Morgan Stanley's wealth management team just published a guide for athletes and entertainers singing endorsement deals for equity compensation. Their case for the structure is simple: "The talent now owns a piece of the product they're endorsing, and the company gets a potentially valuable partner without laying out additional cash."

The guide asks athletes to answer 5 questions before signing. The first is what the equity is worth. Private companies have no share price, so the athlete has to judge the company's long-term prospects the way an investor would. The second is when they can sell. Private companies often restrict share sales, and public companies can impose blackout periods. Federer's stake had no public market until On's IPO, 2 years after he invested.

The third question is concentration. Morgan Stanley notes that some financial professionals advise keeping no more than 25% of net worth in any single stock. If the brand takes off, one stake can push past that line quickly.

The fourth is taxes. Depending on the type of equity and how long it's held, it can be taxed as ordinary income, under the alternative minimum tax, or as capital gains. The fifth is fit: the stake has to match the athlete's short- and long-term goals, their other income and their risk tolerance.

Those 5 questions are the work behind every deal on the A&A platform. Our advisory marketplace has helped pro athletes secure partnerships structured as ownership stakes, with the athlete's access and platform in return.

Equity builds wealth only when the athlete knows what they own, when they can sell it, and what it will cost when taxes come around. If you're an athlete or a brand looking at a deal like this, reply to this email.

Tristan Thompson is now sharing his stock portfolio on Autopilot, an investing app that lets users connect a brokerage account and mirror another investor's trades automatically.

Autopilot built its following on politicians; its Pelosi tracker copies trades that members of Congress disclose under the STOCK Act, and political portfolios make up 40% to 45% of the app's $1.3B in assets, according to Benzinga.

In May, Thompson said he invested in Anthropic early through an SPV he filled with friends after meeting the founders. That stake is private, so it can't be mirrored through a brokerage account. He is also a co-founder of TracyAI, an AI basketball analytics company.

Through the platform, followers will only see part of his portfolio, but Thompson's public stock trades are now open for anyone to follow.

The MLB's collective bargaining agreement expires on December 1. If the league and the players don't reach a new deal by then, owners are expected to lock the players out on December 2.

The last lockout, in 2021-22, lasted 99 days. It froze free agency, cancelled the first 2 series of the season and pushed Opening Day from March 31 to April 7.

This fight is over a salary cap. Owners say a cap would improve competitive balance. Players say it's a cost control designed to raise franchise values.

Owners also have more cash to draw on this time. The MLB just raised its private equity ownership limit from 15% to 20%, matching the NBA, NHL and MLS. About 10 MLB teams have direct PE investment, and close to 20 have some connection to a PE or capital management firm. In August, Apollo announced a $2.6B debt-and-equity deal with the Yankees, and Mark Cuban's Harbinger Sports Partners bought into the Athletics.

That money matters in a lockout. Clubs lose revenue when games stop, and lawyers at Clifford Chance wrote in July that PE sponsors "will be well positioned to come out of the bullpen" for owners facing liquidity pressure. Arctos co-founder Ian Charles says 70% to 80% of premium sports revenue is locked into long-term sponsorship and media contracts, which is why investors keep buying stakes.

The owners will negotiate with outside equity behind them, while the players negotiate over salary, and none of that equity sits with the players. For athletes, the ownership that builds lasting wealth comes from the deals they make outside the CBA.

Mike Tomlin has taken over social media with his 12-year hobby building a city in Minecraft with his kids. His post announcing the reveal passed 7.7 million views on X, and his YouTube channel had more than 18,000 subscribers before he uploaded a single video.

Episode 1 premiered on September 30 with more than 25,000 people watching live. The 20-minute tour covered a boutique hotel, conference rooms, restaurants, a CVS and multiple stadiums, and Tomlin made sure every building had enough bathrooms.

Tomlin is already close to qualifying for YouTube ad money. The Partner Program requires 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 watch hours in 12 months, and creators keep 55% of the ad revenue on long-form videos. If 12,000 people watch Episode 1 in full, he clears the watch-hour bar, and he’s already racked up 780,000 views in 16 hours.

His city lives on a PlayStation, not a public server, but the biggest servers show what attention in the Minecraft community can earn. Hypixel launched in 2013, peaked at 216,000 concurrent players in 2021, and makes its money selling ranks and cosmetics. It doesn't publish revenue, but Owler estimates it at $5M to $25M a year. Mineplex once held the Guinness record for most popular Minecraft server, and when it relaunched in June it started paying developers 35% of the revenue their games produce.

Tomlin hasn't said whether he plans to monetize the channel, but more episodes are on the way.