The Next Media Rights Model: Why Media-for-Equity Is the Playbook for Emerging Leagues
Sports media rights are evolving in real time.
Traditionally, networks paid massive licensing fees for game rights and recouped it through ads. That model has scaled into today’s record-breaking contracts:
NFL → $110B over 11 years (CBS, Fox, NBC, ESPN, Amazon)
NBA → $76B over 11 years (ESPN, NBCUniversal, Amazon Prime Video)
WNBA → $2.2B over 11 years (ESPN, NBCUniversal, Amazon Prime Video)
These deals work because the leagues check every box:
Sponsorship demand → easy ad sales
Decades of data → reliable forecasting
Cultural tailwinds → guaranteed growth
For broadcasters, that’s steady but capped upside. So where can they take big swings again — the kind they took when the NFL or NBA were still unproven?
Emerging Leagues + Media-for-Equity = Protected Risk, High Reward
Instead of writing massive checks for rights fees, media companies are experimenting with a new model: media-for-equity. They take an equity stake in a league and, in return, provide distribution across their platforms. For the broadcaster, it means limited downside and uncapped upside. For the league, it means instant visibility and credibility.
Why not stick to traditional rights deals?
Viewership Uncertainty: Live sports are still gold, but emerging leagues can’t guarantee stable ratings. Long, high-cost deals carry more downside than upside.
Fan Traction: New leagues face the uphill task of building loyal audiences — and convincing fans to subscribe just to watch an unproven property is a hard sell.
Capital Isn’t Scarce: PLL, Unrivaled, and the UFL already have backing from groups like Bessemer, The Chernin Group, Arctos, Raine, and RedBird. What they need most is distribution and traction to spin the league flywheel: funding → fan acquisition → sponsorships → monetization.
Media-for-equity closes that gap: broadcasters trade airtime for ownership, betting on long-term growth rather than overpaying for short-term rights.
Here’s how the model plays out in practice with the PLL, Unrivaled, and the UFL:
Benchmarking the PLL w/ the NBA & WNBA
Media-for-equity deals are often the smarter way to unlock media value for an emerging league. Why? Cost.
To show why, we benchmarked PLL’s growth against the WNBA (a league entering maturity) and the NBA (a proven property):
Growth → PLL’s broadcast viewership grew at a ~15% CAGR (2021-25) — half the WNBA’s rate, on a base 4x smaller. Faster than the NBA, but the NBA commands ~7x more viewers:
Media Rights Value → Based on industry reporting, we estimate the PLL’s annual media rights deal in the $10M-$20M range (2022-2025), increasing with the new ESPN extension:
Cost per Viewer → When you divide rights value by audience, the PLL comes out expensive — about $1.39 per viewer, versus the WNBA at $0.90 and the NBA at $0.51.
This matters because it shows why media-for-equity is a logical fit. At current scale, paying traditional rights fees for PLL content would be overpaying per eyeball. But with an equity stake, broadcasters aren’t just buying viewers — they’re buying into the growth curve.
The WNBA proves how this plays out: after five years of accelerated growth, its cost per viewer has steadily declined, making traditional media deals more attractive. For PLL, equity upside may be the only way the economics make sense today — until its audience base catches up.
TL;DR?
Traditional media rights scale the proven; media-for-equity scales the emerging.
Sports-Tech Market Activity: Investors & Deals
Accelerators
NBA Launchpad opens applications for fifth cohort, targeting sports impact and business innovation (Sept. 15th)
Priority areas include officiating, youth basketball, player health & wellbeing, media, and fan connection; alumni include Somnee, SportIQ, and Springbok Analytics, among others [SBJ]
Serie A club Como 1907 partners with athlete-led VC firm The Players Fund to launch ‘Como Ventures’, a six-month accelerator program (Sept. 17th)
Selecting 3-4 early-stage startups in health tech, human performance, media tech, travel, retail, and sustainability, among others
Como provides stadium and operations access for equity; The Players Fund manages startup selection and oversight, apply here [SBJ]
Venture Capital
Stan Store, a commerce platform democratizing scalability for ‘middle-class’ creators, receives backing from investor–partner Gary Vaynerchuk (Sept. 15th)
Launching eight-week ‘GaryVee Stan Challenge’ mentorship program
Positions Stan to capture share of $250B creator economy, offering creators direct ownership and monetization tools [GamesBeat]
PlayerData, a sports performance tracking system for athlete load monitoring, releases ‘low-budget’ GPS/LPS Edge Air Tracker, following Series A funding (Sept. 16th)
System targets grassroots, academy, university, and women’s clubs
Previous investment led by Darco Capital, Bolt Ventures; other investors include Pentland Ventures, Accelerate Ventures, and Hiro Capital, among others [SBJ]
Somnee, a sleep tech startup developing neuro-stimulating headbands to improve sleep quality, launches 2nd-gen wearable; adds NBA as investor (Sept. 16th)
Headband integrates EEG+ monitoring and AI-driven neurostimulation
NBA/WNBA pilot showed REM and deep sleep gains; NBA joins as equity partner after NBA Launchpad participation [Athletech]
Rec, a SaaS startup handling local recreation experiences and sports management, raised $11M in Series A funding (Sept. 17th)
Aims to modernize community recreation in Uber/Airbnb fashion; funding markets expansion and deepening investment in AI-powered features
Investment led by Crosslink Capital; other investors include NFX, Marquee Ventures, 35V, and Liquid 2 Ventures, among others [PRNW]
TeachMe.To, a Sam Altman-backed sports, fitness, and hobby coaching marketplace, raises $3M in Seed extension funding (Sept. 17th)
Capital will fuel app development and AI-powered learning features
Investment led by Interplay; other investors include Bling Capital and 1984 Ventures [Athletech]
M&A and Investments
Genius Sports, a sports data and tech company, acquires fan data-driven insights firm Sports Innovation Lab to fuel media and ads division (Sept. 18th)
Acquisition expands Genius’ FANHub platform and syndication channels, enhancing ad targeting and ROI measurement [BusinessWire]
Legends Global, a premium partner for live sports and entertainment venues, acquires owners’ representative firm Nations Group in venue consulting deal (Sept. 17th)
Strengthens Legends’ advisory arm across college athletics, including facility planning, financing, and development [SBJ]
Xplor, a global software & payments platform, to merge with fitness and wellness SaaS platform Clubessential (Sept. 17th)
Will now serve 130K+ customers, process $47B in annual payments, and generate ~$900M in revenue; entity to employ ~2.5K people, spanning fitness, wellness, golf, and recreation, among others [Athletech]
Mercury13, a women’s soccer multi-club investor, acquired majority stake in English club Bristol City Women (Sept. 18th)
Mercury13 expands into England for second club after Como Women stake
Deal includes long-term stadium and training agreement at Ashton Gate; Lansdown retains minority stake, if approved by league [SportsPro]
Dundon Group, a Tom Dundon-led investor consortium, agrees to acquire NBA’s Portland Trail Blazers for $4.25B (Sept. 12th)
Deal values franchise at ~$4.25B; includes payment at close and later date [Sportico]
Photo Creds: LiveScore Group partners with X & xAI to achieve convergence in sports media and betting, integrating real-time sports conversations on X and delivering personalized fan experiences through xAI products.
Strategic Ventures
LiveScore Group, a global sports media and betting operator, partnered with X and xAI in strategic integration deal (Sept. 17th)
Partnership taps X’s real-time content and xAI’s AI tools to integrate sports media and betting into one ecosystem, marking one of the first large-scale integrations of AI, social media, and betting [LSG]
Paramount announces Paramount Sports Entertainment division led by Skydance Media President & COO Jesse Sisgold (Sept. 11th)
Unit to produce scripted/unscripted content, interactive games, and experiences
Division will collaborate with athletes, creators, and leagues; housing joint venture with the NFL, Skydance Sports [SBJ]
The All Women's Sports Network (AWSN) partners with SAFF, the Saudi Sports Company, to launch first 24-hour women's sports channel in Saudi Arabia (Sept. 12th)
Partnership to air the Women’s Premier League locally and worldwide
Channel is distributed via MBC Shahid in Saudi Arabia, adding UEFA, D1 Arkema, Damallsvenskan, and other top international leagues [SportsPro]
Camb AI, a speech-to-speech translation startup, partners with Indian OTT sports platform FanCode and India Today Group for live sports and news translation (Sept. 15th)
FanCode deal brings real-time multilingual commentary to cricket broadcasts
Partnership with India Today enables AI-driven translation of live news coverage [Variety]
Fanatics teams with Tom Brady and annual cultural festival 'Riyadh Season', for inaugural ‘Flag Football Classic’ event (Sept. 15th)
Riyadh event for March 2026; to feature Brady’s return alongside Saquon Barkley, Tyreek Hill, Odell Beckham Jr, and Rob Gronkowski [Fanatics]
LOVB signed multiyear media-rights deal with sports media company Versant for USA Network broadcasts (Sept. 16th)
Starting January, USA Network airs weekly LOVB primetime matches on Wednesdays, plus league playoffs [LOVB]
Baller League, the six-a-side soccer competition, to launch US edition in Miami amid wave of hybrid sports-media entertainment ventures (Sept. 16th)
High-profile managers include Ronaldinho, Usain Bolt, Odell Beckham Jr, Druski, Kai Cenat & AMP, and xQc; Speed appointed as president [The Athletic]
Tennis star Coco Gauff partnered with full-service media studio Religion of Sports for range of production and branded content projects (Sept. 12th)
Gauff’s media arm, IROC, with ROS to produce short-form digital series, branded campaigns, and long-form storytelling projects [SBJ]
Full Swing, a PGA Tour-licensed golf simulator provider, renews multiyear partnership with Tiger Woods-backed TGL ahead of second season (Sept. 17th)
Full Swing to continue supplying KIT Launch Monitors and software powering TGL’s virtual holes, yardage books, and interactive greens [SBJ]
Italian club Juventus partners with player shares trading platform Football Exchange for digital fan engagement (Sept. 12th)
Football Exchange to gain stadium visibility across the Allianz Stadium
Platform offers ‘football stock exchange,’ letting fans trade player shares and compete for 750 prizes, blending gaming with sports data [Juventus]
OpenAI delves into MLB with New York Mets fan activation (Sept. 17th)
Citi Field fans received ChatGPT pins with pre-loaded prompts covering team history and players; photo booth activations let fans generate custom AI portraits [SBJ]
IPO’s
Social fitness app Strava reportedly preps for IPO after hitting $2.2B valuation and acquisition activity (Sept. 17th)
Goldman, JPMorgan, and Morgan Stanley were reportedly engaged
Listing could come ‘as early as 2026’; follows recent Runna and The Breakaway acquisitions [Athletech]
Job Board & Opportunities: Week of September 19th
Here are some cool roles we found and personally curated this week - enjoy!