Mania

• The accelerator cohort kicks off April 10 and 11, 2024, with BTV Mania held in Des Moines, Iowa.
• Lastly, BTV is announcing its 4th year of a strategic collaboration with ITC Vegas , the world's largest insurance innovation (insurtech) conference and convening platform.
• BTV has been named as the Headline Sponsor of the ITC Brokers curated program as a part of the ITC Vegas 2024 concept.
• "The ITC Vegas platform brings together the greatest minds around insurtech trends, technologies, and applications," said Keough.

• I didn’t get a pass to media day, so I didn’t get a chance to ask Chiefs head coach Andy Reid about how he tends to his mustache.
• But my colleagues and I were able to ask an all-pro lineup of scholars to write about a range of football-related topics, from the partisan food divide to the numbers behind the biggest gambling bonanza in league history.

1. Flag, you’re it

• A year ago, league officials decided to shake up the annual showcase.
• It would no longer be a tackle football game.
• But Woods points to a gender divide and a political divide that could end up clouding the sport’s future.

2. X’s, O’s and Z’s

• In 2011, former NFL cornerback Sam Shields was a rookie playing for a Green Bay Packers team that had made the Super Bowl.
• The night before the big game, he tossed and turned.
• Something tells me I’d be a lot like Shields.

3. Going all in on gambling

• Or maybe you’re betting on Reba McEntire’s national anthem to last longer than 90.5 seconds.
• The country’s gambling mania has been aided, in part, by the Supreme Court’s 2018 ruling that overturned a federal ban on sports betting.
• The NFL has gone all in on its embrace of gambling, forging billion-dollar partnerships with the country’s top sportsbooks.
• Read more:
  The Super Bowl gets the Vegas treatment, with 1 in 4 American adults expected to gamble on the big game

4. At least they aren’t serving donkey meat

• And even the Super Bowl – one of the few communal events left in a polarized, atomized nation – can’t avoid the creep of partisanship.
• Maybe you could just serve salmon – a food that, according to Dyck and Pearson-Merkowitz’s research, is “resistant to partisan cues.” Grim times, indeed.
• Read more:
  Super Bowl party foods can deliver political bite – choose wisely

5. ByeDaddy

• That’s one reason companies are willing to fork over so much cash for a coveted slot – as much as US$7 million for a 30-second spot.
• Ferrell point out, many regulars on the airwaves of the Super Bowl, such as GoDaddy and Ford, are missing from this year’s lineup.
• Read more:
  Super Bowl ads: It's getting harder for commercials to score with consumers

  This story is a roundup of articles from The Conversation’s archives.

• PALM BEACH, Fla., Feb. 6, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Experts say that the global Sports Team and Clubs Market will continue to grow substantially through 2029.
• A recent report from Mordor Intelligence said that The Sports Team and Clubs Market is valued at about USD 127.75 Billion in the current year and is expected to register a CAGR of 6.85% during the forecast period.
• The market is poised to benefit from robust economic growth projected for a number of developed and developing economies.
• Teams and clubs use social media and mobile apps to expand their reach and connect with fans in a more personal way.

• BOSTON, Dec. 7, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Aura , the online safety platform for families, is releasing its inaugural end-of-year report highlighting the top scams of the year.
• Aura analyzed media coverage, social chatter, and its Smart Network malicious website-blocking technology to rank these top scams.
• Aura saw a 45% increase in Maui-related charitable donation scam websites in August, persisting through September.
• Aura saw a spike of 348% in iPhone 15-related scam websites in the week following Apple's event on September 7.