*By Christian Smith*
Peloton and Equinox may be racing each other for fitness domination, but the new studio and streaming service NEO U is taking a more collaborative approach, said one of its co-founders; he's inviting major brands to join his effort.
"If I was to meet with any of those companies that I just said, I would say, 'Hey, we're not competing against each other. I'm just another revenue stream for you,'" Nate Forster, a co-founder, told Cheddar. "Equinox can be on the platform. Peloton can be on the platform. I'm not trying to take the users from them."
NEO U just closed a $4 million round of funding, said Forster, bringing the New York fitness studio's total capital raised to $20 million. The company plans to use that cash to finish and launch its global streaming platform by September. The new service will store content from dozens of trainers and fitness studios; and all of it can be filmed at NEO U's Fifth-Avenue headquarters, Forster said. It's home to three studios ー weight and HIIT training, boxing, and yoga ー with industry-standard camera and lighting equipment, and a live control room.
Trainers and studios that partner with NEO U can make money by charging clients for classes in NEO U's physical space and through a revenue share on streamed content.
NEO U already has over a dozen trainers shooting content in preparation for the launch of its streaming service, including fitness influencer Nicole Mejia. Though she already has more than [1.3 million](https://www.instagram.com/nicole_mejia/?hl=en) Instagram followers, Mejia, the founder of the popular workout program Fit and Thick, sees NEO U's streaming platform as a way to grow her audience.
"I'll be able to kind of access all of my following all over the world really in a way that I'm not currently able to with my physical classes," Mejia told Cheddar.
In its first iteration, NEO U's streaming platform will focus primarily on classes, but Forster has bigger ambitions. He said he wants NEO U to become the "Amazon" of health and wellness.
"When our platform is done, we're going to have talk shows and nutrition shows and e-commerce," he said. "And it's going to be a place where all these different things can live."
For more on this story, [click here](https://cheddar.com/videos/how-one-gym-plans-to-take-over-the-fitness-streaming-industry).
Following a 2018 Supreme Court ruling year that cleared the way for sports gambling, fans in seven states can bet on the upcoming Super Bowl for the first time ー and leaders in the budding industry are anticipating the Big Game will deliver their biggest day yet. “We expect the Super Bowl to be our single biggest day in the company’s history,” Mike Raffensperger, the chief marketing officer for betting platform FanDuel, told Cheddar.
FightCamp is a new fitness company that streams boxing classes from top instructors direct to consumers. The classes can be tailored to the needs of boxers at all levels of expertise ー from newbies to punching pros said co-founder Tommy Duquette.
These are the headlines you Need 2 Know for Friday, Jan. 25, 2019.
The New York Knicks and its jersey sponsor, the website-building platform Squarespace, are doling out assists to four local businesses as part of the second annual "Make It Awards." "Partnering with Squarespace to help those entrepreneurs get their businesses to the next level was something we were very interested in doing and it's been a major hit," said MSG Sports' senior vice president of business operations, Kristin Bernert, in an interview on Cheddar.
The Delaware Blue Coats will make their debut Wednesday night at the brand new Philadelphia 76ers Fieldhouse in Wilmington, Del., and the team will share the spotlight with an arena that boasts five stories, can seat 2,500 fans, and includes three NBA-regulation basketball courts. The flashy new arena was designed to promote youth sports in the state of Delaware and the greater Philadelphia region. "It's all geared towards youth," Chris Heck, the president of the Philadelphia 76ers, told Cheddar.
The NBA is transparent about its approval of legalized, regulated sports betting ー but the league is also clearly communicating that it wants a fair share of the money wagered on its games. "It's our view that if state governments are going to be authorizing private entities, in most cases casinos, to generate significant revenue ー billions of dollars of revenue ー off of the NBA competitions, that the NBA participate in some way," said the NBA's head of fantasy and gaming Scott Kaufman-Ross.
Former Green Bay Packer Ahman Green is a four time Pro Bowler, but he's also an avid gamer. When it comes to Halo he's just another fan that looks up to professionals like Proximitty and LethuL for help with his improving his skills.
These are the headlines you Need 2 Know for Wednesday Jan. 23, 2019.
If there's one person aside from the 800,000 unpaid federal workers who is hoping the government shutdown ends soon, it's Keisha Lance Bottoms. The mayor of Atlanta is less than two weeks away from hosting Super Bowl LIII, which is a logistical and security nightmare even when the city's airport *isn't* being slowed down by mass TSA sick-outs. "I'm extremely concerned," Bottoms said of the possibility that the shutdown may continue through Super Bowl weekend.
Cloud9 has been dubbed the most valuable esports company in the world by Forbes Magazine ー a title that is thanks, at least in part, to the organization's powerhouse VP of marketing, Eunice Chen. Chen is an esports vet who has worked for industry stalwart Riot Games and even runs her own tournament production company, Heroeshype. In an interview with Cheddar Sports, she said, "there are always different ways we can break into new markets in esports and beyond."
