Jonathan Soros – son of billionaire investor George Soros – was one of the founders of Athletes Unlimited, a network of professional women’s sports leagues that has grown from one league in 2020 to four in 2022. Athletes Unlimited raised $30 million in new funding from a diverse group of investors from inside as well as outside the sports industry.
Schusterman Family Investments was one of Athletes Unlimited’s early investors along with Jane Gottesman of Earlystone Management and film producer Sharon Harel-Cohen, as well as Kevin Durant and Rich Kleiman’s 35V, David Blitzer, Angela Ruggiero, Salil Seshadri and Keith Meister.
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Launched in March 2020, Athletes Unlimited boasts that it features the world’s “best professional athletes” competing in leagues in four popular and growing sports: softball, indoor volleyball, basketball, and lacrosse. The company is led by its co-founder and CEO Jon Patricof and co-founder and lead investor Jonathan Soros, while each sport features a Player Executive Committee through which athletes have a voice in every decision affecting their league.
Women’s sports are growing ever more popular, as is the presence of women off of the field in management roles. More and more, the major leagues like the NBA have been adding women to their front offices, as scouts and even as coaches. Major League Baseball may soon have women umpires as its minor league affiliates have already begun to hire them. And, while women may not be able to compete alongside men on the playing field, there is no real reason why they should not be able to works as umpires and referees.
As for the all-women sports, in America, women’s soccer continues to grow in popularity. While the American men’s team never gets far in international play, its women’s soccer team has won many championships.
But women’s sports leagues have still not gotten very far. For example, the WNBA, which is operated by the NBA, continues to struggle to find many fans.
But this may soon change. Earlier this year, Athletes Unlimited signed a new multi-year rights agreement with ESPN which will see more than 160 softball and lacrosse games air on ESPN platforms in 2022 and 2023. Additional prominent business partners include Nike, Gatorade, GEICO, Topps, Caesars, Sportradar, EY and Aspiration, among many others.
As for the new investments, Jonathan Soros said, “These investors share our vision and our ambition to not only reimagine professional sports but also to rethink the way a business can – and should – show up in the world. The growth of AU has far exceeded my expectations over its first two years. The addition of these strategic investors will only add to the energy and resources available to fuel further growth.”
