Cutting edge
From The GIST Sports Biz (hi@thegistsports.com)
Hey there!
It’s been a solid season so far for AUSL, Athletes Unlimited’s traditional softball league that launched this month. Social media metrics tell us the new league is a major hit, with AUSL seeing 41M impressions, 2M engagements, and 151K new followers — all between June 6th and June 10th. Stepping up to the plate.
- We’ll be out on Friday for a long weekend in honor of Juneteenth, but we’ll catch you back bright and early next week as we round out June.
Media
🚦 Red light, greenlight
The GIST: As interest in women’s sports grows, so does the enthusiasm for content surrounding the women’s game. After seeing Netflix benefit from cult faves Drive to Survive and Full Swing, documentaries that converted new fans to F1 and golf, fellow streamers are considering how to leverage storytelling to win over young, more casual sports fans.
- Streamer Tubi is getting in on this game with the recent acquisition of The Second Set, a new documentary focused on tennis star Naomi Osaka’s return to the sport following the birth of her child. Love that for her.
The latest: The doc will be produced by Osaka’s apparel sponsor, Nike, and Hana Kuma, the production company she founded in partnership with LeBron James’ The SpringHill Company. Thanks to her connections with James, this particular deal was brokered between Tubi and James’ media company Uninterrupted.
The trend: However, Tubi isn’t the only game in town, and tennis isn’t the only sport. Reese Witherspoon’s Hello Sunshine recently inked a deal for a docuseries focused on rugby sensation Ilona Maher and earlier this week, The Next Is Now women’s sports anthology series provided updates at Cannes Lions, including presenting sponsors and a September release date.
The numbers: Narrative storytelling has proven to be a compelling access point for women. The F1 world has credited Drive To Survive’s 40% women viewership for an uptick in women fans, while 63% of Full Swing viewers tuned into PGA Tour coverage in the two months following the show’s 2023 debut.
- This level of engagement with storytelling content is further supported by our data findings with Barbarian: Nearly 50% of survey respondents said creative storytelling is essential, while 79% of women fans considered game highlights and personal stories to be equal in value.
Zooming out: It makes sense that sports content that goes beyond the game itself is doing well — younger generations enjoy sports through social media, livestreaming, and pop culture. This has culminated in Osaka’s tennis doc being produced by, picked up by, and promoted by powerhouses in media and entertainment, which makes greenlighting this doc front page news.
- Fans in sports like women’s golf have explicitly asked for more produced content, and in women’s soccer, nearly a third of fans in a recent survey prefer interviews and documentary content to live games and highlights. It’s their time to shine.
Together With Chase
⛳ Find sweet relief and support women’s sports at the Chase Clubhouse
Everything’s bigger in Texas, including the prize money: We’re talking $10.4M big — that’s the purse at this weekend’s KPMG Women’s PGA Championship, the third LPGA Tour major of the year.
Chase, an Official Partner of the KPMG Women's PGA Championship, is excited to offer cardholders exclusive benefits in the Chase Clubhouse, including:
🌬️ Air conditioning — enough said.
🥵 Fans, sunscreen, and soft drinks to help beat the heat.
🧢 And a complimentary Round21 x Chase hat. Trés chic.
Chase is proud to support women’s golf and Round21, a female-founded lifestyle brand that reimagines sports merch as a canvas for self-expression. Learn more about how Chase is powering women’s sports today.
Deposit and credit card products provided by JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A. Member FDIC📈 Caitlin Clark’s return to the court results in historic viewership
Last Saturday’s game between the NY Liberty and Indiana Fever — Clark’s first since returning from a quad injury — drew 2.2M average viewers and peaked at 2.8M, making it ESPN’s third most-watched W game on ABC, with total viewership across ESPN networks up 14% from last season.
- This is welcome news following reports that the numbers for nationally broadcast Fever games during Clark’s three-week absence dipped 53% while overall WNBA viewership across national platforms dropped 55%.
📱 Streaming viewership surpasses cable and broadcast viewership for the first time ever
Yesterday, Nielsen confirmed that streaming comprised 44.8% of all TV viewership in May 2025, while cable (24.1%) and broadcast (20.1%) neared all-time lows. The tables have turned quickly: When Nielsen began breaking down TV consumption by medium in 2021, streaming was 26% of viewership and cable was 39%.
💼 Monumental Sports and Entertainment (MSE) invests in women’s sports outlet The IX
The Washington D.C.–based sports conglomerate secured a minority stake in The IX, which was founded by editor-in-chief Howard Megdal in 2019. The IX offers curated women’s sports news and a daily newsletter, which has over 52K subscribers. A source familiar with the deal said the company currently has a seven-figure valuation. Baller move.
🏖️ Media entities announce major partnerships at Cannes
Two partnership announcements headlined Cannes Lions this week: Disney Advertising and Amazon Ads deepened their agreement to allow advertisers to combine insights from Disney+, ESPN, and Hulu viewership with Amazon browsing and purchase information.
- Plus, Amazon Ads inked a deal with Roku that allows Amazon’s ad-buying platform to place ads on Roku and Prime, allowing them to reach an estimated 80M American households.
👟 Adidas unveiled the F50 Sparkfusion, the company’s first-ever soccer cleat designed specifically for women athletes.
🦩 Flamingo bagged a new multiyear deal with Gotham FC to become the team’s official razor after inking a similar deal with the WNBA’s NY Liberty. Cutting edge.
📺 Relo Metrics and software company VideoAmp launched Total Sports Performance, an ad measurement tool that will include analysis from 40M households and 65M devices.
⛸️ U.S. Figure Skating named animal-free fashion brand Save The Duck as its exclusive outerwear partner.
⭐ Unrivaled announced its plans to host an interactive Sephora-sponsored activation at WNBA All-Star Weekend in Indianapolis this summer. A glam dunk.
Together With Gainbridge
📈 We don’t need to tell you that the business of women’s sports is booming, but in a world where only 15% of sports media coverage is focused on women, there’s still some work to do. Enter: Gainbridge® Assists.
- For the third straight year, Gainbridge® is partnering with Parity and the Women’s Sports Foundation® to award $5K grants to organizations that support women and girls through sport.
- Know a women’s sports cause that could use a financial bump? Then send them this link to apply today. Changing lives with just one click.
Recs from our roster!
🧠 What to listen to
Our six-part mental health series Inside the Lines with A.J. Andrews. ICYMI: We dove deep on topics like “Reclaiming Your Joy” and “Navigating High-stakes Moments” in a series of convos with all-star athletes, including PWHL star Kendall Coyne Schofield and USWNT standout Rose Lavelle. Queue it up and share with a pal today.
👟 What to check out
These Satou Sabally kicks. Adidas just dropped a unicorn of a sneaker packed with personal touches.
🎾 Where to shop
Spence, featuring racquet sportswear that blends elegance and edge. Game, set, slay.
Today's email was brought to you by Aryanna Prasad and Briana Ekanem. Fact checking by Bonnie Lee. Operations by Elisha Gunaratnam and Marga Sison. Ads by Katie Kehoe Foster, Alessandra Puccio, and Lisa Minutillo. Managing edits by Molly Potter and Ellen Hyslop. Head of content Ellen Hyslop.