The WTA's big day; Chelsea a test of the marketplace and Fanatics gets more investment to drive its massive ambition.
I'll be at the Sloan MIT Sports Analytics Conference on Friday. Always a good event that is run by the students so well. If you're there, please say hi, it would be great to see you. On Saturday I'll be at the home opener of Charlotte FC at Bank of America Stadium. I've heard from a number of you going to that MLS game, so it should be a fun evening. I know a lot of boldface names are in town for the event. I have a friendly dinner wager with a coworker. He predicted 65,000 in attendance, and I took the over. Let's just say I'm picking out the restaurant I'm eager to go to.
So this is your Morning Buzzcast for Thursday, March 3rd, I'm Abe Madkour, hope everybody is doing well. Let's start with a major shot in the arm for women's tennis as the WTA has agreed to a multi-year deal with Hologic, which is a global medical device and diagnostic company focused on women's health. This is a huge deal for women's tennis as the WTA last had a title sponsor with Sony Ericsson, and that deal ended in 2010. So this title sponsorship is a long time coming, and it comes at a time when women's tennis and the WTA has suspended all of its tournaments in China, and certainly has faced financial challenges because of COVID.
Micky Lawler, the president of the WTA, called it the most important sponsorship of the WTA's history, so that's saying something big, and she said it's probably the biggest in women's sports. While terms were not disclosed, it is believed that this deal is worth more on an annual basis than the tour's previous deal with Sony Ericsson, that was signed in 2005 and worth nearly 15 million a year, according to the New York Times. So this deal likely exceed that. So again, a major deal for women's tennis, and it's the first major sports sponsorship for Hologic, whose headquarters are in Marlborough, Massachusetts. A spokesperson for the company said the WTA's strong stance against China was a factor in sparking Hologic's interest. Now Hologic's name will be featured and all the nets at the WTA events, and also it will receive extensive branding throughout WTA tour stops. So again, a major deal for the WTA.
Let's shift to some news. Impacted by Russia's invasion of the Ukraine, Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich confirmed that he will sell Chelsea Football Club, the EPL team that he has owned since 2003. He has asked the RAIN Group out of New York to handle the sale of the team, and the London Daily Mail reporter that they are targeting American buyers for the team. Abramovich has said that the net proceeds of the sale will go to benefit all victims of the war in Ukraine, he's reportedly asking for at least 2.5 billion. He has set a deadline of Friday for interested parties to submit an offer for the club.
So this is a big deal for a number of reasons. First, Chelsea, a high profile club, it'll be interesting to see the type of bidders who are the bidders that are interested in this EPL team. Also, you're seeing the role of politics in sports here as the sale of Chelsea is an example of Western pressure forcing Abramovich, a Russian oligarch, to part with a, I would call, a really prized asset. We know that Abramovich has repeatedly denied that he has a relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin, but he clearly feels pressure here, especially as the west looks to take control of the luxury goods of a lot of Russian billionaires, we've seen that over the last four or five days. Perhaps Abramovich is feeling that pressure. Regardless, the sale of Chelsea will be a very big high profile story in sports team M&A.
Meanwhile, staying with the story around Russia's invasion of the Ukraine, facing growing tension within the athletes village in Beijing, organizers of the winter Paralympics expelled athletes from Russia and Belarus yesterday. Initially the international Paralympic committee said it would allow those athletes to compete when the games open on Friday, but only as neutral athletes with colors, flags, and other national symbols removed. But now, because of tension within that athlete's village, the committee has reverse course and banned them from the Paralympic games. The Paralympics start Friday in Beijing.
Now the value of Fanatics continues to increase. Fanatics may be the company we have talked about the most on the Buzzcast in the past year, as we know how Michael Ruben has ambitious plans for his sports platform, we're talking about licensed merchandise, trading cards, sports betting, media, NFTs, so many other areas. Well, now Fanatics continues to be the darling of the investor community, Fanatics has raised another $1.5 billion from a group of investors, that pushes its total valuation to $27 billion according to sources of the Wall Street Journal. Right now everybody is still waiting on the timeline of a possible IPO for Fanatics, that would give investors some liquidity and some return. But to show the growth of Fanatic, it was most recently valued at 18 billion less than a year ago, now with its latest raise, valued at $27 billion. So Michael Rubin continues to be the talk of sports business.
Let's end with some companies making moves in sports. One interesting company to keep an eye on is RealResponse. That's an employee feedback monitoring and reporting software, it announced yesterday it has new partnerships with the Broncos and the Chiefs, that marks the first two NFL team deals for that company. Now RealResponse has made deep inroads in collegiate athletics, it was founded in 2015 by a former Division 1 basketball player named David Chadwick. Now, what does RealResponse do? It's an online platform that allows employees to report workplace concerns, and then the company can investigate problems without apparently identifying who made the complaint. Now with its deal the Broncos and Chiefs extend those services to all of their employees across both the business and the football side. Interestingly, NFL players already have access to RealResponse through a deal with the NFLPA in 2020. So RealResponse has deals with more than 100 college athletic departments, and the NWSL, and USA Gymnastics. Now they sign a deal with the Broncos and the chiefs.
Another company we've been keeping an eye on is DoorDash. Because the food delivery category has been so hot over the last two years, DoorDash has deals with NASCAR and the NBA, and it will announce today that it will become the on demand delivery platform of MLS, MLS Next, and EMLS. So food delivery continues to be a growing sponsorship category for teams and leagues and athletes, and DoorDash now gets exclusivity in that category with Major League Soccer.
So that is your Morning Buzzcast for Thursday, March 3rd, I'm Abe Madkour, again, if you're at the Sloan Conference in Boston, please say hi, love to see you. In the meantime, stay healthy, be safe, be good to each other, I'll speak to you next week.