The Los Angeles Dodgers have added another investment category to their ledger sheet: tech startups, as team ownership has launched an accelerator to foster sports-related entrepreneurs.
Los Angeles has emerged as a major startup scene — perhaps second only to Silicon Valley, by many measures — and there’s certainly a huge number of investors and funds in the area. The Los Angeles Dodgers Sports and Entertainment Accelerator has a definitely angle, specializing in startups in the sports/entertainment nexus: things like fan engagement, sponsorship activation and smart facility management. From Entrepreneur.com:
This year saw the launch of the Los Angeles Dodgers Sports and Entertainment Accelerator, geared toward supporting emerging category leaders and mentoring startups at the intersection of sports, technology and entertainment. The mentor network includes Dodgers owners and experienced investors, as well as entertainment executives from across the U.S. The Dodgers partnered with digital agency R/GA, which runs its own tech-centric startup accelerator, to offer additional business strategy and branding….
Why get into the accelerator game?
Innovation is in our DNA at the Dodgers. We spent about a year discussing how to position ourselves, approach the market and launch. The Dodgers Accelerator was born out of the team ownership’s interest in and focus on continually advancing and growing business here at the Dodgers, and also in the sports-entertainment business on a broader industry level. It was also born out of a desire to continue to improve our relationship with fans and to offer customers content they’re interested in.
Indeed, the nexus of sports and technology is a hot area right now, and we’ll be expanding our coverage of sports technology shortly. In the meantime, we’re not sure every MLB team will be going the accelerator route — but given the Dodgers ownership and their roots in the entertainment industry, the establishment of the Los Angeles Dodgers Sports and Entertainment Accelerator makes sense.