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Mark Cuban is giving up his seat at the table. The investor and longtime Shark Tank star has announced he’s leaving the popular ABC reality show. The move comes not long after his decision to sell a majority stake in the NBA’s Dallas Mavericks for $3.5 billion. 

Mark Cuban is worth $6.2 billion 

Cuban, 65, is no stranger to big money moves. He built his wealth in the early years of the dot-com boom thanks to Broadcast.com, which he founded with Todd Wagner in 1995. He cashed out at the right time, selling it to Yahoo in 1999 for $5.7 billion. 

Later, Cuban went on to buy the Mavericks for $285 million. More recently, he cofounded Cost Plus Drugs, which aims to lower prescription drug prices. In 2011, he joined the cast of Shark Tank. 

Cuban’s various entrepreneurial endeavors and investments have netted him an impressive net worth. As of 2023, he was worth an estimated $6.2 billion, according to Forbes. That puts him at No. 222 on the Forbes 400 list and No. 591 on the list of world billionaires.  

Why is Mark Cuban leaving ‘Shark Tank’?

Though Cuban has said he loves doing Shark Tank, he decided to move on for personal reasons. The dad of three wants to spend more time with his family. His last season with Shark Tank will be in 2025.

“I just want to have a couple summers with my teens before they go off on their own,” he told The Hollywood Reporter in an email. “Nothing to do with the show. I love it. I love being on it. I love what [it] represents and how it motivates entrepreneurs around the world.”

Since joining Shark Tank, Cuban has invested $29 million in at least 85 companies that pitched their business on the show, according to Forbes. They include DinoDon, which manufactures robotic dinosaurs; Wild Earth, a line of plant-based dog food; and Dude Wipes, which makes flushable toilet wipes for men. 

Mark Cuban is selling the Dallas Mavericks to the Adelson family 

Mark Cuban at a Dallas Mavericks game
Mark Cuban attends a basketball game between the Los Angeles Clippers and the Dallas Mavericks at Crypto.com Arena | Allen Berezovsky/Getty Images
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In addition to shaking things up at Shark Tank, Cuban is making huge waves in the world of sports with his decision to sell the Mavericks to the family of Miriam Adelson. She is the widow of casino bigwig Sheldon Adelson, who founded Las Vegas Sands. Cuban will remain in control of basketball operations. 

Selling the Mavs is part of a larger plan to bring a casino resort and legalized sports betting to Texas, ESPN reports. While many states have legalized sports betting in recent years, it’s still banned in the Lone Star State. A handful of tribal casinos in Texas offer slot machines, poker, and bingo. But they can’t have table games such as blackjack or craps. Cuban wants to change that. 

“My goal, and we’d partner with Las Vegas Sands, is when we build a new arena it’ll be in the middle of a resort and casino,” Cuban told The Dallas Morning News in 2022. “That’s the mission.”

Cuban said he hoped to turn Texas into an in-demand vacation destination. 

“There’s no destination resort in Texas where, if you’re living in Pittsburgh or Indiana or Chicago, you say, ‘Hey, honey, we’re saving money to take the family to Texas,’ ” he said. 

“Texas is such an amazing state that we need to be a destination,” Cuban added. “And this is the way to do it. And partnering with the Sands Corporation, literally there’s no reason why we can’t build a huge resort destination in the city proper of Dallas. There’s plenty of places to do it.”

Sources: ForbesESPN

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