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Front Office Sports: Jazz and Mammoth owner Ryan Smith, a major donor to alma mater BYU, said the school will receive a sizable portion of his estate when he passes away, he told FOS. Smith says he’s hesitant to put a “thumb on the scale” for now, citing BYU’s deep alumni base.
Jazz and Mammoth owner Ryan Smith, already in the midst of expanding his pro sports empire, said he plans to be “aggressive” in pursuit of an MLB expansion franchise for Utah. Speaking with Front Office Sports on the latest episode of Portfolio Players, Smith said he was interested in adding teams to his holdings, including in baseball.
“Our group will be pretty aggressive in how we pursue sports,” he told FOS’s Dan Roberts. “We do it our own way. We don’t do a lot publicly. I actually think that’s not the way expansion really gets done. Salt Lake’s ready for it, but if you saw how we operated with the NHL, it just happened. We said we wanted the NHL, and a couple of months later, we had a team and we were rolling. The sale of the Angels, it just happened … So we’ll be aggressive if there’s an opportunity there.”
Ryan Smith: "I feel like we feel really good about where we're at with Darryn (Peterson), and things happen for a reason. But love AJ (Dybantsa), heck of a player. But, you know, we've been watching Darryn and AJ and we really like what Darren's, what Darren's got."
Ryan Smith on the financial risks of purchasing the Utah Jazz: "I remember doing it. I had people calling saying you're going to lose a lot of money in this. And these are very smart business people. That can't be the reason why you get into sports. There's levels of public scrutiny, demand, interest."
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Ryan Smith: "When we first started, we circled around a geographic region of where we lived and said, hey, we probably don't want to go beyond two hours outside of this, a two-hour flight. And there's no secret, the first one we looked at that was available was Minnesota. And we got all the way down to the end, talks, everything, talking with Adam Silver, and my wife was just like, I know I'm never going to see you if we're in Minnesota. And by the way, the kids are Jazz fans. We go to games, we love going to games, that's a family event. Like, what about our tickets? And I was like, oh, well we'll just fall in love with the other team. And she was like, after two or three days, I was like, okay, this isn't going to go well."
Ryan Smith: "On a personal level, Steve (Ballmer) has been so awesome to me over the years. One of the first phone calls I had when I came in, knew him from tech, and you know, he's a stand-up individual first and foremost. This game's tricky, this game's hard, and obviously we have rules and the NBA's got to do it. And you know, I'm glad he accepted it and we all can just turn the page and move on. But it's not the first time this has happened in the league. But I think that we've got these rules have to mean anything. As owners, we're held to a pretty high standard comparatively."
Smith’s view is not shaped by the money these partnerships bring in, he said. Instead, it has to do with the fact that so many American sports fans enjoy being able to bet on sports. “It is making games a lot more interactive, where there’s a digital component or something to follow,” he said. “Everyone has some sort of skin in the game, per se.” For Smith, the answer isn’t to fight betting’s place in sports. It’s to figure out how to preserve the sports experience so it isn’t completely overwhelmed by gambling. “It’s not going away,” he said. “I think we need a little more moderation in all of it. You should be able to watch sports without having to always have too much there, but I also see the appeal, because it’s super fun for people.”
Jazz and Mammoth owner Ryan Smith has concerns about the downsides of betting and prediction markets. But he understands they aren’t going away and feels leagues have a responsibility to help implement guardrails. “We all know the risks of gambling,” he told Front Office Sports during a recent episode of Portfolio Players. “We’ve seen lives destroyed, people destroyed, because of it.”
It’s not just individual bettors causing themselves problems, either. Players, and even coaches, feel the brunt of bettors’ wrath. According to Smith, Jazz head coach Will Hardy regularly hears from fans in the stands who are complaining about a decision he’s made that may impact their bet, such as pulling a player in the fourth quarter when they’re one rebound away from what a gambler needs to win on a parlay. “In hoops, you hear it all,” Smith said.
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The issue is particularly sensitive in Utah, where sports betting remains illegal, and where a federal judge in August ruled that state regulators could enforce gambling laws against prediction-market platforms (Kalshi is appealing that decision). “It’s a little bit like, to what end?” Smith said. “But it’s part of the game. We’re not gonna stop it.” Rather than advocate for the NBA and NHL to ignore sports betting, Smith thinks the leagues in which he owns teams should use their influence to make betting safer for consumers.
Daniel Roberts: Jazz owner Ryan Smith to @FOS on the Ballmer/Clippers punishments: "Steve is a standup individual first and foremost. This game is tricky, this game is hard, and obviously we have rules, and the NBA's gotta do it, and I'm glad he accepted it, and we all can just turn the page and move on. But it's not the first time this has happened in the league, but these rules have to mean anything. As owners, we're held to a pretty high standard comparatively... I think the NBA is way better with him." My full extensive convo with Ryan for our Portfolio Players series comes out Tuesday.
Lauri Markkanen had some familiar faces in the stands as Finland hosted Iceland in a friendly ahead of the upcoming FIBA World Cup qualifying window. The Utah Jazz forward finished with 17 points, six rebounds, three assists and three steals, helping Finland secure a 93-78 victory in Espoo. Markkanen had spent the previous days showing Helsinki to Jazz teammates Jaren Jackson Jr. and Keyonte George, head coach Will Hardy and team owner Ryan Smith, who then attended Friday’s game.
Portage, Wellington, Crosslink Capital, 53 Stations, Titanium Ventures, Spice and Florida Funders also took part. Flex says the money brings its total equity raised to $180m, alongside $300m of debt. Headcount stands at 110 and the company expects to be past 200 by the end of the year.