My colleague Adam Stern gets the Wall Street reaction to the Apple-Formula 1 deal. See the takeaways from the racing series’ link-up with the tech giant below. — Ethan Joyce
In today’s edition of Power Up:
- Wall Street analyst: F1’s deal with Apple deal more about long term
- OSU unveils largest softball LED board
- Athlete’s Voice: Olympic gold medalist runner Cole Hocker
Wall Street analyst: Fruits from Apple deal more about long term than short term for F1
Stock market analysts are weighing in on the deal between two publicly traded companies in Formula 1 and Apple, with one pointing out that any material upside for F1 is more likely to be realized in the long term than short term. Morgan Stanley’s head of U.S. media research, Benjamin Swinburne, who has an overweight rating and price target of $110 for F1’s stock, released a new note on Monday on the Apple deal, according to Investing.com. Swinburne explained that the average annual value of the new Apple deal, which begins in 2026, is essentially flat at 1.1x the current ESPN deal, which goes through 2025, when factoring in lost revenue from F1 TV in the U.S. Under the new deal with Apple, F1 TV will still remain available in the U.S. but only as an app for Apple TV subscribers whereas it used to be a standalone service here that generated revenue on top of the $75M-$90M a year that F1 made from ESPN. Swinburne judged the compound annual growth rate of the new deal to be about 3%, but he noted it has prospective benefits for F1 in that Apple “brings unique opportunities to F1 as a global consumer tech platform.” With Apple not putting F1 behind a separate paywall like it has with MLS, Swinburne said: “F1 is betting that Apple will lean into promoting the sport at levels beyond what Apple has done with MLS.” In a new development this year, Apple is making its entire slate of MLS playoff matches available to all Apple TV subscribers in what appears to be a sign that the league and platform realize those games need broader exposure.
DROP IN THE TRILLION-DOLLAR BUCKET: Meanwhile, CFRA Research senior equity analyst Angelo Zino discussed the Apple-F1 deal in an appearance on BNN Bloomberg, saying that he doesn’t foresee much downside to the deal from Apple’s perspective because the $700M total committed spend is relatively small compared to the company’s astronomical market cap, which is $3.911T, according to CNBC Pro data. Zino said, “I don’t know if there is much downside here for Apple. I think overall I don’t know if there is any downside. Clearly if all of a sudden they were to see some kind of decline in terms of (F1) subscriber base and viewer content and all that in terms of the investments they’ve made, it is a big step up relative to what ESPN has done. But again Apple is so flush with cash at this point we’re talking about a drop in the bucket in terms of the investment they’re making here, so well worth the risk for Apple.” F1’s stock is down about 2% since the announcement of the media rights deal, while Apple’s is stock is up about 6%. Disney’s stock is up about 3.4% since the announcement.
Daktronics builds college softball’s largest LED board for Oklahoma State
LED provider Daktronics has built a new scoreboard for Oklahoma State University softball, a structure that will be the largest throughout the sport when the 2026 season opens.
Oklahoma State’s Cowgirl Stadium now features a 28-foot-tall, 40-foot-wide scoreboard that can handle content zoning for diamond-sport presentation, like lineups, strike zone graphics, player info, highlights and video reviews.
Daktronics deployed a new LED screen for Kansas ahead of the football season, one of many with existing or new clients in the college football space (Auburn, Iowa State, Nebraska, USC, Utah State, Buffalo and New Mexico).
Olympic gold medalist runner Cole Hocker on 2026 plans, Kospet smartwatches, Grand Slam Track
Cole Hocker, the reigning Olympic gold medalist in the 1,500 meters, won gold in the 5,000 meters at last month’s world championships in Tokyo, becoming the first American to win that race since 2007. The Indianapolis native ran collegiately at Oregon before turning pro in 2021 and signing with Nike.
Hocker, 24, recently became a brand ambassador of Kospet, a challenger smartwatch brand that released a new line of products late last week. For Hocker, Kospet joins Nike, Wahoo Fitness, Re-Lyte Electrolytes, Nomio and Ketone-IQ among his sponsors.
On working with Kospet . . .
They don’t have a ton of marketing in North America so far. I think that’s why they wanted to get me on board, and honestly, I hadn’t heard about them. I wanted to make sure the watch was legit, was a good product to use.
Pretty early on, I realized they were willing to take into consideration what I wanted in a watch, and I’ve hopefully helped guide them to have the same features and aspects of other watch brands right now. They were taking my feedback and actually making the modifications. Then they were sending me a bunch of watches and they kept getting better and better. They have this newest running watch that’s really good that they sent me a couple months back. I’ve just been using that and it’s been great so far.
On the must-have features in a smartwatch for runners . . .
One was just the general size of it. It depends — the trail runner, road runner, everyday runner and professional runner probably all have different things they want — but I wanted a really sleek one. The first one they gave me was more of a lifestyle [size], and I was like, ‘This is awesome, but I want a sleeker one.’ And they’re like, ‘We’re already working on that.’ It was super light.
As far as the actual interface, you want all the metrics to be bold, easy to see, customizable. They were pretty open to hearing all that. Most of it, to be honest, they were already working on.
On the metrics he tracks while running . . .
It’s really not anything too crazy, but obviously pace, distance and heart rate are pretty much what I’m looking at. And on Kospet, the heart rate is really accurate from my experience. So yeah, all of those working together. I don’t think it’s too unique — most runners look at those three — but yeah, you want them to be easy to look at and understandable and shows you your zones.
On how he trains to maintain a late kick . . .
We definitely train specific to a championship race. My real bread and butter are those championship races without pacers. You have to make these decisions. You have to think about what you’re doing, put yourself in a good spot. And yeah, we train for that.
Some of the stuff we do is just a lot of change of speed. We do these reps where you start fast, settle into it, get a little bit faster, and then close really hard like you’re closing a race. It’s just every workout we do. The long run is built like that, the short runs are built like that, the track work is built like that. Over time, your nervous system just understands the change of pace a lot better. And that’s always what it comes down to in these championship races.
On his plans for 2026 . . .
It’s technically an off year [with no outdoor world championship], but I’m figuring out pretty quickly that there’s no real off years in track. People just do different races. I’m excited to do some more Diamond Leagues this year. I want to do Indoor Worlds in Poland, and then aiming for that Diamond League final as that’s a pretty big championship this year, so I’ve got to qualify for that.
I will try to do at least four or five Diamond Leagues, which isn’t that lot compared to some people, but it’s tough being US-based. And then there’s these Ultimate World Championships — it’s just a one-off race. There are no semis or heats or anything, but I’ve qualified now in both the 1500 and the 5K at that in Budapest in middle of September 2026.
On Grand Slam Track . . .
In the latest statement they made, they’re still wanting to move forward with 2026. They haven’t sent out any contracts. I think they’re focusing on paying the [athletes]. They’ve paid half of the prize money, and I’m pretty confident they’re going to get the other half. But obviously it’s first things first. You can’t sign new athletes without first paying the current ones.
I would love to see it happen again. That’s another thing that would have to make sense with the schedule. I had a great time at the ones this past year, and it does elevate the sport regardless. Everyone should be hoping it succeeds, so yeah, I’d love to see it come back.
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