Texas pro sports teams are flocking to provide millions in relief for victims of last week’s flooding in the state.
To chip in with those efforts, here’s a compiled list from The New York Times of potential resources to contribute to. — Ethan Joyce
In today’s edition of Power Up:
- Cosm taking its shared reality to Cleveland
- Matthew Berry’s Fantasy Life raises $7M
- Wimbledon apologizes for “human error” in line-judging tech issue
Cosm opening fifth immersive venue in Cleveland
Cosm, Bedrock and Rock Entertainment Group are partnering to bring one of Cosm’s “shared reality” venues to Cleveland, the immersive technology company’s fifth announced facility to date.
The venue -- which, like other Cosm sites, will contain an 87-foot-diameter LED dome and show live sports in 12K+ resolution -- will anchor Bedrock’s in-progress “Rock Block” mixed-use development in downtown Cleveland’s Gateway District adjacent to the Cavaliers’ Rocket Arena and Guardians’ Progressive Field. Rossetti is architecting the project, as it is Cosm’s previously announced Detroit location, but a general contractor has yet to be selected, according to Cosm CEO Jeb Terry.
“[Cleveland] supports multiple professional sports leagues. It’s got a dense urban core. It’s got a lot of different things that we look at, where we can come in and really augment and add to the local sports and entertainment offerings,” Terry told SBJ when asked what appealed to the company about Cleveland. “We also look at broader demographic profiles, and [Cleveland] is one of the major markets in the U.S.”
Cosm’s relationship with Bedrock, the Detroit-based commercial real estate firm owned by Dan Gilbert, was another factor. Bedrock is also the development partner on Cosm Detroit, and Gilbert was an investor in the $250M funding round Cosm raised last year.
“We’re betting big and long on Cosm, because we know it’s going to be very successful,” said Nic Barlage, CEO of Rock Entertainment Group and an SBJ Forty Under 40 honoree in 2020. “This does not happen without Dan [Gilbert] fueling this type of opportunity through his vision of what it takes to create vibrant urban cores -- and also our thesis that we can have these world-class entertainment assets and resources and platforms right here in the Midwest.”
Cosm Cleveland is targeting an open date in the first half of 2027, according to Terry, and is central to what Barlage referred to as “phase one” of the Rock Block development, which will sit within a wider redevelopment of downtown Cleveland’s riverfront (where, for example, the Cleveland Clinic Global Peak Performance Center is being built). Following the opening of the Cosm venue, Barlage said complementary offerings like experiential retail, additional parking and possibly a hotel or office space will follow, with the goal of being “fully functioning” in the next five years.
“What we’ve seen is Cosm can serve as the catalyst for these developments,” Terry said. “We’re able to draw and support developer ambition.”
In addition to Cleveland, Cosm opened venues in L.A.’s Hollywood Park development and north Dallas’ Grandscape last year and has broken ground on facilities in Atlanta’s Centennial Yards and Detroit’s Cadillac Square.
Cosm was selected as one of SBJ’s 10 Most Innovative Sports Tech Companies for 2025 and SBJ’s 2025 Sports Breakthrough of the Year earlier this year.
Matthew Berry’s Fantasy Life raises $7M, launches FantasyHQ
Fantasy Life, the media company started by Matthew Berry, has raised $7M in new investment and will soon launch a new product, FantasyHQ, that is sponsored by Mike Hard’s Lemonade.
The funding round was led by LRMR Ventures, the family office of LeBron James and Maverick Carter, as well as SC Holdings, the firm led by Jason Stein, a business partner of James and Carter. Notable individual investors include Roger Ehrenberg, David Blitzer, Jeff Shell, Larry Fitzgerald, Gerry Cardinale, John Legend and Chad Hurley. Fantasy Life previously raised $2M in 2023.
“It was important to us not just to have people write checks,” Berry told SBJ, “but we wanted people that we thought would be strategic and helpful to what we’re building here.”
Fantasy Life’s new analysis tool will soon debut with Mike’s Hard Lemonade as presenting sponsor, following an expansion of an existing agreement.
“We have this product, Fantasy HQ, which we think is going to be, no pressure, the greatest fantasy tool ever created,” Berry said, noting that Mike’s Hard is a similarly edgy, disruptor brand in its space as Fantasy Life is in its industry. “We feel like the two brands really align well, in terms of our value to the customer and where we sit in the marketplace.”
Fantasy Life acquired Guillotine Leagues nearly a year ago and now has more fully integrated the game into its offerings. Guillotine Leagues are a high-stakes twist on traditional season-long fantasy football that Berry, a longtime ESPN fantasy expert until 2022, first played a couple years ago, and it had instant appeal. “I literally was like, I love this game so much I bought the company,” Berry said. “It is an intensity and a sweat unlike any other.”
For the Fantasy Life business, hosting its own game extends its value proposition and grants them first-party customer data and other benefits.
“It allows us to monetize our audience in a different way,” Berry said. “We move from what we were, which is a media and content company, but now we have a game platform that has brand new tech that can scale to different sports, different formats. So we now become a technology company, and it allows us to hopefully control the customer from start to finish. We have the entire user journey.”
Fantasy Life, which is the official fantasy tools partner of NBC Sports, will continue its content, which includes a podcast, a daily show for SiriusXM, a FAST channel for LG and a show carried by Roku and Fubo. Prior investors in Fantasy Life include NFL players Josh Allen, Joe Burrow, Ja’Marr Chase and Austin Ekeler, among others, with the latter three already lined up for promotional appearances.
Wimbledon apologizes for ‘human error’ after shutting off AI line-judge tech during match
The All England Lawn Tennis Club had to apologize yesterday after a Wimbledon official “mistakenly switched off the AI line-judge technology” during Sonay Kartal’s loss to Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova in what the AELTC “admitted was an embarrassing ‘human error,’” according to Sonia Twigg of the London TELEGRAPH. With the score four games apiece, and Pavlyuchenkova holding advantage on her serve, Kartal “fired a backhand way beyond the baseline, with the ball appearing to be at least a foot out.” But there “was no intervention” from the automated line-calling technology and the point “continued before umpire Nico Helwerth told the players to halt play.” The match “was paused for about four minutes” as the umpire announced there “was to be a check on whether the new AI system was working properly.” Twigg wrote it “was an embarrassment” to the tournament organizers with the fault happening “on Centre Court during prime-time Sunday afternoon television.” On the BBC’s coverage, former tennis player Pat Cash “was critical of Helwerth,” saying, “It’s mind-boggling he could not call that out. It was right in front of his face.” An AELTC spokesperson said the line-calling system “was deactivated in error on part of the server’s side of the court.” There were “three calls not picked up” during the match (London TELEGRAPH, 7/6).
GRASS IS GREENER? The WALL STEET JOURNAL’s Anvee Bhutani wrote rather than “embrace a future with fewer errors,” Brits descending at Wimbledon are “mourning the death of” line judges. Organizers have said they take the “responsibility to balance tradition and innovation at Wimbledon very seriously.” Bhutani noted in a “Wimbledon touch,” the AI system’s calls “are vocalized using recordings of various All England Club staff.” Wimbledon “largely upholds its traditions, which are central to its unique history.” The smallest changes to the tournament “can risk public backlash” (WALL STEET JOURNAL, 7/6).
A FIX NEEDED: In London, Alex Pattle writes relying on an electronic system “might be the right call,” however, that is “based on the premise that the electronic system is more accurate than the human eye, a premise that has been challenged this week.” He notes the “boiling point” of this issue came yesterday afternoon. Pavlyuchenkova “remained remarkably calm initially, even after losing the replayed point.” But when she lost the game itself, she “used the change of ends to vent.” Pavlyuchenkova, though, went on to “earn a straight-sets win.” Pattle: “Yet imagine she had lost the first set, especially in the game after ELC’s error.” He adds you “could admit that there was never really anything wrong with how things used to be” (London INDEPENDENT, 7/7).
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