In early 2024, when Unrivaled cofounder and president Alex Bazzell pitched a new women’s professional 3-on-3 basketball league, David Levy knew fairly quickly he wanted to invest.
Levy, the former Turner president and current CEO of Horizon Sports & Experiences, tells Front Office Sports that investing in women’s sports was a philosophy of his firm, in part because of the massive growth opportunity in the space.
Unsurprisingly, one major component of the decision to go in was the viewership and attendance figures in women’s sports, which Levy describes as experiencing “hockey-stick-shaped” growth. But he says there were several other factors that made Unrivaled a “no-brainer” investment.
One was the chance to open women’s sports to more sponsorships. Levy says there are tons of brands that have yet to consider sponsoring sports. But Unrivaled, given it has an established base of stars from the WNBA, can leverage its players to entice new partners. He cites the beauty space as one particular market opportunity. Unrivaled secured Sephora to sponsor its “glam room” in Miami.
“I noticed early on that the Maybellines, CoverGirl, the L’oreals—you didn’t see them sponsoring sports. What you saw them sponsoring is the Oscars, the Emmys, the Grammys, and being on red carpets. I think as you start seeing those brands shift out of what you would say ‘normal’ sponsorships … [you’ll start] to see a shift in dollars,” Levy says.
He also cites other metrics outside of viewership numbers, including triple-digit growth in sports betting for the WNBA, an indicator of fan engagement. “We saw the betting increase, audience, viewership, investments, and franchise values. All of those triggers. As an investor, you say, ‘Wait a minute. I love the business model.’”
Figures are starting to come in to gauge the league’s initial success. The first viewership returns saw Unrivaled averaged slightly more than 300,000 viewers for its doubleheader last Friday on TNT—a modest, but underwhelming, start for a league. The WNBA averaged 1.19 million viewers on ESPN last season and 505,000 viewers the year before across ABC, ESPN, and CBS.
The WNBA has been around for nearly 30 years and has aired mostly on ESPN throughout its tenure, so it has established a fan base that watches games on the network. Ion, the newest partner of the WNBA, drew about 288,000 viewers in 2023 but was up to about 670,000 viewers per game last year.
“We don’t expect to go get the same numbers the WNBA does,” Bazzell told FOS the week before the first game.
Caitlin Clark, the WNBA’s and NCAA’s biggest viewership driver last year, is an obvious missing piece that Unrivaled was unable to sign this year despite a “Lionel Messi–like” offer. But Levy says the offer is on the table for Clark to join in the future, especially because Unrivaled has intentions of continuing to grow, including reportedly branching out and playing games in cities other than Miami in the coming years.
