Clay Travis is building a new sports media site that’s expected to launch before kickoff of the new football season, Front Office Sports has learned.
Travis’s syndicated talk radio show, The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show, is expected to play a key role. The show now generates three hours of daily video across digital and YouTube sites. Airing in Rush Limbaugh’s old 12 noon to 3 p.m. ET time slot, Travis and Sexton’s radio show now reaches over 550 stations nationwide.
Additionally, Jonathan Hutton and Chad Withrow’s Hutton & Withrow radio show/podcast is expected to be part of the new outfit. The longtime Nashville duo took their show, Hot Mic with Hutton & Withrow, from OutKick in May. During recent SEC Media Days, they teased a big announcement for a new home in the coming weeks, according to Barrett Media.
“We will be a part of a media platform that will be massive,” said Hutton. “That’s coming with the announcement in a few weeks, or a few days. In the meantime, we’re going to go ahead and produce content and be ready to go.”
No name for the site has been announced, but Travis filed a name and logo for Sport & State with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office in April. The trademark application, which says it’s for a website that has “news, information, and commentary in the fields of sports and politics,” is pending.
The new college football season kicks off with North Carolina-TCU in Dublin, Ireland on Aug. 29, while the NFL starts Sep. 9 with Patriots-Seahawks in Seattle. Travis, a longtime college football commentator and author, has started recruiting for his new startup in recent months. The conservative firebrand is also lining up multiple partners and sponsors, according to sources. Based on Travis’s business history, it’s likely some will hail from the lucrative sports betting space, say sources.
Since founding OutKick in 2011, the 47-year old Travis has also positioned himself as a sports gambling expert. He was one of the co-stars of one of the first mainstream cable TV shows on sports wagering: FS1’s Lock It In, which was later renamed Fox Bet Live. Meanwhile, sports betting companies like FanDuel and DraftKings have tried to morph themselves into media companies over the last decade with decidedly mixed results. It seems natural for Travis to use his contacts in sports betting to find partners and sponsors.
However, Travis’ new company will be separate from OutKick. Travis sold that company to Fox in 2021 for what he has said was $100 million—but stayed to run day-to-day operations and earn a five-year payout he reached in June. At that point, Travis exited OutKick, which became a vertical under the aegis of Fox News Digital. But Travis is still involved with Fox. The former attorney turned political and sports commentator announced a deal on June 6 to serve as a Fox News contributor. Travis continues to host his own eponymous weekly TV show on FS1. He’s also expected to continue his role on Fox Sports’ Big Noon Kickoff college football pregame show.
FOS previously reported Travis’s deals with Fox, iHeartMedia, and OutKick were set to expire after 2025, making him a free agent. In recent months he’s been talking to various media companies and prospective investors.
In June, OutKick compiled 10.6 million unique visitors across desktop and mobile, according to Comscore. Gary Schreier, senior vice president and managing editor, now runs the company. But Travis continues to support his old company, appearing on Dan Dakich’s show earlier this week.
Travis, the author of “Balls: How Trump, Young Men, and Sports Saved America” and “Republicans Buy Sneaker Too: How the Left is Ruining Sports with Politics,” has become a major player in the culture wars roiling sports.
Travis is the most frequent and vociferous critic of Disney’s ESPN. OutKick has also heavily covered Sophie Cunningham’s comments about transgender athletes and Travis offered $10 million to A’ja Wilson’s defending champion Aces if they can beat a boys state high school championship team of his choice.
Travis could not be reached for comment.
