Converting Sports Fans into Sports Bettors

One of the more interesting sports business stories from this World Cup is not happening on the pitch, but during the hydration breaks. According to Sports Business Journal, the mandatory breaks could generate hundreds of millions of dollars in additional advertising revenue for Fox throughout the tournament. While much of the conversation has focused on the added commercial inventory, the bigger takeaway is how sports continue to evolve in ways that can benefit everyone involved. Most importantly, these breaks are about the players. As major tournaments are played in increasingly demanding summer conditions, giving athletes additional opportunities to recover and hydrate is a smart adjustment that prioritizes health and performance. For brands and sponsors, hydration breaks create valuable opportunities to connect with fans during moments when attention remains incredibly high. Rather than competing with live action, advertisers can engage audiences during a natural pause in the match. The same can be said for broadcasters and rights holders, as it is just another example of how innovation can create new revenue opportunities while preserving the integrity of the game itself. The most successful sports organizations are often the ones willing to adapt. Whether it is new media formats, enhanced fan experiences, emerging technologies, or adjustments like hydration breaks, evolution is what keeps sports growing both on and off the field. When a change can support player wellbeing, create value for partners, and help grow the business of sports, it is hard not to see it as a win for everyone involved. Do you think hydration breaks are here to stay for the long term? https://lnkd.in/ey6t4pU9

Welcome to Surround Sports Studio. We launched Surround with a simple belief: The future of sports will be shaped not only by what happens on the court, field, or pitch—but by the relationships, partnerships, and ideas that power the industry behind the scenes. We work with athletes, brands, executives, teams, investors, and sports organizations to help them navigate growth, influence, and opportunity in an increasingly global sports ecosystem. Over the coming months, we’ll be publishing research, interviews, market insights, and observations from across the world of sports business. Our focus: • Global sports markets • The athlete economy • Sponsorships and partnerships • Strategic communications • Sports business intelligence If you’re building the future of sport, we’d love to connect. Welcome to Surround.

Thinking of creating a new Sport? It’s no easy feat. The odds are extremely low — probably of success is less than one in several thousand, maybe closer to one in ten thousand or worse. Very few new sports ever break into that top tier of ~130-300 with real global federations, international competitions, and lasting infrastructure. It’s way riskier than launching a typical business — But Billionaires chasing prestige (usually over return) flock to the same handful of marquee sports, yet there are roughly 300 established sports modalities actively operating worldwide. All are less costly to operate. Luckily interest in all Sports will likely grow exponentially as our workload and lives become automated and we fill up our idle time with healthy mainstream & obscure sporting activities. https://lnkd.in/eSHZh7zK

A Daily Fantasy Sports company just dropped a board game that drove 150M impressions across socials… and then got hit with a cease and desist 😬 We thought it was only fitting that this past week’s Industry Spotlight Segment 🔦 goes to: Underdog, the company behind the viral parody board game Unethical Hoops. They launched 100 physical board games inspired by the childhood staple board game Operation, but instead featuring a very similar rendition of a well-known basketball player (who shall not be named). The promotional campaign also included, NBA villain, Dillon Brooks as a star (shoutout to our friends at Spectra, who helped put it together). But more importantly, here’s how it did: 👀 150M impressions across socials 💻 110K site visits ✅ 7K signups for the 100-unit giveaway This is why we thought it was genius: - The game played on an infamous NBA storyline that’s ripe for virality, that was especially relevant during the Western Conference Finals featuring the Spurs Sports & Entertainment vs. Oklahoma City Thunder - Its giveaway drop structure allowed it to bypass legal issues, deeming it a parody rather than a commercial product, despite following a cease-and-desist from SGA’s legal team This got us thinking: Could this set a standard for DFS, betting, and prediction market players to turn to stunt-marketing ‘collectibles’ as an emerging phase of stunt marketing? 🤔 #sportsbusiness #news #sports #tech

Stop being a guest on someone else's feed. Become the landlord of your own brand. Social media platforms are rented land. You don't own the algorithm, you don't own the feed, and you certainly don't own the access to your audience. You’re just a guest. Vanity metrics like likes and shares are fine for the ego. But infrastructure is what builds a legacy. In the eSports and sports world, performance is everything. Your digital presence shouldn't be any different. You need a home base that stays put even when the platform's rules change. Think of Fanz.gg as your Digital HQ. It’s where you consolidate your power. One link to rule them all: your profiles, your merch, your sponsors, and your community. Stop playing by someone else's rules. Build your own stadium. Set up your professional link hub at Fanz.gg.

We rarely remember the changes that made sports better. We only argue about the next one. The debate around the World Cup hydration breaks reminded me of that. My first reaction was exactly the same. Here we go... another commercial interruption. The commercial side probably played a role. I'd be surprised if it hadn't. But if we stop at "FIFA just wants more money," I think we miss the bigger shift. People think hydration breaks are changing fútbol. I think they're revealing how the sport has already changed. Fútbol doesn't just compete with other sports anymore. It competes for attention. Netflix. YouTube. TikTok. Gaming. The world around the sport has changed faster than the sport itself, and every industry adapts when its audience changes. I don't see why sports should be any different. Maybe we're looking at the wrong question. One pattern I've seen repeatedly across organizations is that people often confuse protecting what they love with protecting what they're used to. They're not the same thing. Protecting the essence of fútbol doesn't necessarily mean protecting every tradition around it. Every generation believes the version of fútbol they grew up with is the version that should never change. VAR was supposed to ruin fútbol. Five substitutions were going to change the game forever. Baseball's pitch clock was called the end of tradition. I wasn't a fan of some of those changes either. Today, they just feel like part of the game. Will I miss the uninterrupted flow of the game? Absolutely. That's part of what makes fútbol beautiful. But I've also started to appreciate what those three minutes add instead of focusing only on what they interrupt: another chance for great coaches to influence the game, a moment to reset, and sometimes even more anticipation before play resumes. To me, adaptation isn't the opposite of protecting what we love. Sometimes it's the only way to protect it. The goal shouldn't be to freeze fútbol in time. It should be to preserve what makes it great while allowing everything around it to evolve.

Back in May of this year, Genius Sports closed its $1.2 billion acquisition of Legend, the digital sports and gaming media network behind Covers.com and Casino.org. On the surface it looks like a betting data company buying a media business. But what Genius actually acquired is 118 million fans who already know what they want to do with sports information. For years, Genius has been the infrastructure layer. The pipes that carry official data to sportsbooks, broadcasters, and advertisers. That's a strong business. But pipes don't own the relationship with the fan. Legend does. And now Genius can connect the moment a game swings, a comeback happens, a red card, a walk-off etc, directly to an audience that's already primed to act on it. They're calling it the Moment Engine. The concept is simple: official data tells you what happened, fan identity tells you who cares, and media inventory is where you reach them. The market wasn't immediately convinced, the share price dropped 27% after the announcement. But the strategic logic is hard to argue with. Sports data companies that sit purely in the infrastructure layer are increasingly commoditised. The ones that own the fan relationship have pricing power. Genius is betting that connecting those two things is worth a billion dollars. The crazy thing is, it probably is 👀

The campaigns breaking through in sports don't really feel like sports marketing anymore. They feel like they're built for how people actually spend their time. Look at where the attention is going: Athletes launching brands. Teams collaborating with artists. Creators becoming as influential as traditional media. Fans showing up for experiences that have little to do with the final score. The most successful organizations aren't just competing against other teams for attention. They're competing against music, fashion, entertainment, gaming, and every other thing fighting for a share of someone's time. Organizations that figure that out won't just win games. They'll win attention, relevance, and a place in people's lives far beyond the final score. #Sportsbiz #Marketing #SportsOnLinkedIn

Sports media buyers are missing the signals hiding in plain sight at live events. Watched a BBL game last season. Half the crowd had second screens open during timeouts. Not checking socials. Actively engaging with team apps, merchandise pages, membership upgrades. The data trail from live events to purchase intent is getting shorter: • App downloads surge during game breaks • Merchandise page visits jump within a day of attendance • Season ticket inquiries follow win streaks within days • Corporate hospitality searches peak early in the week after big games For ANZ sports properties, this means rethinking when you pitch sponsors. Don't wait for the quarterly brand health study. Track the digital behaviour immediately after marquee games. Your prospects are showing buying intent in real-time. The question is whether you're watching the right metrics to catch them.

Well this definitely wasn't on my 2026 bingo card... When Michael Sullivan first started talking to me about youth sports injuries, I'll be honest, I didn't fully appreciate the scale of the problem. Then I thought about my own kids. Like so many parents, I want them to play every sport they can. I want them to compete, fall in love with the game, build confidence, and create memories that last a lifetime. What I don't want is for an avoidable injury to change that journey. As we spent more time together, Michael introduced me to an incredible opportunity, a portfolio of patents, intellectual property, and surface EMG technology with the potential to help us better understand how young athletes move, train, and recover. It wasn't just a technology acquisition. It was a chance to build something that could genuinely make a difference. At Twisted, we've always believed our mission extends beyond creating entertainment. Entertainment captures attention. Community creates participation. Participation drives innovation. Innovation creates impact. Today, we're proud to introduce Athleosthe foundation of our commerce company and the first step toward protecting the next generation of athletes. This one feels different. As a founder. As a father. And as someone who believes the future of sports should be measured not only by the champions we create, but by the young athletes we help protect. Welcome to the family, Athleos.