Forwarded this newsletter by someone in your network and want to receive it yourself? Subscribe here 

Got any feedback for me? Respond to this email or on social media (LinkedIn, Twitter).

Good Thursday Morning. Here’s the rundown of this week’s Sports Business Playbook:

• 📰 This Week’s Topic: The NWSL and ATP have both recently announced partnerships with Overtime, the social-first sports media platform aimed at Gen Z and Alpha. We look at what’s driving these partnerships (and for any Severance ball knowers out there, you hopefully also picked up the reference in the title)

• 🍸️ Impress Your Friends at Cocktail Party: Want to show off your sports knowledge in a public setting but don’t have time to read the deep dive? Hit the “Impress Your Friends at Cocktail Party” section at the bottom for a CliffsNotes of this week’s topic

• 🤯 “Whoa of the Week”: The NHL has another special event hit

• 💪 Weekly Reminders that Sports are Awesome: Two fun occurrences with golf

Hey team,

Over the past two weeks, two professional leagues — the National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) and Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) — have announced content partnerships with Overtime, the next-gen sports media company.

The partnerships come as both leagues are attempting to define (or in ATP’s case, revamp) their brands for the younger generations, and one prong of the strategy is tapping into Overtime’s 100 million+ social media followers and three billion views per month.

More broadly, the deals highlight the existential question that keeps all sports executives up at night — how do we reach Gen Z, Gen Alpha, and the phone-first consumers?

In this week’s SBP, we are looking at two leagues trying to fortify their youth fanbase while avoiding the “how do you do, fellow kids?” trap. You’ll learn:

• Why this youth challenge is top of mind for all sports leagues

• How Overtime is growing its footprint in traditional sports

• What both leagues hope to accomplish with the partnership

Let’s go to OT!

Deal Overviews

The partnerships, announced within about a week of each other, look quite similar to each other and to recent tie-ups between Overtime and the NFL as well as NBC for the Olympics.

For the NWSL — the first deal Overtime has done with a pro women’s league — Overtime will cover the full regular season and playoffs, with a focus on game highlights, behind-the-scenes access to players, and more.

For the ATP, Overtime will produce content at various events around the world, including throughout the year including ATP Masters 1000 tournaments, the Nitto ATP Finals and the Next Gen ATP Finals in Saudi Arabia. The goal is to create short-form content in addition to highlights that will be shared across both Overtime’s socials as well as ATP Tour, tournament and player platforms.

The ATP announcement also teased potential longer form content and other partnership opportunities — i.e., licensing or merchandise — and it’s likely the NWSL would be looking at similar concepts.

As for why this is such a big focus for the two leagues (and all sports properties for that matter), look no further than Gen Z’s consumption patterns.

Youth Movement

There is no way around it — younger generations are consuming content differently.

There are countless stats and studies on this topic, but I’ll choose three indicative ones to showcase the broader challenge.

Affinity

Per a 2021 study, only 23% of Generation Z describe themselves as passionate sports fans. This is much lower than lower generations — 42% of millennials, 33% of Generation X and 31% of baby boomers.

An additional concern is 27% of Gen Z describing themselves as “anti-sports,” which is much higher than other generations that score in the single digits

Consumption

Gen Z spends on average 7+ hours per day in front of screens, but their consumption of sports is less traditional. Data from the Nielsen Fan Insights study suggests those aged 16-24 prefer shorter, “snackable” content in general, and when it comes to sports, are less interested in watching entire games.

This trend is reinforced by recent data released YouTube, the top social media choice among this group. The platform surpassed over 1 billion hours consumed daily on TV in 2024, exceeding mobile consumption for the first time in the U.S.

According to the company’s end of year recap, watch time of sports content on TV grew 30+% year over year. Much of it was highlights, interviews, and video podcasts.

Fandom

According to Morning Consult, 38% of Gen Z fans say they don’t have a favorite sports team (25% for all U.S. adults).

On the flip side, an Oliver Wyman study found 63% of Gen Z say content from their favorite athletes increases engagement (vs. 42% in older generations). Meaning, they seek authentic connection and reward those who do engage with them.

Why It Matters

Given you’re all sports media experts due to reading SBP the past few years, you’re probably recognizing that these data trends pose an existential threat to one of the biggest revenue streams and basis for much of the accelerated growth in franchise values the last few decades — traditional media rights.

If a large crop of consumers that are entering early adulthood and beginning to spend discretionary income do not wish to engage with the legacy sports apparatus, media companies will be less willing to pony up billions of dollars to the leagues for media rights, which will then put downward pressure on revenues and valuations.

Once again:

With this threat comes opportunity, though.

Younger generations are more plugged in than ever before and can be reached, but it has to be authentic and meet them where they are.

No media company checks both of those boxes better right now than Overtime.

The Overtime Advantage

Overtime was founded in 2016 by a middle-aged tech and media veteran, Dan Porter, and a…you guessed it — Gen Z sports fan, Zack Weiner — to provide sports content for younger fans, by younger fans.

Rather than competing in the traditional sports realm, much of the content on the platform’s myriad social channels covered young athletes and was produced/discussed by young athletes and fans. This concept was rolled out right as social media and user-generated content (UGC) began to become mainstays in younger millennials and Gen Z’s media diet.

In the near decade since, the company has exploded, raising over $250 million and pushing its valuation close to $1 billion.

In addition to its social media channels, Overtime has branched into amateur leagues — OTE and Overtime Select in basketball, OT7 in football, and OTX in boxing, produces over 150 pieces of original sports content weekly, and is actively broadening its business model past just advertising and merchandise to also include licensing and media rights.

The company’s reach is enticing to traditional properties, but where they get truly excited is who doing the consuming — 81% of Overtime’s audience is under the age of 35.

What the NWSL and ATP are Thinking

While in different stages of maturity, both the NWSL and ATP are in need of carving out a foothold with the younger generations, set against the backdrop of an increasingly fragmented, competitive entertainment market.

Both leagues benefit from their sports having large, global fanbases. The ATP estimates there are over 1 billion global tennis fans, and FIFA believes there are 3-4x that for soccer.

The question becomes, then, how to reach these fans and engage new ones.

Both leagues have experimented with longer form, behind-the-scenes content to showcase their players off the pitch/court, with varying degrees of success.

The NWSL has had docuseries air on social media, and a new one covering the 2024 NWSL playoffs is coming to Prime Video soon. Tennis had Break Point, it’s version of Drive to Survive, for two seasons on Netflix before it was recently canceled.

Working with Overtime brings a new twist on the same BTS idea.

Tapping into a group of creators with a powerful megaphone behind them positions the leagues well to reach these coveted younger fans.

Plus, Overtime already has existing platforms in both sports that it can leverage. Its soccer platform, Overtime FC, has 5 million followers across platforms, and the company also recently launched a tennis brand in January.

Lastly, this partnership also incentivizes the players to lean in more. Both leagues have marketable young stars, including some who are Gen Z, that they are trying to position as the new faces of the sport as the old guard — i.e., Alex Morgan, Megan Rapinoe for soccer; Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic, and Roger Federer for tennis — begin to retire.

Bringing a familiar, credible brand on board will likely lead to better content from the players, which creates the engagement flywheel both the leagues and Overtime want.

As Overtime President Farzeen Ghorashy noted in SBJ about the ATP deal (which applies to both):

🍸️ Impress Your Friends at a Cocktail Party

Want to show off your sports knowledge in a public setting but don’t have time to read the deep dive? This section is the CliffsNotes of this week’s topic

• Opener: Over the past two weeks, two professional leagues — the National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) and Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) — have announced content partnerships with Overtime, the next-gen sports media company. The partnerships come as both leagues are attempting to define (or in ATP’s case, revamp) their brands for the younger generations, and one prong of the strategy is tapping into Overtime’s 100 million+ social media followers and three billion views per month. More broadly, though, the deals highlight the existential question that keeps all sports executives up at night — how do we reach Gen Z, Gen Alpha, and the phone-first consumers?

• Shot: There are three key areas to see how younger generations are consuming sports differently:

  • Affinity: Only 23% of Generation Z describe themselves as passionate sports fans. This is much lower than lower generations — 42% of millennials, 33% of Generation X and 31% of baby boomers. An additional concern is 27% of Gen Z describing themselves as “anti-sports,” which is much higher than other generations that score in the single digits

  • Consumption — Gen Z spends on average 7+ hours per day in front of screens, but their consumption of sports is less traditional. Data from the Nielsen Fan Insights study suggests those aged 16-24 prefer shorter, “snackable” content in general, and when it comes to sports, are less interested in watching entire games.

  • Fandom: While 38% of Gen Z fans say they don’t have a favorite sports team, an Oliver Wyman study found 63% of Gen Z say content from their favorite athletes increases engagement (vs. 42% in older generations). Meaning, they seek authentic connection and reward those who do engage with them.

• Shot: These trends are troubling to sports because it poses a threat to traditional sports media rights, which is a huge source of income and much of the reason for the rapid franchise valuation growth the last several years

• Shot: Overtime provides a great outlet for leagues looking to address this problem. In addition to its social media channels that have over 100 million followers and do 3 billion views monthly, Overtime has branched into amateur leagues — OTE and Overtime Select in basketball, OT7 in football, and OTX in boxing, produces over 150 pieces of original sports content weekly, and is actively broadening its business model past just advertising and merchandise to also include licensing and media rights. The company’s reach is enticing to traditional properties, but where they get truly excited is who doing the consuming — 81% of Overtime’s audience is under the age of 35.

• Chaser: While in different stages of maturity, both the NWSL and ATP are in need of carving out a foothold with the younger generations, set against the backdrop of an increasingly fragmented, competitive entertainment market. Overtime already has existing platforms in both sports that it can leverage. Its soccer platform, Overtime FC, has 5 million followers across platforms, and the company also recently launched a tennis brand in January. Lastly, this partnership also incentivizes the players to lean in more. Both leagues have marketable young stars, including some who are Gen Z, that they are trying to position as the new faces of the sport as the old guard — i.e., Alex Morgan, Megan Rapinoe for soccer; Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic, and Roger Federer for tennis — begin to retire.

🤯 “Whoa” of the Week

Insane, mind-blowing things constantly happen in the sports business world. Here was my favorite of the past week.

1. The NHL Winter Classic is always…well, a classic

💪 Weekly Reminder that Sports are Awesome

This newsletter is, of course, mostly centered on the business side of sports and the things that happen off the field. That being said, it’s important to remember why we fell in love with sports in the first place, though.

This section is meant to highlight the amazing things that happened in sports this week that serve as that reminder.

1. This kid winning a new car via a full-court putt after never playing golf in his life summarizes the game quite well.

2. Speaking of golf, Josh Allen on his bachelor party at TGL — one of us. one of us

Thanks for reading! Let me know what feedback you have.

Also, if you enjoyed this breakdown, please consider sharing it with your friends and network by clicking the social media icons at the top of the newsletter.

Until next time, sports fans!

-Alex