South Florida Sails, with co-owner and angler Ben Simmons among its ranks, captured the Sport Fishing Championship Blue Marlin Open at Walker’s Cay in the Bahamas on Sunday. The victory completed a three-day event that opened the 2026 SFC season.
Simmons, better known for his NBA career after being taken first overall by the Philadelphia 76ers in the 2016 draft and playing seven seasons, became a free agent at the end of the 2024-25 campaign and later shifted his focus to sportfishing. The SFC announced in December 2025 that Simmons had bought into the Sails, and South Florida’s SFC website lists him as the club’s controlling owner. Simmons said, “I have always believed that investing in what you love means you have a responsibility to help move it forward. Sportfishing has given me incredible experiences, and SFC is creating a platform that treats offshore fishing like the elite sport it is.”
South Florida first surged to the top of the leaderboard on the event’s opening day when angler Alex Stanley released a blue marlin worth 450 points, the first blue marlin of the 2026 SFC season. Another blue marlin release by Stanley later that afternoon helped the Sails finish Day 1 in first place.
A dominant Saturday saw South Florida extend its lead, and the club secured the title on Day 3. The Sails finished the event with 2,925 points, nearly 1,500 points ahead of the runner-up New Jersey Sea Birds.
Simmons is not the only high-profile sports owner to enjoy SFC success; Scottie Scheffler’s Texas Lone Stars won last fall’s Zane Grey Championship Playoffs.
