Data and Insights

Something special is happening in sports -- a quiet but powerful evolution. For decades, we’ve celebrated performance metrics: exit velocity, spin rates, wins above replacement. But the future of sport isn’t just about sharpening data, it’s about strengthening people.

The first Major League Soccer gameday jersey deals were announced late in 2006 and corporate names began appearing on team jerseys in the 2007 season. The early sponsor roster was diverse, ranging from the first signing - Real Salt Lake’s deal with juicemaker XanGo - to regional plays such as Glidde...

The Pacers have expanded a community partnership with Indianapolis-based Lucas Oil with a multiyear jersey patch deal that debuts at this week’s NBA 2K26 Summer League in Las Vegas. The deal was negotiated in-house.

ESPN got off to a hot start on Monday with Wimbledon, averaging 539,000 viewers from 6am-4pm ET. That marks the network’s best Day 1 on record for Wimbledon, and an increase of 37% from Day 1 last year.

CBS on Sunday drew the best Travelers Championship final round since 2021 (3.5 million viewers), as Keegan Bradley held off Russell Henley and Tommy Fleetwood by a stroke (Rory McIlroy, Justin Thomas and Scottie Scheffler also finished in the top 10 to help with star power). Saturday’s 2.4 million w...

ABC drew 983,000 viewers for the UFL Championship on Saturday in primetime (D.C. Defenders vs. Michigan Panthers), down 38% from just under 1.6 million on Fox last year for Birmingham Stallions-San Antonio Brahmas in a late Sunday afternoon window. In 2023, NBC drew 1.2 million viewers for the USFL ...

Forty-three percent of fans who support women’s sports are more inclined to buy a brand if it has a partnership with a female athlete, according to Parity’s “U.S. Women’s Sports 2025: Give The Fans What They Want” study. Fans who say they watch women’s sports frequently are 67% more likely to choose...

The growth of the European soccer industry “continues to show little sign of slowing” after collective revenues for the 2023-24 season climbed to a record $43.6B, according to Philip Buckingham of THE ATHLETIC. Deloitte’s 34th Annual Review of Football Finance reported an 8% increase in turnover acr...

Sovereignty’s rematch against Journalism helped drive a 5% viewership increase for the Belmont Stakes on Saturday afternoon. Fox and FS1 combined for 3.83 million viewers for the race segment, which is the best of Fox’s three Belmont races since acquiring rights prior to the 2023 event. The race las...

NBA teams earned a total of $1.62B in sponsorship revenue this season, “an increase of 8% since last year” and 91% from the $850M earned five years ago, according to Lillian Rizzo of CNBC.com. The figures come from third-party data firm SponsorUnited. While the “volume of deals was up just 2.5% sinc...

Nielsen has “struck a new multiyear deal with the WNBA alongside the NBA to measure its television viewership across traditional TV and streaming,” according to a source cited by Sara Fischer of AXIOS. It is the “largest commercial measurement deal that Nielsen has ever struck with a women’s sports ...

In Sports Business Journal’s third year of its Best Sports Business Cities franchise, we rank the 25 U.S. markets with the strongest soccer economies by factoring in key drivers such as market-specific fan avidity, venue development and commitments from investors and brands (read more about our meth...

Fox and FS1 averaged 3.36 million viewers for NASCAR Cup Series coverage this season (12 races), flat compared to the 2024 package (under a previous rights deal with 16 races). Fox Sports did see a 7% uptick among adults 18-49. FS1 will carry the All-Star events this weekend before Prime Video takes...

The Univ. of Tennessee has “cultivated a well-earned identity as the ‘everything school’ in athletics because it’s won at a high level in every sport in recent years” but that perception is “about to become more difficult to uphold” in the revenue sharing era, according to Adam Sparks of the KNOXVIL...

Darshan Kaler, an engineer to the core, is always ready for the next problem to solve. The CEO and co-founder of Tradable Bits often looks to a fan experience he wants to help create in the future: one filled with surprise-and-delight moments for fans that also allows live-event operators to interac...

The NCAA has picked Genius Sports as its exclusive distributor of official data for NCAA post-season tournaments. It’s the first time the collegiate governing body will allow its data from championships like March Madness to be available to licensed sportsbooks.

Sports talk station WBZ-FM again topped the Nielsen Audio rankings in Boston for the winter period, and all of its daily programs finished “first or tied for first in their time slots,” according to Chad Finn of the BOSTON GLOBE. In the targeted men 25-54 demographic in the period from Jan. 9-April ...

Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders are among the biggest consumers of live sports, according to the latest Breakthrough ROI report from Nielsen. The study found AANHPI audiences spend 15% more viewing time than the general public in live sports, and are 33% more likely to subscr...

A new survey revealed that more than 1 in 4 residents of L.A., or about 27%, said that they “were not confident the city would meet its deadlines for improving public transit infrastructure” ahead of the 2028 Olympics, according to Steve Scauzillo of the L.A. DAILY NEWS. The survey was conducted by ...

A combination of websites and apps for all 32 NFL teams “collected detailed data from consumers without directly informing them that their data could be used for targeted advertising” or “providing them with clear ways to opt out,” according to Patrick Coffee of the WALL STREET JOURNAL. A report fro...