Does Mark Cuban Want ‘Shark Tank’ All To Himself? Here’s Why He’s Pitching ‘Mark Tank’


Does Mark Cuban want to turn Shark Tank into Mark Tank? Viewers of a new video provided to Business Insider might think so. It features a Cuban-filled panel on the Shark Tank set, listening to a pitch by a hopeful entrepreneur. The video also includes an “update” from a cloning company that received an investment from Mark. Strangely, he only wants them to create clones of himself.

Of course, the video is a parody. It was produced by Chideo as part of a charitable campaign through Prizeo to benefit the Austin Street Center. Contributors get gifts according to the size of their donation and all are entered into a sweepstakes. The grand prize is a day on the Shark Tank set with Mark Cuban.

Austin Street Center is a therapeutic homeless community in Dallas that offers transitional living services as well as substance abuse and psychological counseling.

Cuban is no stranger to philanthropic efforts. The billionaire investor and owner of the Dallas Mavericks has famously matched every NBA fine he’s ever received with a charitable donation. ESPN reported in January, 2014, that the total amount of fines he’s paid to the Association over the previous 14 years was $1.9 million.

In January, 2014, Cuban made a $100,000 donation to the iBellieve Foundation to match an NBA fine. The foundation supports research to find a cure for Mucopolysacharridosis, which affects about 2,000 people worldwide. One of those people, Simon Ibell, runs the foundation and is a childhood friend of Steve Nash.

Donating to charity, for any number of reasons, seems to be part of Mark Cuban’s personal playbook. Just this month, he offered to donate $100,000 to the charity chosen by an ESPN reporter if he could back up tweets about the DeAndre Jordan situation.

The Austin Street Center posted on its Facebook page that it was “thrilled” at the partnership between Cuban and Prizeo. The Center assists 300 men and women each night and “is committed to ensuring that each individual who comes under our care is met with compassionate care in a healing environment.”

The prize description notes that the lucky person and his or her guest that gets to hang out with Cuban on the Shark Tank set will also get hotel accommodations and roundtrip airfare from anywhere in the world.

You can head over to Chideo to watch the video.

Shark Tank, featuring five sharks in addition to Mark Cuban, is set to return to ABC in the fall.

[Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images News]

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