I Don't Know Who Needs to Hear This, But...

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Daily news from the world of sports media Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

  1. 10h ago

    The NFL Puts Real Stadium Sponsors Inside Madden

    The NFL and EA have launched the Madden NFL Virtual Stadium Sponsorship Program. Starting this season, official sponsors of all 32 clubs and league partners can carry their real-world stadium signage into the matching Madden stadiums on console and mobile, a game EA says fans play more than 2 billion times a year. Eagles partner Pond Lehocky is the first brand in. Also: ESPN is said to be committed to Inside the NBA beyond this season, even without Ernie Johnson and Charles Barkley; college football runs its last weekend of political ads before Tuesday's election; Eli Lilly's logo goes on the floors at Indiana's Assembly Hall and Purdue's Mackey Arena; Serie A USA's Polymarket deal and Lazio's exit from its Polymarket shirt deal show two rulebooks in one league; Jean Eric Salata buys 2.1% of the Dolphins at a valuation above $12.5B; Pitchwise Holdings takes 42% of Valencia at a €1.25B enterprise value; Sting's F1 campaign takes Gold for Sonic Branding at the Clios; and SailGP team prices climb by half in four years. The thread: sports keeps finding new buyers for the assets it already owns. Music by Cheerry Red Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

  2. 3d ago

    The World Series Climbs Back to a Projected 12 Million. Is It Now a Legacy Brand?

    The Brewers–Rays World Series finished far stronger than it started. Game 3 landed at 8.33 million, the second-smallest World Series audience on record, but Tuesday's 12-inning Game 4 drew 13.48 million and Fox projects Wednesday's clinching Game 5 at 14.22 million. On that projection the series averages 12 million, the most-watched Fall Classic since 2019 outside the last two years. Also: MLS simulcasts two final-day matches on Fox's free streamer Tubi as Fox's deal ends; LeBron James formalizes an 11-year relationship with Whoop ($10.1B valuation) as it eyes an IPO; Visa nears a high-eight-figure PGA Tour deal as Mastercard's partnership expires; Recapp raises $11M led by Joe Montana's Liquid2 Ventures; RedBird and Sound Ventures form a $1B partnership; GEICO signs with Unrivaled; Sting's F1 campaign wins at the Clios; and Gecko Robotics buys the front of Pitt's basketball jerseys. In this week's Deep Dive: should the World Series be treated as a legacy brand rather than a top media vehicle? We compare it with the Oscars, the NBA Finals, the Kentucky Derby and the Super Bowl, look at which sports are growing and shrinking, and ask whether the pitch clock and the ABS Challenge System have made baseball a better media property. Music by Cheerry Red Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

  3. 4d ago

    A World Series Blowout Nears the Smallest Audience on Record

    Monday's 10–1 Brewers win in World Series Game 3 averaged about 8.3 million viewers across Fox and Fox Deportes. The record low is 8.29 million, so Game 3 will rank no better than second-least watched. It was down 27% from the Nielsen-rated portion of last year's 18-inning Game 3, after Games 1 and 2 were down only 8% and 7%. It aired opposite Monday Night Football and was the first World Series game ever to go head to head with the WNBA Finals. Early numbers put Game 4 at 13.5 million, a series high. Also: CAF hands AFCON 2027 free-to-air sales in sub-Saharan Africa to Media Experts Limited and MBS while Canal+ keeps pay TV; Aryna Sabalenka tops SportsPro's 50 Most Marketable Athletes; Borussia Dortmund extends its Sportradar deal to background-check prospective sponsors; Rezzil raises $10M from investors including Jobe Bellingham; a KKR co-founders consortium buys 42% of Valencia at a €1.25B valuation; adidas and Gamefam win Digiday's Best Partnership for the adidas Football Festival on Roblox; and Mercury Marine and Lowrance re-up with Major League Fishing after 15 years in every show. The thread: the difference between attention you hope for and attention you can count on. Music by Cheerry Red Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

  4. 5d ago

    The Smallest-Market World Series in 20 Years Is Down Only 7%

    Final numbers are in for the Rays–Brewers World Series. Game 1 averaged 12.26 million viewers across Fox, Fox Deportes and Univision, and Game 2 averaged 10.85 million across Fox and Fox Deportes, down 8% and 7% from last year's Dodgers–Blue Jays openers but about 30% ahead of 2023's Rangers–Diamondbacks games. The two home markets total 3.2 million TV homes, the fewest for a Fall Classic in 20 years, and Milwaukee is MLB's smallest market. "Down 7% is better than most were predicting," said Fox Sports' Mike Mulvihill. Also today: a WWE court filing shows Netflix had the first right to negotiate for UFC's domestic rights before Paramount won them; Aramex ends six years on the front of the Cronulla Sharks jersey; adidas becomes the Melbourne Storm's apparel partner, debuting in Las Vegas in 2027; EA and the NFL launch virtual stadium sponsorships in Madden; Mark Walter reportedly asks more than $700 million for the Sparks; Miami Beach's "Wake Up to a New March" takes another Sports ETA award; and Visit Tallahassee wins for selling cross-country running to the world. The throughline: the size of the market isn't the size of the audience. Music by Cheerry Red Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

  5. 6d ago

    The Small-Market World Series Opens With 12.2 Million Viewers

    Game 1 of the Rays–Brewers World Series averaged 12.2 million viewers across Fox and Univision, according to preliminary numbers reported by Sports Business Journal's Austin Karp, peaking at just over 13 million. That trails the Dodgers-led openers of 2025 (13.3 million) and 2024 (15.2 million) but beats 2023's record-low 9.4 million, and outside the two Dodgers years it's the most-watched Game 1 since 2019. Final Nielsen figures with Big Data are due this afternoon, after a bogus 15.2 million figure, traced to an AI answer, spread over the weekend. Also today: DAZN's five exclusive NBA teams add DirecTV through a sublicence a week into the season; Youi signs on with the BBL and WBBL, branding five club kits and every umpire; the NBA names Kalshi and Polymarket its "preferred prediction market partners," leaving the NFL as the biggest holdout; Rezzil's $10 million round adds Jobe Bellingham and Phil Kenyon; Juice Reel raises $2.5 million; the Buccaneers' "Döner Kebucs" wins a Hashie; and Korea's player of the year signs with a defense contractor. The throughline: trust, and how hard it is to earn. Music by Cheerry Red Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

  6. Oct 26

    MSG Splits the Knicks and Rangers Into Two Public Companies

    Madison Square Garden Sports' tax-free spin-off of the Rangers from the Knicks is scheduled to complete today, with MSGK and MSGR starting regular-way trading on the NYSE on Tuesday. MSG Knickerbockers keeps the Knicks and the Westchester Knicks; MSG Rangers takes the Rangers, the Hartford Wolf Pack and the MSG Training Center. Shareholders get one MSG Rangers share for every two MSG Sports shares, James Dolan runs both, and the two teams brought in $1.15 billion of revenue over the latest 12 months, with the Knicks more than twice the Rangers. Also today: Netflix will stream all 104 matches of the 2030 World Cup in Spain and Andorra, with one free game per matchday; Sanofi becomes the first company to sponsor the white jersey at both the Tour de France and the Tour de France Femmes; Capital.com makes its tennis debut with the Davis Cup; Reading's head of AI, Stuart Fenton, on cutting transfer shortlists from 1,000 names to three; Bold Fit raises a $41.8 million Series B; Uber Eats' "Football Is for Food" took a Grand at the Clio Sports Awards; and hummel and Bartercard sign a seven-figure deal with the Bradford Bulls. The throughline: the value is in the specific piece. Music by Cheerry Red Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

  7. Oct 23

    FIFA Puts the 2030 World Cup Up for Bid

    FIFA opened its tender on Thursday for U.S. and Puerto Rico media rights to the 2030 men's World Cup, with an option on 2034. Bids are due November 19, and FIFA wants a winner by year-end, ideally one partner for both English and Spanish rather than the Fox/Telemundo split. Fox is estimated to have paid $425 million for 2026, a tournament that averaged 13.5 million viewers a match, up 166% on 2022, and media executives have predicted $1.5–2 billion this time. Also today: CBS signs JJ Watt as its lead NFL analyst on a multi-year deal; Nike becomes the Mumbai Indians' kit partner from 2027; AbbVie joins a McLaren sponsor list that's grown fast this year; Rezzil raises $10 million, with the Premier League backing it again, to expand into the U.S.; gym-software rounds for Huppa and 1club; Uber Eats' "Build Your Own Super Bowl Commercial" wins the Media Grand Prix at Cannes Lions; and a Lisbon fund buys into Os Belenenses with a price that rises only if the club climbs back to the top flight. In the Deep Dive: how FIFA handed Fox and Telemundo the 2026 rights without a bid, what 2026 proved, who's lining up for 2030, and why the time zones complicate everything. The throughline: the price of a sure thing just went up. Intro / Outro music by Cheerry Red Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

  8. Oct 22

    Utah Sues Kalshi Over $3 Billion in Wagers

    Utah Attorney General Derek Brown is suing Kalshi, alleging its contracts are illegal gambling in one of two states whose constitutions ban gambling. The complaint estimates Kalshi took $30.6 million to $61.2 million in fees on more than $3 billion wagered from Utah accounts, and asks the court to stop its sports, election, politics, culture and mentions contracts in the state, enforced by a geolocation provider. Kalshi says it answers to the CFTC. Also today: NFL and college football push Kalshi and Polymarket to a record $22.2 billion week; nearly a quarter of MLB teams signed prediction-market deals this summer, and fans are pushing back; the NBA kept Kalshi, Polymarket and Novig spots off NBC's season openers; Just Women's Sports buys Victra Sports and launches an app; Kalshi is in talks at a $40 billion valuation and Polymarket at more than $20 billion; Sting Energy's "The Unofficial Official Sound of F1" wins a Grand Clio; and Everton launches its own mobile network. The throughline: the prediction-market money is moving faster than anyone's permission. Intro / Outro music by Cheerry Red Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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Daily news from the world of sports media Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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