Welcome to this week’s edition of Sports Industry Weekly as we share insights from the most significant business headlines in the sports industry, including:

• 2025 starts a new era for professional women’s sports 🧡

• Anthony Edwards, adidas, and rapper Cam’ron’s short-lived feud over social media 🥩

• Lionel Messi launches his new sports hydration beverage surrounded by brand controversy with Logan Paul’s PRIME 👀

• More than 13,000 NCAA Division 1 football student-athletes received an NIL deal to be included in EA Sports’ College Football 25 video game 🤑 

A NEW ERA OF PROFESSIONAL WOMEN’S SPORTS LEAGUES!

What an exciting week for women’s sports!

Just in the last few days, we learned:

• Unrivaled, a new professional 3×3 women’s basketball league co-founded by Breanna Stewart and Napheesa Collier, announced that the league will launch in Miami in January 2025 and pay all 30 players the highest average salary in women’s sports (including equity).

• Athlete’s Unlimited announced the launch of Athletes Unlimited Softball League (AUSL) starting in 2025. This four-team, 8-to 10-week season will play a traditional format and games will be broadcasted across ESPN’s linear platforms including ESPN, ESPN2 and ESPNU.

• Northern Super League was announced as Canada’s new professional women’s soccer league beginning in Spring 2025. The six founding clubs include teams from Ottawa, Montreal, Halifax, Toronto, Calgary, and Vancouver.

As each company continues to grow, we’ll see an increase in diverse career path opportunities across the leagues, teams, partner brands, and organizations.

• 💰 A report from The Wall Street Journal indicates that the NBA has agreed to a new media rights deal with NBC, ESPN and Amazon for a total haul of $76 BILLION over 11 years. This new agreement, starting in the 2025-26 season, will have a domino effect across the NBA, beginning with an increased salary cap and extending to more career opportunities within the league, teams, and partners.

• 🏈 Patrick Mahomes earned $3.6 million, and his teammate Travis Kelce earned $2.4 million, as they led all NFL players in group licensing and marketing income from the NFL Players Association. Almost every NFL player received at least $32K from the NFLPA from all group licensing deals such as video games, jerseys and trading cards. Players also get paid royalties based on sales of items like jerseys.

• 👀 adidas Basketball shared a new "loss ad" after Anthony Edwards ended his season, which included a subtle diss at Cam'ron - rapper, entrepreneur, and co-host of the popular unfiltered sports show "It Is What It Is." In response, Killa Cam dropped a freestyle dissing adidas referencing how the brand has frequently ended their relationships with athletes and talent like Ye. This conflict was short-lived for both parties, as adidas commented, “It’s all love,” on the most recent "It Is What It Is" post. The AE1 continues to sell out, and Cam’ron continues his show’s daily content, including a $20 million sponsorship from Underdog Fantasy.

• 👟 Zendaya is On’s latest brand partner as the actress and singer will be collaborating on design and creative campaigns for the fast growing sportswear and running company. The Swiss-brand continues their push into apparel and tennis and are hoping Zendaya’s combined 204M+ social followers will help ignite their mission of empowering human spirit through movement.

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• 🧃 Lionel Messi launched his own sports hydration drink this week called Mas+ and Logan Paul supporters are calling out the global soccer superstar for copying PRIME’s branding and aesthetics. PRIME has demonstrated success as a creator-led brand, recently reaching $1.2 billion in annual sales within two years, and now only trails Gatorade in the sports beverage category. Messi is the second most followed professional athlete on Instagram with over 503 million followers and is aiming to become a successful athlete-led brand in the competitive sports CPG industry.

• 🚫 MLB has banned former San Diego Padres and Pittsburgh Pirates infielder Tucupita Marcano after being caught for betting on games involving his own team. Marcano is the second professional athlete to recently receive a lifetime ban after Jontay Porter was banned from the NBA for betting on games he played with the Toronto Raptors. With sports betting legal in over 38 states, it will be a topic to keep an eye on as leagues, betting companies, and U.S. legislation continue to regulate and implement best practices for all parties involved.

• 🎮 EA Sports offered $600 and a copy of their College Football 25 video game to any NCAA Division 1 student-athlete who wanted their name, image, and likeness included. More than 13,000 players opted in, resulting in at least $7.8 million in NIL deals given out. This is the first time since 2013 that the gaming company will release a college football video game and just the beginning of an NIL payment structure that will surely increase each year to football student-athletes

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