Carissa Coze

Coze has played key roles in major sports deals in recent years, but instead of big team trades, she had oversight for the country’s first national media and sports wagering partnership.

Fox Bet is scheduled to launch this fall along with the new football season and will be a free-to-play game, awarding cash prizes to players who correctly predict the winners, plus another aspect that will allow people to place real money wagers.

The latter option presented its own challenges because while sports betting is legal under federal law, the execution of it is left to the states.

Some states have allowed it for years. Some only approved it this year.

“There were only a handful of states that even had proposed, much less final, regulations out there and they varied dramatically,” Coze said. “So it was a lot of trying to navigate how to deal with regulators and trying to anticipate how the partnership would deal with future regulations.”

Coze finds projects without templates among the most rewarding.

“I like it because you get to see the creativity of the businesses, especially bringing two different companies together and seeing how they envision the industry and where it’s going to go and how it’s going to develop,” she said.

Coze also works on other types of mergers, acquisitions and strategic partnerships in the sports, gaming, e-sports, media technology and entertainment industries.

She is also a public speaker on cutting edge issues in the sports industry.

— Arin Mikailian