major time difference for viewers in the U.S.
Wellington, New Zealand, is 16 hours ahead of New York, and 19 hours ahead of Los Angeles. And Sydney, Australia, is 14 hours ahead of Eastern Standard Time.
Most of the group stage games will start late at night or early in the morning for east coast viewers.
For U.S. viewers, the World Cup will be broadcast by Fox
FOX,
and games will appear on the flagship Fox channel, Fox Sports 1, as well on Telemundo in Spanish.
Fox is part of nearly all major cable bundles, and cord-cutters can stream the games on YouTubeTV, FuboTV
FUBO,
Hulu + Live TV, and Sling TV.
As noted above, the USWNT plays its first group stage game on Friday, July 21, against Vietnam at 9 p.m. EST.
The U.S. will then compete against the Netherlands on July 26 and Portugal on Aug. 1, and then compete in the knockout stage if they advance.
The U.S. won the 2019 Women’s World Cup in France, after beating the Netherlands in the final, as well as the 2015 World Cup in Canada.
The U.S. has a total of four Women’s World Cup titles, the most of any nation in the world, while the U.S. men’s team has never won the World Cup.
There have only been eight Women’s World Cups in history with the first tournament occurring in 1991, while the men’s version of the tournament first started in 1930.
Only four countries have won the women’s tournament: the U.S., Germany, Norway and Japan.
Below are the betting odds for the 2023 World Cup from DraftKings
DKNG,
Sportsbook prior to the start of the tournament:
For those not familiar with oddsmaking, a “+” symbol indicates an underdog. For example, a $100 bet placed on a +450 side would net a $450 profit, in addition to getting back your original $100.
The 2023 Women’s World Cup has $150 million in prize money, up 300% from the $30 million in total given out in 2019.
While a significant increase, the amount is still much lower than the $440 doled out at the 2022 men’s tournament in Qatar. FIFA, which organizes the World Cup, said it’s an “objective” to achieve pay parity between the men’s and women’s tournaments by 2027.
Below are the player and nation financial allocations for the 2023 Women’s World Cup:
Each player is guaranteed $30,00 for participating in the tournament, up from $14,000 in 2019.
That’s significant for many of the players, who in some cases don’t have club teams that pay salaries, are semi-pros or even amateurs.
As stated above, pay equity for tournament prizes is not the same for World Cup winners between the men and women’s tournaments, but what about in the U.S.?
U.S. women soccer players last year reached a landmark agreement with the sport’s American governing body to end a six-year legal battle over equal pay, a deal in which they are promised $24 million plus bonuses that match those of the men.
The U.S. Soccer Federation and the women announced a deal that will have players split $22 million, about one-third of what they had sought in damages. The USSF also agreed to establish a fund with $2 million to benefit the players in their post-soccer careers and charitable efforts aimed at growing the sport for women.
The USWNT routinely advocated for pay parity during tournament appearances over the past decade.
In addition to equal pay, high-profile players on the USWNT like Megan Rapinoe, Alex Morgan and Carli Lloyd, among many others, have publicly opposed forms of discrimination off the soccer field. These causes include advocating for gender rights, LGBTQ+ rights, voting rights and the Black Lives Matter movement.
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The stock of Mediterranean-style fast-casual restaurant chain Cava Group Inc. soared 11% Monday, after analysts initiated coverage on the stock which made its debut on public markets in mid-June with a flurry of buy ratings.
At least four of the banks that were underwriters on the initial public offering — JP Morgan, Stifel, William Blair and Jefferies — assigned the stock a buy rating or the equivalent.
FactSet shows one bank has a hold rating but it’s a restricted listing so it’s not clear who it’s from.
The company
CAVA,
raised $317 million in its initial public offering, which priced above its proposed range at $22 a share and immediately rallied on opening. The company issued 14.4 million shares at a valuation of $2.45 billion. The stock was last trading at $43.83.
The company is not profitable and has high cash burn and just $23 million in cash and cash equivalents on its balance sheet, according to its IPO filing documents.
But analysts were unfazed, with William Blair analysts calling it a clear leader in a fast-growing category with proven geographic appeal.
“CAVA has hit upon a winning formula with its customizable menu of bowls and pitas featuring bold Mediterranean flavors that can fit in any dietary preference,” wrote analysts led by Sharon Zackfia.
“CAVA’s customer appeal is evident in average unit volumes (AUVs) of roughly $2.5 million and a 44% five-year revenue CAGR through 2022.”
The company accelerated its growth with the 2018 acquisition of Zoës Kitchen, “which provided immediate access to attractive real estate in new markets while enabling capital-efficient densification in top-tier trade areas (Zoës conversions roughly half the cost of a typical greenfield CAVA),” they wrote.
That has set the company up to end 2023 with roughly triple the number of locations as it had in 2020.
William Blair estimates that there’s room for at least 1,200 domestic Cava restaurants based on the population per restaurant already achieved in Virginia, where it’s still adding locations.
That supports management’s target of 1,000-plus locations by 2032.
“We also see the potential for digital drive-thrus to further lengthen CAVA’s growth runway while lifting AUVs (and potentially returns), with about one-third of this year’s new units having drive-thrus, ramping up to about half in 2024 (versus roughly 20 drive-thrus today),” they wrote. William Blair initiated coverage with an outperform rating.
JP Morgan launched coverage with an overweight rating and a December 2024 $45 stock price target. Analysts cheered the entrepreneurial sprit of Founder and CEO Brett Schulman with help from Chairman Ron Shaich, the founder of Panera Bread.
“In-store design/operational procedures and back-end support for the network allows CAVA to be efficient, safe and consistent as the brand leverages these systems for its goal national brand penetration,” they wrote in a note to clients.
Mediterranean cuisine covers many types of food and occasions, so the end-market is large, topping out at more than $1 trillion in U.S. sales.
While bowl builds priced at $10.95 to $16.95 will likely limit a high frequency of lower-income consumers, “we believe the brand has an enduring appeal to a very broad customer base for at least occasional usage.”
And suburbs are 82% of the site mix and are expected to remain a key location base, they added.
Stifel and Jefferies analysts initiated coverage with a buy rating and $48 price target. Stifel analysts led by Chris O’Cull also cheered the wide appeal of the food and compelling unit-level returns and highlighted the company’s healthy balance sheet.
“The company is in strong financial condition with no funded debt and roughly $340M in cash on hand following the company’s IPO,” they wrote in a note to clients. “We project the company’s average quarterly cash balance will remain above $200M with no funded debt for the foreseeable future. We project positive annual free cash flow starting in 2026.”
Still, not everyone is convinced the company is a buy. David Trainer, chief executive of New Constructs, an independent equity research firm that uses machine learning and natural-language processing to parse corporate filings and model economic earnings, published a series of critical reports before the IPO.
Trainer questioned Cava’s ability to reach profitability and its high valuation. He even compared it to WeWork
WE,
the infamous startup created by Israeli entrepreneur Adam Neumann, that at its peak was valued at $47 billion, but is now trading at just 26 cents a share, or a market cap of $521 million.
The Renaissance IPO ETF
IPO,
has gained 32% in the year to date, while the S&P 500
SPX,
has gained 15%.
For more, see: Fast-casual restaurant chain Cava Group’s IPO documents raise some red flags: analyst
Read now: Cava Group CFO is confident restaurant chain will be profitable—but she won’t say when
Related: 5 things to know about the fast-casual Mediterranean restaurant chain Cava
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IPO investors, much like retail shoppers in recent years’ inflationary environment, are demanding clear discounts and demonstrating sensitivity to price and valuations, according to Renaissance Capital.
The provider of IPO exchange-traded funds and institutional research said that’s a positive — even if tech unicorns in the pipeline would prefer it were not the case.
“Quality consumer names are working,” said Matthew Kennedy, senior strategist at Renaissance, listing Kenvue, Cava Group Inc., Gen Restaurant Group Inc. and Savers Value Village Inc. as examples of recent new issues that enjoyed strong debuts.
Kenvue
KVUE,
the former consumer arm of Johnson & Johnson
JNJ,
and parent of household-name products such as Tylenol and Band-Aid, raised $3.8 billion in its May IPO at a valuation of $41.08 billion, making it the biggest deal of the year to date.
Cava Group
CAVA,
the loss-making Mediterranean-style fast-casual restaurant group, raised $317 million in its mid-June deal at a valuation of $2.5 billion. The stock popped more than 99% on its first day of trade.
For more: Cava Group CFO is confident restaurant chain will be profitable — but she won’t say when
Gen Restaurant Group
GENK,
is a profitable Korean barbecue chain that made its debut Wednesday with a more than 50% pop in early trade.
“But broadly investors are still demanding clear discounts to public peers, especially if they take issue with certain aspects of a deal. So it’s good to see that valuation sensitivity,” said Kennedy.
Savers Value Village
SVV,
went public Thursday with some fanfare, closing 27% above its $18 issue price. The company is the biggest for-profit thrift-store chain in North America, with 317 stores that operate under multiple names.
The company is profitable, with net income of $11.9 million in the quarter through April 2, after a loss of $10.2 million in the same period a year earlier. For all of 2022, it had net income of $84.7 million, up from $83.4 million in 2021.
Revenue for the quarter came to $327.5 million, down from $345.7 million in the year-ago period. Revenue totaled $1.4 billion for 2022, up from $1.2 billion in 2021.
See: Money-losing food chain Cava showed IPO success. Is it finally time for some tech deals?
Two other deals that made their debut on Thursday fared less well, however.
Texas-based Kodiak Gas Services Inc.
KGS,
and Fidelis Insurance Holdings Ltd. closed lower after pricing below their estimated ranges and making other accommodations to get their deals through.
Bermuda-based Fidelis, a reinsurer, downsized its deal to 15 million shares from a previous expectation that it would offer 17 million. The initial public offering was priced at $14 a share, below the proposed $16-to-$19 range.
Maker of oil- and gas-production equipment Kodiak opened almost 3% below its issue price of $16, which was well below its proposed price range of $19 to $22.
Fidelis has an unusual structure, in that it uses a third party for origination, underwriting and claims management, said Kennedy.
“We think insurance investors wanted a discount for a company that didn’t own the underwriting group,” he said. “It has an experienced management team, though, so now they’ll just need to execute.”
Kodiak, meanwhile, carries substantial debt and will need to undertake significant capital spendig in the coming years, just as gas prices have fallen back.
It’s also worth noting that the last big oil and gas IPO, Atlas, “is slightly below its offer price,” Kennedy said.
Atlas Energy Solutions Inc.
AESI,
went public in March at an issue price of $18 a share. The stock was last quoted at $17.52.
Still, Renaissance is expecting a gradual reopening of the IPO market in the second half, said Kennedy, who noted that the IPO ETF
IPO,
has gained about 30% in to date in 2023, outperforming the S&P 500’s
SPX,
14% gain.
To date, there have been 52 IPOs this year, up 33% from the same time last year, when the market was effectively frozen. Almost $9 billion in proceeds have been raised, up 115% from last year but well below levels seen in frothier times.
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That’s how Victor Wembanyama introduced himself the day before the NBA draft, when he conducted his first news conference before NBA media. But to talent evaluators, Wembanyama has already emerged as one of the top NBA prospects of a generation with his dominant play for a French professional team this season, and his tantalizing upside on the basketball court.
The 19-year-old, 7-foot-5 Frenchmen — who goes by “Wemby” — was selected with the first pick in the NBA Draft on Thursday night by the San Antonio Spurs, and the team could be set for a huge financial windfall from Wembanyama’s arrival.
The Spurs could see an increase of roughly $8 million-$10 million in season ticket sales, an added $5 million-$10 million in incremental ticket revenue from higher and dynamic pricing, and another $5 million-$10 million in corporate sponsorships, according to Dr. Patrick Rishe, the director of the sports business program at Washington University in St. Louis.
“All told, the impact on team revenues in 2023-24 will likely be somewhere in the $20-$50 million range,” Rishe said, while adding that the Spurs may also be able to leverage Wembanyama’s arrival when negotiating its next local TV contract.
See also: Victor Wembanyama: 5 things to know about the generational NBA prospect
Another economics expert thinks Wembanyama’s financial impact on the Spurs could be even higher.
“$80 million a year to the Spurs for the next few years, that was roughly equal to the increase in revenues that we saw when LeBron James moved back from Miami to Cleveland,” Victor Matheson, economics professor at the College of the Holy Cross, told MarketWatch.
NBA first-round draft picks like Wembanyama sign a four-year contract upon entering the league. After that, the team that drafted the player has a significant edge in retaining him on his next contract because they are allowed to give him larger pay raises than any other club. Because of this, young players who turn into superstars rarely leave the teams that drafted them for the first seven years of their career, meaning Wembanyama could pay dividends to the Spurs in the hundreds of millions of dollars if he stays with the team.
See also: LeBron James vs. Michael Jordan: Who is the GOAT when it comes to net worth?
While the Spurs are not for sale, some think Wembanyama’s presence alone will increase that value of the team, which was roughly $2 billion as of 2022 (or 20th in the NBA).
“I suspect that just the cachet of having this player on your team would be the sort of thing that would entice an owner potentially to pay more for the team, because owners in sports aren’t just about dollars and cents, they’re about dollars and cents, and the prestige and the ego that go along with owning an NBA franchise,” said Matheson.
The NBA has complex revenue sharing agreements among teams to help level the financial playing field between the small-market and big-market teams. Because of this agreement, not every dollar Wembanyama makes for the Spurs goes directly to the team.
So it’s clear that Wembanyama could provide a major financial boost for the Spurs. But his immediate impact on the NBA overall might seem small, considering the league made over $10 billion last year, according to Statista. But another area where Wembanyama could help the NBA in a huge way is by unlocking a new audience for NBA games: France.
“A guy like him can certainly open up new markets for you. So obviously, we have had top players from France before like Tony Parker, but this might be maybe a level beyond that,” Matheson said. “And if you could open up a 60 million person country, and all of a sudden make the NBA must-see TV in Paris and not just in the United States, that’s where you can really generate a lot.”
Matheson compared Wembanyama’s arrival to that of China’s Yao Ming coming into the NBA, and Japan’s baseball star Ichiro Suzuki’s arrival in the MLB, which both opened up massive international markets that those leagues didn’t already have a big presence in.
ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski reported that drafting Wembanyama could add as much as $500 million to the value of an NBA franchise.
But some sports industry experts see Wembanyama’s impact as more muted, noting the possibility that he maybe doesn’t live up to the incredible hype, as well as the limitations of San Antonio’s smaller market size compared to cities like New York.
“This could be a significant turning point for the fortunes of the Spurs, both on and off the court, but it is worth remembering that players are different ‘assets’ than, say, arenas,” Michael Leeds, professor of economics and director of graduate studies at Temple University, told MarketWatch. “There is a lot of uncertainty among even top picks.”
He recalled how Sam Bowie was chosen ahead of Michael Jordan during the 1984 draft, yet Jordan became a superstar, while Bowie did not have much of a basketball career. “A player’s career can be derailed for a lot of reasons,” Leeds added. “I do not think that Wembanyama will have that much of an immediate impact on the financial fortunes of the Spurs.”
See also: Here’s how much Victor Wembanyama and other 2023 NBA draft picks will earn on their rookie contracts
The Spurs are also hurt by their market size in San Antonio, which some say limits their financial upside compared to a bigger market like New York or Los Angeles. San Antonio is the 24th biggest TV market (out of 30) among NBA teams, according to Sports Media Watch.
“The San Antonio market is small and has demographics that generally don’t support the NBA,” Emory University marketing professor Michael Lewis told MarketWatch. “There are markets that could benefit greatly from a generational talent, but the Spurs seem unlikely.”
“It helps the franchise but over the long run players move from place to place,” added Sal Galatioto, the president of Galatioto Sports Partners, who has facilitated over 30 sales of professional sports teams — including the sale of the Golden State Warriors in 2010. “Players get hurt. Players aren’t as good as you think they are.”
Galatioto cited the recent sale of the NBA’s Charlotte Hornets at a $3 billion valuation as evidence that franchise appraisals are getting higher, and not much of that increase is based on what happens on the court.
“When was the last time Charlotte won anything?” he asked.
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LOS ANGELES — Wyndham Clark always carried the message from his late mother to “play big.” Nothing was bigger than Sunday when he held off Rory McIlroy with one clutch shot after another to become a U.S. Open champion.
The final act was two putts from 60 feet on the 18th hole at Los Angeles Country Club, and the 29-year-old Clark pumped his fist when it settled a foot away. He tapped that in for an even-par 70 and a one-shot victory over McIlroy and so many other stars.
Scottie Scheffler, the No. 1 player in the world, couldn’t catch him. Neither could British Open champion Cameron Smith or Rickie Fowler, who played in the final group for the third time in a major and watched an exquisite performance by Clark, playing for only the third time on the weekend in a major.
Clark let loose his emotions at the end, looking to the blue sky in tears and covering his face with his cap as he sobbed on the green. He thought about quitting golf a decade ago when he struggled with the loss of his mother, Lise, to breast cancer. She was who kept him steady in good times and bad.
This was as good as it gets for Clark, who broke through for his first PGA Tour victory only six weeks ago against an elite field at Quail Hollow.
“I just felt like my mom was watching over me today,” Clark said after hoisting the silver U.S. Open trophy. “I worked so hard and dreamed about this moment for so long. I just felt like it was my time.”
For McIlroy, it was more disappointment in his quest to end nine years without a major.
He opened with a birdie and didn’t make another the rest of the way. McIlroy played a final round that typically wins a U.S. Open — 16 pars, one bogey. Just not this one. Even as Clark showed signs of cracking during the rugged closing stretch, McIlroy missed fairways and didn’t give himself any reasonable birdie chances.
It was similar to St. Andrews last summer at the British Open, when he hit every green and couldn’t buy a putt. Instead, he’ll face more questions about when he’ll win another major.
“When I do finally win this next major, it’s going to be really, really sweet,” McIlroy said. “I would go through 100 Sundays like this to get my hands on another major championship.”
Scheffler missed too many putts early on the back nine and needed help from Clark and McIlroy that never arrived. He also closed with a 70 to finish third, a month after a runner-up finish in the PGA Championship.
Fowler set a U.S. Open record with 23 birdies, but just like so many other majors when he had a chance, he was in reverse before he ever got going — three bogeys in the opening seven holes. He never made up the ground and shot 75.
This day belonged to Clark, who showed remarkable poise and self-belief, not to mention an extraordinary short game and a fairway metal he won’t soon forget.
Already with a two-shot lead, he was a yard away from an easy birdie on the par-5 eighth when his approach hit a steep bank of the barranca to the left. Barely able to see his golf ball, Clark took a whack and the ball advanced a few inches deeper into thick grass.
He hammered it again, this time over the green, 70 feet away down a firm and scary putting surface. He chipped that to 3 feet to escape with bogey.
“That up-and-down was the key to the tournament,” he said.
More such shots followed. On the par-3 ninth, he was on the bank of a bunker and chipped away from the flag, using the slope expertly to get it to within 7 feet for another big save. And then he clipped a pitch from a tight lie left of the 11th green to 4 feet for par.
The signature shot was his fairway metal from 282 yards on the par-5 14th to 20 feet that set up a two-putt birdie, giving Clark a three-shot lead with four to play.
But he made the only bogey of the day on the par-3 15th, then found a bunker left of the 16th fairway and whacked his hand on his putter when he missed a 7-foot par putt. His lead down to one shot, he got up-and-down from left of the 17th green to keep the lead.
The USGA allowed thousands of fans to circle the fairway short of the 18th green with so few grandstands, creating a big theater for Clark’s finish.
Fowler, still chasing his first major, returned to the 18th green to hug Clark.
“I went back in there and just said, ‘Your mom was with you. She’d be very proud,’” Fowler said.
Clark finished at 10-under 270 and along with $3.6 million — his second such cash prize in the last six weeks — he moves to No. 2 in the Ryder Cup standings.
Smith shot 67 to finish fourth. Tommy Fleetwood became the first player with two rounds of 63 in the U.S. Open and finished in a tie for fifth with Fowler and Min Woo Lee (67). Fleetwood also shot 63 at Shinnecock Hills in the final round of 2018.
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Cava Group, the Mediterranean-focused fast-casual restaurant chain that’s making its trading debut on Thursday, is confident it has access to enough funding to expand its business and make a profit, according to Chief Financial Officer Tricia Tolivar.
But Tolivar declined to provide a timeline to profitability in an interview with MarketWatch.
The…
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Mediterranean fast-casual restaurant chain Cava Group on Wednesday priced its initial public offering of 14.4 million shares at $22 a share, up from a prior range, giving the company a valuation of roughly $2.45 billion.
Shares are expected to begin trading Thursday on the New York Stock Exchange with the ticker symbol CAVA.
The rapidly-growing…
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By Joe Hoppe
Cineworld Group said Thursday that its proposed restructuring has the backing of lenders controlling almost all of its legacy credit lines and most of the outstanding debt under its debtor-in-possession facility.
The London-based cinema company–which owns Regal Cinemas–said more lenders under its term loans due in 2025 and 2026 and revolving credit line due this year, have agreed to amended and restated versions of the restructuring support agreement and the backstop commitment agreement, first filed in early April in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court.
Now, the proposed restructuring has support of those holding and controlling 99% of the legacy credit lines and at least 69% of the outstanding indebtedness under the debtor-in-possession facility, the company said.
The proposed restructuring is expected to reduce indebtedness by around $4.53 billion, raise $800 million and provide $1.46 billion in new debt financing, the company said on April 3. The proposed restructuring doesn’t provide for any recovery for holders of Cineworld’s existing equity interests.
Cineworld now expects to emerge from Chapter 11 bankruptcy in July. During the restructuring, the company has continued to operate its business and cinemas as usual, it said.
Cineworld entered into Chapter 11 in September, with around $1.94 billion of debt, and had been in talks with stakeholders since then to develop a reorganization plan to maximize value. The company’s shares fell in late February after it said it had received a number of proposals from potential parties to buy some or all of its business, but none involve an all-cash bid for the entire company, leaving shareholders empty handed
During its bankruptcy process, AMC Entertainment held discussions regarding a potential strategic acquisition of theaters and talks about reviving a previously scrapped merger with Cineplex were also held
In early April, Cineworld said it had entered a restructuring support agreement and a backstop commitment agreement with some lenders. At the same time, Cineworld said the marketing process in the U.S., the U.K. and Ireland will be terminated. Proposals for the rest of the world business–outside of the U.S., the U.K. and Ireland–continued to be considered, it said.
Write to Joe Hoppe at joseph.hoppe@wsj.com
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When Andrew Pessano was looking to create a state-of-the-art indoor pickleball facility in southern New Jersey and take advantage of the surging interest in the sport, he considered building it from scratch. But he and his partners realized it would take at least two years and likely cost well over $1 million.
So, Pessano and his team found a different way to achieve their goal: They leased a vacant big-box space — formerly home to a Burlington
BURL,
store, in fact — and turned it into Proshot Pickleball, a membership facility replete with eight cushioned courts, viewing decks, a pro shop and a players lounge.
Pessano says that since opening in mid-February, he’s already signed up more than 300 paid members. “The first couple of months we’re busy, busy,” he adds.
Proshot Pickleball could be something of a model for the future of what is often described as the fastest-growing sport in the country; a game that shares elements with tennis, ping-pong and badminton. In short, pickleball could soon be coming to that vacant space in your local mall — or to that abandoned big-box store. (Consider all those soon-to-be-empty Bed Bath & Beyond locations.)
“Pickleball ‘will help America’s malls to become the social hub they once were.’”
The trend is already happening: A recent retail-outlook report from JLL, a company that tracks the commercial real-estate market, points to pickleball facilities in locations ranging from a former Saks Off Fifth store in Connecticut, to a shuttered Belk department-store location in Georgia.
Pickleball “court owners are targeting malls for expansion,” says the report.
Of course, no one is saying that pickleball won’t continue to be played in parks and other public spaces, or even people’s driveways. Inherent in the game’s appeal, say fans, is that it can be played just about anywhere. But there are notable factors driving the move into malls and other retail locations.
Begin with that surging interest in pickleball. Nearly 9 million Americans are now playing the game, the Sports & Fitness Industry Association reports — an astounding year-over-year increase of 85.7%.
All those players need places to play, but the lack of available public court space in many cities and towns has led to all sorts of skirmishes, with issues arising when players use tennis facilities or take up space in playgrounds. As one parent complained about the pickleballers when the turf war erupted at a New York City playground: “It’s not a coexistence, it’s a complete and utter takeover.”
See also: As pickleball players spend billions on the sport, they run into conflicts and controversy
That leaves more room for operators of private facilities, like the pickleball court owners that JLL cites, to enter the picture — and many concepts, even chains, are starting to emerge to address the demand. But where should they go? Again, building from scratch can take a lot of money, and time.
“Nearly 9 million million Americans are now playing pickleball, the Sports & Fitness Industry Association reports — an astounding year-over-year increase of 85.7%.”
Meanwhile, mall operators and landlords of other retail spaces, such as big-box stores, are continually looking for new concepts to bring into their spaces, especially as brick-and-mortar retail stores fight to stay relevant and afloat at a time when online shopping has become the norm for many Americans.
In turn, those concepts are more often about “experiences” rather than shopping, says James Cook, a research director at JLL. Think museums, golf simulators and pickleball.
It’s about redefining the retail landscape, Cook says. “The idea is this is something new and unique,” he adds of these emerging types of mall/big-box tenants, including pickleball facilities.
Mike Leigh, author of “Zen and the Art of Pickleball,” sees an especial logic to pickleball in malls. These retails spaces are all about bringing people together, something that is all too easily forgotten in a point-and-click world of online shopping. And pickleball is a game that’s inherently social because of its close-up nature.
So the two make a natural combo, Leigh says: Pickleball “will help America’s malls to become the social hub they once were.”
CityPickle
Still, there are plenty of arguments to the contrary, so this is not a one-size-fits-all solution.
America’s malls and other retail hubs have their share of empty spaces, but the situation may not be as dire as it seems, Cook says. The points to the current retail vacancy rate of 4.2% being “at historic lows,” noting that there’s been considerable recovery since the darkest days of the pandemic.
Moreover, he says, higher-end malls are doing especially well — and it’s those spaces that tend to be a good fit for experiential concepts like pickleball. In other words, these malls may like the idea, but they aren’t necessarily begging for tenants.
Plus, Cook says pickleball facilities can need lots of space — concepts often have a food-and-drink component for pre- and post-game socializing. And facility operators like to have outdoor space, if possible, for the warmer months. Such requirements can pose challenges in a traditional mall setup, he says.
“I think [pickleball] only works in some specific instances,” he says.
Pessano, of South Jersey’s Proshot Pickleball, points to another issue: If the space’s support columns aren’t situated far enough apart from one another, it will make it difficult to have enough courts to make for a viable business. And the ceiling height can’t be too low, either, he adds.
These discouraging realities notwithstanding, it appears pickleball operators will continue to consider abandoned mall spaces and big-box stores as a good option to create much-needed court space. Take CityPickle, a private operator that already set up a pop-up facility in New York City’s Hudson Yards mixed-use development in the past year, and is looking to establish permanent court spaces in the Big Apple and elsewhere.
CityPickle founders Mary Cannon and Erica Desai say they are considering abandoned retail locations as possibilities. They like the open space these places provide, and they say that landlords appreciate having tenants that bring the kind of buzz and energy that a pickleball facility offers.
“It makes so much sense,” says Cannon.
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Fanatics Inc. will buy the U.S. operations of Australia’s PointsBet for about $150 million, in the company’s largest foray yet into sports betting.
PointsBet
PBH,
announced the deal Sunday night, specifying that the acquisition only applies to PointsBet’s U.S. assets, not its businesses in Australia and Canada. CNBC first reported the deal. Fanatics did not immediately reply to MarketWatch’s request for comment Sunday night.
PointsBet is an online sportsbook that launched in the U.S. in 2019, and operates in 15 states, including New Jersey, Iowa, Illinois and Colorado.
“Despite the strategic success building a valuable asset in the U.S., the costs of operating in a state-by-state environment, together with the requirement to build significant scale to compete against well capitalized operators, led us to explore a number of options,” PointsBet Chief Executive Sam Swanell said in a statement. “The sale of the U.S. Business to Fanatics Betting and Gaming delivers the most attractive risk-adjusted value outcome for shareholders compared to the risks and benefits of other options including the status quo.”
PointsBet shareholders are expected to vote on the sale at their annual meeting in late June.
The deal should increase pressure on U.S. sports-gambling companies such as DraftKings Inc.
DKNG,
and FanDuel. In late April, Fanatics launched sportsbook wagering for its customers in Ohio and Tennessee, and the Wall Street Journal reported at the time that the company pans to invest about $1 billion in its new sports-betting division.
In an interview, Fanatics CEO Michael Rubin told the Journal he wants Fanatics to be the world’s top sports-betting company within the next 10 years, and expects its betting operations to be profitable by 2025 or 2026.
In December, Florida-based Fanatics — which got its start in sports apparel and collectibles — closed a $700 million funding round, valuing it at about $31 billion, the Wall Street Journal reported. The privately held company is expected to eventually launch an IPO.
Last year, Fanatics acquired trading-card company Topps.
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