Basketball star Tony Parker will join the investor jury for the fourth season of “Who Wants to Be My Partner?” », the M6 show which connects aspiring entrepreneurs and potential financiers, announced the channel and the former NBA player on Tuesday, the eve of the start of filming.
“This year, you will have to count on me,” said the president of ASVEL, the Villeurbanne basketball club, in a video posted on his social networks and filmed on the set of the show.
Since his retirement from sports in 2019, the former leader of the French team and four-time NBA champion has reinvented himself as a businessman, drawing on the fortune accumulated during his career with the San Antonio Spurs, where his salary reached $12 million per season during his prime.
At the head of the company Infinity Nine Group – named in reference to the number 9 on his Spurs jersey – the forty-year-old invests in areas as varied as audiovisual production, horse breeding, ski resorts and even wine.
By joining “Who wants to be my partner?” “, Tony Parker will thus “bring his entrepreneurial spirit” and a “very useful international perspective”, commented the deputy general director of M 6 programs (magazines and documentaries) Jonathan Curiel in a statement to AFP. “Its notoriety will allow us to further increase the resonance of the program”, the fourth season of which must be broadcast in early 2024, he added.
Two businesswomen join the cast
Two businesswomen will participate in this new edition: Kelly Massol, founder of the hair care brand “Les Secrets de Loly”, and Stéphanie Delestre, founder of the digital recruitment platform QAPA. The three new recruits will thus join the jury composed of Marc Simoncini (Meetic), Éric Larchevèque (Ledger), Jean-Pierre Nadir (Easyvoyage) and Anthony Bourbon (Feed).
Launched in 2020, the show “Who wants to be my partner?” » attracted nearly 2 million viewers on average at the start of 2023 (excluding replay), for an audience share of 10%.
During season 3, “more than 4 million euros were personally invested by the members of the jury in the projects presented”, according to M 6. Over all 3 seasons, 65 companies found an investment, “ for a total amount of more than 13,400,000 euros,” assures the channel.
