Fan Fact
According to Fandom’s “2022 State of Streaming” report, 73% of viewers valued a streaming service more if it had films and shows they can’t find anywhere else.
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Thirty Five Ventures, an investment company founded by Kevin Durant and business partner Rich Kleiman, announced an investment in NWSL club NJ/NY Gotham FC.
What's the deal?
Durant and Kleiman have been active in investing in franchises in recent years, buying an ownership stake in Major League Soccer’s Philadelphia Union in 2020. The investment also expands their footprint in women’s sports.
The pair serve as board members of women’s professional sports league network Athletes Unlimited, alongside Jessica Mendoza, Taylor Rooks, Abby Wambach and others. They also have partnership deals with media network Just Women’s Sports. The team features a number of notable stars, including Ashlyn Harris, Ali Krieger, Kristie Mewis.
The bottom line:
The club, formerly known as Sky Blue FC, made a dramatic shift in April 2021 with a new brand identity becoming NJ/NY Gotham FC. The fresh brand identity marked the start of a new era.
Read: Sports Illustrated
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Part of the Golden State Warriors' success on the court comes from how well the team knows its opponents. The team is taking a similar approach to understanding its fans. Google Cloud powers a massive data warehouse that gives the NBA team precise knowledge of the musical and culinary tastes of its fans, among other insights. The Warriors are getting tons of data on fans, particularly through a Chase Center app that allows users to order food, find their way through the arena and play interactive games, along with other features.
Daniel Brusilovsky, the Warriors' vice president of technology, said the team aims to keep the technology tucked out of the way, but walking through the arena before Wednesday's decisive playoff game, he pointed out the gear that makes the fan experience possible.The Warriors already use Google Cloud to fill the arena's many displays with game information, including dedicated screens showing each team's shot selection and success. The potential arrival of legalized sports betting in the state could offer another way for the team to tap the power of all those stats.
Read: Axios
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Media holding company Wave Sports+Entertainment, home to social-first sports media channels like Buckets and Jukes, is set to showcase its approach to sports content at IAB’s NewFronts, plus how it spurs growth across platforms for its brands. The event comes during its Women’s National Basketball Association programming, The Buckets Five. It’s the company’s first time presenting at NewFronts, albeit virtually. It plans to highlight its flagship brands Buckets, FTBL, Gym Heroes, Haymakers and Jukes.
According to the company, Gen Z and millennials account for 85% of the company’s viewership. “It’s all done through a different lens … a different point of view that highly resonates with our fanbase,” said Verne, pointing to shows and examples like Josiah Johnson ‘King of NBA Twitter’ and LaJethro Jenkins. WSE’s original shows and user-generated content across its 30 channels focus on the five big sports leagues, like Major League Baseball and the National Hockey League, to international and non-traditional sports to reach broader audiences.
Read: Adweek
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Hashtag Sports is the industry's leading conference for content creators, marketers, and the next generation of talent setting the benchmark for effective engagement. Join us July 12-14 at The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas for three days of in-person learning, networking and recognition.
Confirmed speakers include Andrea Brimmer (CMO, Ally), Emilio Collins (CBO, Excel Sports Management), Danielle Vona (CMO, Outback Steakhouse), David Brickley (CEO, STN Digital), Tatiana Holifield (VP, SiriusXM) and dozens more to be announced.
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The NCAA is further loosening its long-held opposition to sports betting, paving the way for individual schools and conferences to sign lucrative deals with data companies that sell that information to sportsbooks. The Division I Interpretations Committee met to discuss the topic, and determined that an individual, school, or conference can provide stats to sports wagering companies if that information is also available to the general public, according to an NCAA spokesperson.
The NCAA’s memo is a response to a formal rules interpretation request filed earlier this year by the Mid-American Conference, which was looking for clarity about the organization’s sports betting restrictions. More specifically, the conference asked about Section 10.3 of the NCAA’s Division I manual, which states that athletes, university staffers, and conference employees cannot “provide information” to anyone associated with sports wagering. That sentence could be interpreted as forbidding conferences from signing pricey data distribution deals.
Read: Sportico
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The NHL’s new national TV arrangements with Turner Sports and ESPN appear to have produced good audience results in their first season, at least when it comes to the games on television. According to reports, the league’s national TV broadcasts overall look to be up almost 20% year over year from last year’s games on NBC and NBCSN.
Austin Karp of SBJ notes that in addition to the 51 Turner telecasts, there were nine on ABC and 16 on ESPN. Through the nine ABC games and 14 of those ESPN games, Disney was averaging 639,000 viewers across ABC and ESPN, 491,000 viewers for ESPN broadcasts only. This does look like the league will post its best regular-season TV numbers since the average of 474,000 viewers it drew in 2016-17, and that’s certainly a good sign.
Read: Awful Announcing
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- HIRES: Jordan Brand has appointed Aflac's Shannon Watkins as its new Chief Marketing Officer.
- SOCIAL: The Drone Racing League has more followers on TikTok than MLS, NHL and F1. Here's how their strategy could serve as a blueprint for other professional sports on the platform.
- STREAMING: DAZN's Katie Taylor vs Amanda Serrano fight attracted a record-breaking audience of 1.5 million viewers.
- TEAMS: The San Antonio Spurs are expanding their reach across Texas and Mexico to "purposefully engage and celebrate fans" across the region. But questions remain about their longterm plans.
- NIL: Learfield and Opendorse have partnered to supply multimedia rights school partners access to comprehensive NIL solutions.
- ADVERTISING: Amazon's Twitch wants to marry commercials with creators who make the content to help brands reach younger consumers.
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Sparks Announce Groundbreaking Partnership with UCLA Health
The Details
The Los Angeles Sparks announced a multiyear, seven-figure partnership with UCLA Health, which will be the Official Healthcare Partner of the LA Sparks. “This is a historic partnership for the LA Sparks organization,” Sparks Managing Partner Eric Holoman said. “UCLA Health will provide world-class health care that our athletes need to compete at the professional level. They align with our community pillars of women’s empowerment and health and wellness. We’re proud to wear their logo on our uniforms and be part of their family.”
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Share today's edition with a friend who is ready for WNBA tipoff.
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Emily Black
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4 min read
