#GEOPOLITICS
Bro, Where’s My Tesla?
The Chinese government is putting the Technoking on notice. It’s a) banned Teslas from entering military complexes and housing compounds and b) curbed the use of Teslas by military staff and employees of key state-owned companies, per multiple reports.
The explanation: Beijing thinks Teslas could be the 21st-century version of the Trojan horse. The government is reportedly worried that the cars’ built-in cameras could collect sensitive data and potentially send it back to the US.
If you’re having déjà vu, it’s because the White House has blocked Chinese tech companies from operating in the US due to similar concerns over snooping. Remember Huawei?
Why it matters for Tesla: China is a critical market for the company, so it wants to avoid any political controversies as it makes inroads. Chinese sales accounted for about 21% of Tesla’s total revenue in 2020, and with a new Shanghai Gigafactory churning out the Model 3 and Model Y, it wants that share to grow.
Big picture: Yesterday, the US and China wrapped up two days of talks in Alaska. It didn’t go well.
NEAL FREYMAN
#SPORTS
MARCH MADNESS
The best three weeks in sports is back. The first round of the NCAA men’s basketball tournament kicked off yesterday in Indiana, finally adding some non-Covid madness (lookin' at you Oral Roberts) back to the month of March and filling the hole created by the pandemic last year.
The tournament is big money
For the NCAA: The D1 men’s tournament accounted for 79% of the $1.1 billion the organization brought in during the 2019 fiscal year.
For schools: The NCAA has a pool of money that factors in results of the men’s tournament, dishing out one “unit” for each game a team plays until the Final Four. The further a team advances in the tournament, the more money the team’s conference is paid by the NCAA on a rolling 6-year basis.
As of 2019, each unit was worth $280,000, which means that a run to the Final Four could generate around $1.1 million for a conference every season for the next six years.
One March participant that is conspicuously absent from this agreement: women’s teams. The NCAA still doesn’t factor the performance of a school’s women’s basketball program into its total March Madness revenue distribution.
The women’s tournament isn’t revenue-generating, according to the NCAA. But TV ratings are on the rise—more than 3.6 million viewers watched the 2019 championship game, up 24% from 2016—which means a more lucrative broadcast deal could be on the horizon. The women’s tournament kicks off tomorrow in a “bubble” in San Antonio.
For gamblers: Research from PlayUSA projects that this year’s tournament could generate as much as $1.5 billion in legal bets. For context, Legal Sports Report estimated that $462.4 million was legally wagered on this year’s Super Bowl.
Investors are getting in on the action. Yesterday, shares of Barstool Sports owner Penn National Gaming and sports betting app DraftKings jumped 4.9% and 6.5%, respectively.
Some fun bracket math to take you into the weekend. According to the NCAA, the odds of filling out a perfect bracket are 1-in-9,223,372,036,854,775,808 (if you just guess or flip a coin) and 1-in-120.2 billion (if you know a little something about basketball).
TOBY HOWELL
#COVID
Vaccine Tracker
In the US...we’ve now administered more than 100 million doses, a goal President Biden set out to achieve in his first 100 days in office (it’s his 59th today). Nearly a quarter of all Americans have received at least one dose of a Covid-19 vaccine.
Across the world...we’re getting close to half a billion vaccine doses administered. As of last night, 133 countries had given out more than 420 million shots.
The latest headlines
Astra drama: The WHO urged the world to continue using AstraZeneca’s vaccine following blood clot concerns in Europe. UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson got the Astra shot yesterday to show it can be trusted.
Third waves: The German health minister warned that Covid-19 cases are rising at an “exponential rate” and the pace of the vaccine rollout isn’t fast enough to prevent a third wave. Paris entered lockdown mode yesterday. Meanwhile, Brazil’s health system is in a state of crisis as cases surge.
More eligibility: Florida is opening up vaccine eligibility to anyone 50 or over starting Monday.
NEAL FREYMAN