Jalen Brunson's new management firm has 3 executives: his mother, his sister, and his high school teammate.

The Knicks captain and his family launched Thirty Third Management Group on Sept. 16, a family-owned brand advisory firm that will manage his off-court business and represent clients across pro sports, business and philanthropy. The name comes from his draft slot, 33rd overall in 2018.

Sandra Brunson, who has managed Jalen's off-court business for 8 years, is president. Erica Brunson is director of client services, and Connor Cashaw is director of business development. Cashaw is Brunson's high school teammate and friend.

Brunson is the firm's first client, and Thirty Third will also advise athletes, NIL talent, executives, entrepreneurs and charitable foundations on brand development, partnership strategy, business development and philanthropy. Women's professional sports is a priority from day 1, a category leadership sees as historically underserved, and Erica will lead that practice.

Brunson said the firm lets his family "take ownership of my off-court business." Fees that would have gone to an outside agency now stay inside a company his family owns, and every outside client they sign adds revenue to that company.

Thirty Third is now evaluating new client relationships and brand partnerships.

5 months after buying a fifth-division club in Catalonia, Lionel Messi agreed to buy one 3 divisions higher.

CD Eldense is a second division La Liga team based in Elda near Alicante. Messi had signed for the shares held by TH Soluciones Group, the Colombian investment group that controls the club. TH Soluciones only took over Eldense in October 2025.

The price has not been disclosed, and Spain's High Council for Sports (CSD) still has to approve the transfer before Messi takes control.

In April, Messi bought 100% of UE Cornellà, a club whose academy produced Arsenal goalkeeper David Raya and his former teammate Jordi Alba. Eldense would be the first professional club he owns in Spain, since Cornellà is semi-professional.

He is buying a club in trouble: Eldense won promotion to the second division last season, sat 20th after 4 games when the deal was announced, and fired coach Claudio Barragán that same week. Spain's salary limit rules also restrict how much Messi can spend on the squad.

The Spanish clubs join a wider portfolio. He co-owns Uruguay's Deportivo LSM with Luis Suárez and KRÜ Esports with Sergio Agüero, and he is expected to receive an equity stake in Inter Miami through his playing contract.

A huge shout out today goes to Atlanta Falcons OL Storm Norton for joining infrared sauna company SweatLabs as an athlete partner 🔥

What SweatLabs is doing with professional athletes could very well serve as a template for other high-growth consumer brands moving forward.

First off, SweatLabs delivers premium tech-enabled indoor saunas to households across the United States.

Andre and team have set aside a founding partner pool for its first athletes... Actual ownership in the company.

The athlete's content is the investment. Their market rate for posts and shoots gets converted into a stake, priced at the top of their range. Deliver the content, earn the equity.

And it vests per deliverable. Every post, every review, every shoot unlocks its own slice. The athlete owns what they've earned, and it survives the end of the content term.

Founding status is limited to the first handful of athletes by execution date. Early conviction gets rewarded.

We saw this earlier this summer with New York City FC midfielder Keaton Parks and I am sure it will continue with more partners to be announced soon 👀

For the record, we love when brands on Athletes & Assets™ offer cash compensation for athlete marketing. You need to do what is best for your business and we want to support.

Just know there are other ways to create long term partnerships that are fruitful for everyone involved, with equity being an area of focus. And what I have realized is that we need to educate brands as much as the athletes themselves on the subject on how these deals actually get structured.

So for any CEO's and CMO's looking to and connect with us and browse our athlete roster, sign up here.

- Noah

Polymarket announced this week that it signed LeBron James, Derek Jeter and Eli Manning as promotional partners. Jeter and Manning are retired, but James is still playing, and people traded on his career this summer: before his 76ers signing was announced, Kalshi contracts gave Philadelphia about a 9% chance of landing him, against roughly 45% for Miami. Kalshi's January deal with Bryson DeChambeau included launching markets on events he competes in.

Betting only works if fans believe the players are trying to win. Terry Rozier was accused of leaking confidential health information to associates who bet he would underperform. Emmanuel Clase and Luis Ortiz were accused of throwing specific pitches for balls so gamblers could win bets totaling at least $450,000. In January, federal prosecutors charged 15 former college basketball players and 5 alleged fixers with rigging games.

Combined global trading volume on prediction markets hit about $50.6 billion in July 2026, compared with about $14 billion a month wagered at legal U.S. sportsbooks in 2025. Kalshi and Polymarket US both accept users at 18, while most U.S. sportsbooks require 21. The NFL treats prediction markets as gambling entities and doesn't allow its players to endorse companies like Kalshi or Polymarket. Every other athlete gets to make that choice for themselves, and selling fans on betting their own sport trades the credibility of the game for a paycheck.

When an active player promotes a platform that sells contracts on their own sport, they ask fans to bet on outcomes they can influence and information they have first; whether that be injury news, lineup plans, or contract talks, the credibility of high-competition games are impacted as a result.