Taking notes
From The GIST Sports Biz (hi@thegistsports.com)
Hi there!
Caitlin Clark isn’t just stacking the WNBA stat sheet, she’s also been busy supporting fellow athletes: After dropping by the U.S. Olympic Swimming Team Trials in June and donning pinstripes at the NY Yankees game a week ago, the lifelong Peyton Manning fan spent Saturday in the stands at the Indianapolis Colts’ preseason game. She’s on the court and on the bleachers.
Media
📺 The entire Venu is 86ed
The GIST: It’s official — Venu Sports won’t begin streaming anytime soon after a federal judge granted a preliminary injunction to squash the megalithic app (which was set to launch on August 23rd) on Friday.
- The app is now shelved indefinitely as Venu’s creators appeal the decision in their months-long legal battle with fellow sports streamer FuboTV.
The app: Venu Sports is a joint brainchild of ESPN’s parent company Disney, Fox, and Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD). The trio — which collectively owns over 60% of broadcast sports content in the U.S. — proposed pooling their content into a single sports-only app.
The lawsuit: On February 22nd — less than three weeks after Venu Sports’ announcement — FuboTV filed an antitrust lawsuit, alleging that the app’s existence would shutter its business. Unlike Venu, pay-TV distributors like FuboTV must pay for non-sports channels to access sports programming — meaning the proposed app wasn’t playing by the same rules as every other sports streamer.
- Launched in 2015, FuboTV initially focused on soccer-specific content but has since added NFL, NBA, MLB, and NHL rights. The company now claims that Venu would render FuboTV unable to compete in the space.
- In a July motion, Venu’s owners hit back, calling FuboTV “a weak competitor” that “adds little value to the TV ecosystem” other than acting “as a middleman aggregator of content that other companies make possible.” Ouch.
The problem: As the Wild West of streaming begins to resemble an ironically cable-like format due to streaming mergers and acquisitions, consumers are shelling out for multiple subscriptions each month. To some extent, a joint app like Venu could help eliminate that problem.
- This setup is ideal for consumers and the giant companies behind the consolidation — but not for their competition. An app like Venu creates a real David vs. Goliath situation, which is what FuboTV has argued.
- The judge agreed with FuboTV’s claim that Venu is playing by different licensing rules, making it impossible for smaller companies to compete, thereby creating a monopoly.
What’s next: Venu’s owners are appealing the injunction, but the project could fall apart if one of the companies abandons the venture. While there’s no certainty this will happen, Disney — the trio’s top sports media rights heavy-hitter — did say it would “weigh its options.”
- For FuboTV, this is part of a larger battle against the biggest sports broadcasters, which the streamer claims monopolize the market and stifle competition. They took this round, proving the Mouse doesn’t always win.
🇬🇧 All-women executive team to lead U.K. women’s soccer leagues
NewCo, the company that oversees two flights of U.K. women’s soccer (the Women’s Super League and Women’s Championship), has a new name and an all-women executive board to boot. After months of new hires and business development, NewCo will now be known as the Women’s Professional Leagues Limited (WPLL).
- CEO Nikki Doucet was the company’s first hire last November and has since overseen the addition of key executive power players to the WPLL, like COO Holly Murdoch, CMO Ruth Hooper, chief football officer Mirelle van Rijbroek, and chief revenue officer Zarah Al-Kudcy. All-stars.
🇪🇬 Popular Egyptian club Al Ahly finally invests in women’s team
Egyptian men’s soccer club Al Ahly — which boasts the largest fanbase in the country and one of the biggest in Africa — is finally investing in a women’s side after both the domestic governing body and African Football Association (CAF) mandated that all professionally licensed men’s clubs must have a women’s team.
- In response to that requirement, Al Ahly hired a slew of soccer pros to prep its women’s team to join the 1998-founded Egyptian Women’s Premier League, the nation’s top flight for women’s soccer. About damn time.
🏀 NCAA stars coach at Overtime Select’s Takeover Weekend
College basketball stars Paige Bueckers (UConn) and Flau’jae Johnson (LSU) started school a bit early this year — but as teachers rather than students. Each coached a team of the country’s top high school girl hoopers in Overtime Select’s Takeover Weekend over the last few days.
- Team Bueckers narrowly defeated Team Johnson in Friday’s comeback win, with Georgia native Kate Harpring knocking down six points in the final minute to settle the score. Taking notes.
🚀 The shiny new USL Super League — the U.S.’s second-ever Division One professional women’s soccer league — kicked off its inaugural season this weekend. LFG.
🥇 NBC reported a massive 6.55B social impressions across its channels through the Paris Olympics, marking a 184% increase from Tokyo and a 497% jump in viewership on social media specifically.
📺 NJ/NY Gotham FC is joining its season’s local broadcast partner MSG Networks and U.K.–based streamer DAZN to air tonight’s international friendly against reigning WSL champion Chelsea FC. A cross-Atlantic crossover.
🏈 Sixth Street — the private equity (PE) firm that co-founded the NWSL’s Bay FC — was granted a seat at the table in the NFL’s exclusive talks about the league’s new inclusion of PE ownership last Thursday.
🎙️ Kate Scott broke barriers as a play-by-play announcer for Madden 25 on Friday, becoming the first woman to do so in the video game franchise’s 36-year history.
📱 President Joe Biden welcomed 100 content creators and industry leaders to the White House’s first-ever creator economy conference to discuss hot-button topics like AI, pay equity, TikTok, and big tech last Wednesday. Hoping NIL is next on the conference’s agenda.
💼 ESPN announced the release of former Sunday NFL Countdown host Sam Ponder last Thursday after the network already endured shocking job cuts among its on-air talent last year.
Here’s what has The GIST team currently hyped:
🧬 What to learn about
Your molecules, which change rapidly around ages 44 and 60 according to a new study. Mark your cal for the biological shifts you didn’t see coming.
📺 What to watch
Love is Blind. The ultimate social experiment in love is back with new seasons in the UK and Mexico, both streaming on Netflix.
🌊 What to support
Para-surfing’s inclusion in the Paralympics. Despite years of advocacy, the sport was overlooked for the 2028 LA Games, leaving athletes like three-time world champion Liv Stone shocked and rallying to see the sport added to future Paralympic editions.
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