Sport & Story Daily October 26, 2023

Stay Ahead of the Game

October 26, 2023

Good morning! The NHRA is cooking up a new deal, locking in title sponsorship for its main series as a recent partner accelerates its ties with the sport…

Mission Foods enters multiyear deal as title sponsor of NHRA’s premier series
The NHRA named Mission Foods as the title sponsor of the NHRA’s premier professional series, which will be known as the NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series beginning with the 2024 season. As part of the title series partnership, Mission Foods will also be fully integrated at all NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series events and will have a strong presence on the midway, on social media and digitally, and as part of every NHRA on FOX broadcast. Read more here.

Coca-Cola becomes UEFA EURO 2024 sponsor
Coca-Cola signed on as an official global sponsor of UEFA EURO 2024, taking place in Germany next summer from June 14 – July 14, serving as the official non-alcoholic beverage sponsor of the tournament. The sponsorship deal includes exclusive pouring rights at the 10 host stadiums and the fan zones and fan villages during the tournament, as well as LED pitch-boarding exposure and digital rights. Read more here.

United States Military Academy at West Point to join American Athletic Conference
American Athletic Conference Commissioner Mike Aresco revealed the approval of the Army West Point Athletic Association Inc.'s application for membership in the conference. The addition of Army to The American gives the conference an institutional presence in five of the top 10, eight of the top 25 and 13 of the top 51 Nielsen media markets. Meanwhile, the annual Army-Navy game will not be counted as a conference game as the rights remain with both institutions. Read more here.

Nearly nine million tune in for Diamondbacks’ Game 7 win
The second Game 7 of baseball’s League Championship Series was a far stronger draw than the first as Arizona’s victory in the NLCS averaged a combined 8.99 million viewers across TBS (8.89M) and truTV (103K), according to Nielsen, and hit 9.09 million including Spanish-language coverage on MLB Network. According to SMW, the full, seven-game Diamondbacks/Phillies series averaged 5.34 million viewers across TBS and truTV, up 15% from last year’s five-game Phillies-Padres series on Fox Sports. Read more here.

NHL Frozen Frenzy debuts hot
ESPN’s presentation of the first-ever Frozen Frenzy tripleheader paid off, as the network averaged 432K total viewers, for a rise of 11% over last season’s NHL on ESPN coverage. As part of the programming, the Toronto/Washington matchup landed as the most-watched regular season game featuring a Canadian team since 2017. Meanwhile, ESPN2’s whip-around show averaged 196K total viewers. Read more here.

Your Vision Insights: Las Vegas Activation Efficiency – Which fan bases provide maximized and unduplicated reach?

Unduplicated reach and sponsorship spend efficiency is a major goal for advertisers and sponsors across sports. We went ahead and dove into the Las Vegas market as a case study to see which major league fan bases will provide marketers with the largest, unduplicated reach.

The deltas between these fanbase tandems are razor thin…we see NFL as the pillar for reach within the market, but it’s the 2nd member of each tandem that is more interesting. After NHL and MLB fans, we see UFC fans storming into 3rd place with NASCAR and F1 fans rounding out the top 5.

IOC begins bid to monetize centralized Olympic Qualifiers media rights
Media rights to Olympic qualifying events are being centralized for the first time and are set to be packaged together in future Olympic Games rights deals as the International Olympic Committee seeks to improve engagement in between Games. The Olympic Qualifier Series was announced earlier in October, with BMX freestyle, breaking, skateboarding, and sport climbing serving as the first sports to feature in the new concept. The qualifiers will take place in Shanghai on May 16-19 and in Budapest on June 20-23.
sportbusiness.com

Study: 83% of brands plan to increase media investment into women’s sports in 2024
New data from the Sports Innovation Lab (SIL) has found that 83% of brands plan to increase their media investment in women’s sports next year.SIL’s third annual ‘The Fan Project’ report found that 68 per cent of brands said they planned to spend between one to ten per cent more on women’s sports. In addition, it stated that fans of women’s sports were 20% more likely than fans of men’s sports to spend on sports streaming platforms.
sportspromedia.com

Grant Thornton Invitational drawing big name sponsors ahead of inaugural tournament
The newly-formed Grant Thornton Invitational is just over a month away from teeing off in Naples, Fla., and major brands have lined up to sponsor the big-name event.
sportsbusinessjournal.com

BetMGM expands partnership with Sportradar for NBA optical tracking data
BetMGM has signed a new deal with Sportradar to expand its partnership with the sports technology company. As part of the expanded deal, Sportradar will supply BetMGM with its products that use official National Basketball Association (NBA) optical tracking data. This will be used by BetMGM to support its prop markets, in-play betting and same-game parlay options.
gamblinginsider.com

Colin Cowherd’s The Volume being eyed by potential investors
Earlier this year, Cowherd claimed he was keenly aware of what the company’s valuation was despite his lack of interest in spinning off the company. Colin Cowherd’s sports media venture — The Volume — has grown to be a successful content farm, and now three separate companies are considering placing bids to purchase a stake in the company or completely outright buy the digital outlet.
barrettsportsmedia.com

Kitman Labs launches 'The Football Intelligence Platform' for Premier League Academies
Kitman Labs announced a new partnership with the Premier League. The partnership will provide all Premier League club academies with a centralized, fully integrated ‘Football Intelligence Platform’ designed to aggregate and mobilize player and staff data across coaching, medical, sports science, operations, player care and education.
endurancesportswire.com

Study: Women’s sports now getting 15% of US sports media coverage
Women’s sports currently accounts for 15 per cent of sports media coverage in the US, according to a study conducted by agency giant Wasserman’s The Collective division. According to the report, which was produced in partnership with ESPN Research, the increase in women’s sports content has been driven by the growth of streaming platforms and social media. Indeed, coverage of women’s sports on streaming services was found to have increased by an average of 4,000 hours per year between 2018 and 2022.
sportspromedia.com

ESPN becomes most-followed brand on TikTok
ESPN has officially secured its position as the most-followed brand on TikTok, not just in sports, but across any genre or brand, amassing an impressive 41 million followers. Omar Raja, ESPN Talent & Social Strategist, said, "It’s exciting to see how we've been able to successfully connect with the next generation of sports fans. This milestone represents a longstanding goal we set four years ago, and we’re only going up from here."
espnpressroom.com

National Lacrosse League, TSN set ‘NLL Game of the Week’
The National Lacrosse League and TSN announced the schedule of “NLL Game of the Week on TSN” broadcasts on TSN for the upcoming 2023-24 NLL regular season. The lineup of 20 Game of the Week broadcasts – including at least one at each of the NLL’s five Canada-based franchises – begins with NLL Faceoff Weekend on December 1, featuring the Saskatchewan Rush at Halifax Thunderbirds (7 p.m. ET / 8 p.m. AT) followed by Panther City Lacrosse Club at Vancouver Warriors (10 p.m. ET / 7 p.m. PT).
nll.com

GAME+ partners with The Hockey News for The Hockey News Pre-Game Show
Game+- a subsidiary of Anthem Sports & Entertainment, Inc. - joins forces with the Canadian-based hockey magazine The Hockey News, launching the all-new original NHL analysis series The Hockey News Pre-Game Show on Saturday at 6 p.m. ET/3 p.m. PT. The Hockey News Editor-in-Chief Ryan Kennedy and Director of Digital Media Michael Traikos break down the night’s exciting NHL slate for fans across the United States and Canada.
gameplusnetwork.com

Myles Garrett purchases minority ownership stake in the Cavs
Myles Garrett is already a massive part of the Cleveland Browns. Now, he has a role in a second different Cleveland pro sports franchise. Garrett has purchased a minority stake in the Cavaliers, the team announced in a statement on Wednesday, and he will serve as a brand ambassador for the team.
cleveland.com

Majority of NHL teams support decentralization of draft
The majority of NHL teams support the decentralization of the draft, the league said in a memo released to clubs Wednesday, per league sources. The memo said it is not yet clear if any potential changes will be made for the June 2024 draft and mentioned that there are a number of logistical issues still to be considered as the NHL is looking at a decentralized draft similar to how the NFL and NBA conduct business — with team personnel remaining in their home markets while the prospects gather in one location.
theathletic.com

Wisconsin Republicans float changes to win approval for funding Milwaukee Brewers stadium repairs
Wisconsin Republicans floated changes Wednesday to a funding proposal for Milwaukee Brewers stadium repairs including a new tax on non-Brewers events, seeking to win over skeptics of the current plan intended to keep the team at American Family Field until at least 2050. While the measure cleared the Assembly with bipartisan support last week, it does not have a majority of Republican support yet in the Senate.
apnews.com

The post-RSN future begins: NBA’s Jazz unveils hybrid local tv model
On Wednesday, the Utah franchise tipped off a 2023-24 season with a multifaceted distribution plan that will be closely observed by media watchers. Tthe Jazz announced that they increased their total local TV audience reach by nearly fivefold by bolting shuttering regional sports channel AT&T SportsNet Rocky Mountain and returning to their ancestral broadcast TV home, KJZZ-TV, now owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group.
nexttv.com

YES Network adds Nets legend to the broadcast booth
Nets fans got a big early Christmas present. Nets legend Vince Carter, the franchise’s second-leading scorer, is joining YES Network and will call some of Brooklyn’s games this season, according to the NY Post’s Andrew Marchand. Vince Carter will serve as a part-time analyst for the platform this year.
nothinbutnets.com

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Sport & Story Daily and Sports & Story College are the sport industry’s daily resource for business news. In addition to serving up exclusive trends, Q&As, and columns, the newsletter connects reads to top platforms and stories from across the sports landscape.

Chris Pursell is the founder of staple industry events such as the Cynopsis Sports Business Awards, the Esports Business Summit, the CMO Exchange, the Tempest Awards, and the Esports Newfronts. He was previously a reporter and editor for publications such as Variety and The Los Angeles Times and launched leading business publications for Cynopsis and PromaxBDA.

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