Luck, Hoops, and Hype: March Madness, AI Music Wars & Sports Biz Power Moves

Welcome back to the Spotlight! You need not be Irish to enjoy the luck of having wound up here, just a few days before St. Patrick’s Day. You may however need to be Irish to enjoy corned beef and cabbage. But whether it was a shiny penny, a rabbit’s foot, a four-leaf clover or maybe even a slip of the finger to click “read” instead of “delete,” allow me to be the first to congratulate you on finding this sports and entertainment pot o’ gold. That type of luck would have been great for the Yankees to stave off injuries during Spring Training, but I digress.  Fittingly, the NCAA’s own pot o’ gold—the Men’s and Women’s College Basketball Tournaments, or March Madness—is upon us (you’d be forgiven for feeling as if every month carries its fair share of madness nowadays), giving some of the sport’s premiere athletes a shot to make history, become household names (if they have not already signed seven figure endorsement deals) and remind you that the money you put into your bracket would have been better spent elsewhere. Meanwhile I can’t think of anywhere else your time would be better spent, so let’s make the most of it…

• Beverage brand Liquid Death becomes the official Iced Tea partner of the Super Bowl Champion Philadelphia Eagles in the brand’s never-ending quest to “murder thirst.” Though, it’s worth noting for Eagles home games that thirst need only wear the opposing team’s jersey to meet its maker.
• Mission-based private equity fund Monarch Collective grows to $250 million to spread its wings further to invest in women’s sports – a pretty hot trend, if you did not yet get that memo (perhaps you were living under a rock or bundled in a chrysalis).
• Sony Music reports it has taken down an astounding 75,000 tracks that use generative artificial intelligence to im”person”ate its artists. As a friendly suggestion to Sony Music: if/when the AI uprising occurs, I would lay low.