Justin Birnbaum is a reporter at Sportico. Prior to joining the company, he was a staff writer at Forbes from 2020 to 2026, where he specialized in valuing sports franchises and tracking the earnings of athletes. Birnbaum has also profiled a slew of billionaire team owners, such as Mercedes F1’s Toto Wolff, Inter Miami’s Jorge Mas and the Washington Spirit’s Michele Kang, and contributed to tentpole projects like the Forbes 400 and the sports category of 30 Under 30 North America. Before Forbes, his byline was featured on CNBC, The Hockey News and Narratively. Birnbaum graduated from UAlbany with a bachelor’s degree in business and obtained his master’s in journalism from Northwestern University. He resides in New Jersey.