NBA
Meta expands its partnership with the NBA to offer 52 games in VR
Meta is expanding its partnership with the NBA and WNBA to offer more than 50 live VR games on Meta Quest, the company announced on Monday. Meta Quest is the…
The Warriors’ Draymond Green talks podcasts, social media and the elephant in the room
The Warriors’ Draymond Green took the stage at TechCrunch Disrupt today where he discussed his podcast, social media… and yes, the Jordan Poole punch. Green has spent the last several…
WhatsApp’s first original film to air on Prime Video and YouTube, NBA player Giannis Antetokounmpo stars
Meta-owned messaging app WhatsApp is stepping into the film business. Earlier this week, WhatsApp announced its first original short film “Naija Odyssey,” which tells the story of NBA player Giannis…
Welcome to Chain Reaction, where we unpack and explain the latest in crypto news, drama and trends, breaking things down block by block for the…
Sorare teams up with NBA for a new NFT fantasy basketball game
French startup Sorare originally launched a fantasy football (soccer) game. This year, the company is expanding to new sports. After partnering with Major League Baseball earlier this year, the company…
A video game industry veteran on making the art behind popular NFTs
Welcome back to Chain Reaction, where we unpack and explain the latest in crypto news, drama and trends, breaking things down block by block for…
Marc Lore chews the fat about reinventing at-home dining at Disrupt
There’s no denying it — when it comes to e-commerce, Marc Lore delivers. The serial entrepreneur sold Quidsi, the parent company of Diapers.com, Soap.com and others, to Amazon in 2011…
Draftea kicks off LatAm fantasy football with NFL partnership, fresh funding
Draftea, which calls itself the first daily fantasy sports company in Spanish-speaking Latin America, is taking fantasy football (not fútbol) to the region in a new partnership with the National…
Ticketmaster taps the Flow blockchain to let event organizers issue NFTs tied to tickets
Ticketmaster will now let event organizers issue NFTs (non-fungible tokens) tied to tickets on Flow, a blockchain operated by a16z-backed Dapper Labs. The Live Nation subsidiary said that event organizers…
Star-studded digital avatar startup Genies launches NFT fashion marketplace
Digital avatar startup Genies, known its for high-profile partnerships with celebrities such as Justin Bieber, Migos and Cardi B, has just released its long-anticipated NFT storefront, “The Warehouse.” Genies last…
Incredible Health passes unicorn valuation as it bags $80M Series B
Incredible Health, a U.S.-based job-matching platform which made nurses its first focus, has closed an $80 million Series B funding round and announced hitting a $1.65 billion unicorn valuation, billing…
This Week in Apps: Period tracking app privacy, Snapchat’s paid subscription, calls for TikTok ban
Welcome back to This Week in Apps, the weekly TechCrunch series that recaps the latest in mobile OS news, mobile applications and the overall app economy. The app industry continues…
The company behind Pokémon GO, Niantic lays off 8% of staff and cancels 4 projects
Pokémon GO developer Niantic is running into trouble as it builds “the real-world metaverse.” Like so many other tech companies facing turbulent economic times, the company decided to let go…
The past several months haven’t been entirely kind to the NFT market — while transaction volume hasn’t stuttered too significantly, the dollar amount invested in the space has been in…
Sinclair to launch $20/month direct-to-consumer streaming service Bally Sports+ on June 23
Sinclair Broadcast Group’s long-anticipated direct-to-consumer regional sports streaming app will have a soft launch this Thursday, June 23, 2022. While this isn’t a full rollout, Bally Sports+ will initially be…
Gopuff, the instant delivery upstart, taps ex-Disney head Bob Iger as its newest investor and advisor
Gopuff, the instant delivery giant valued at $15 billion, made a name for itself courting consumers wanting groceries and other essentials with an app that lets them order and get…
Luxus wants the crown jewel of your portfolio to be an actual diamond
A much-anticipated market downturn may finally be here, and investors have been preparing for it by diversifying their portfolios away from the traditional stock and bond holdings, and into alternative…
Faye hopes to do for travel insurance what Lemonade did for general insurance
While (former) startups like Lemonade came along to attack the tired world of insurance, the travel insurance market is now coming in for the same treatment from the likes of…
a16z, Coatue, USV invest in $725M developer fund for Dapper’s Flow blockchain
The web3 world is continuing to discover that it’s a lot harder to build a developer ecosystem than it is to build a platform. The Flow blockchain launched by NBA…
Google teams up with the NBA to host a ‘virtual’ Pixel Arena inside the NBA App
Google and NBA have launched the Pixel Arena, a virtual space tied to the 2022 NBA Playoffs, inside the NBA mobile app. The Google and NBA Pixel Area aims to…
Avatar startup Genies hits $1 billion valuation in latest raise
Only in the current market can one wonder how a celebrity avatar startup that sells NFT accessories took so long to hit a unicorn valuation. Genies, an LA-based digital avatar…
Spotify brings live audio shows to its main app, rebrands companion app Greenroom as ‘Spotify Live’
As an earlier report had suggested, Spotify today announced it will integrate the live audio capabilities from its companion app, Spotify Greenroom, within the main Spotify streaming app. Greenroom will…
Lucky is bringing brands, retailers together with its take on product merchandising
Lucky’s plug-and-play API gives e-commerce brands visibility of its products on retailer store shelves to offer local fulfillment options.
‘NFT’ app Sticky kicked out of Apple’s App Store after operating for months
Apple’s approach to NFT apps is still something of a gray area. The company permitted NFT marketplace OpenSea to launch an app, but only for browsing NFTs — not for…
Streaming deals ramp up for sports as MLB Opening Day and Masters Tournament begin
In light of all the recent complex streaming sports licensing deals, it becomes more evident each day that streaming platforms are beginning to realize the cash grab of having live sporting…
Russia’s App Store lost nearly 7K apps since its invasion of Ukraine, but some Big Tech apps remain
The Russian App Store has lost 6,982 mobile apps since the start of the Ukraine invasion, as numerous companies have now pulled their apps and games from Apple’s iPhone and…
TikTok launches a music distribution platform, SoundOn
TikTok has already achieved massive influence in today’s music industry, sending songs that find popularity on the app to the top of the Billboard charts. Now the company is launching…
Tom Brady’s buzzy celebrity NFT startup Autograph banks $170M from Silicon Valley’s top crypto investors
Autograph, an NFT agency co-founded by athlete Tom Brady with a particularly deep bench of star power, has banked new funding from crypto investors who hope the platform can bring…
Masters, an app for training with celeb athletes, closes a $2.7M seed funding round
It’s now 2022 and there are many, many apps out there that allow you to do cardio or build muscle by taking classes inside smartphone apps. We are all familiar…
Crypto gaming giant Dapper Labs takes its next shot with Genies NFT platform ‘The Warehouse’
As they near the end of a blockbuster year for NFTs that saw more than $10 billion in transaction volume, today’s NFT project developers are finding themselves facing a dilemma…
