A medal detector

The GIST: The U.S.’ Olympic women’s volleyball roster just dropped, and there’s a lot of love for League One Volleyball (LOVB). Nine of the 12 starters and two alternates on Team USA have already signed deals with LOVB Pro, an impressive feat considering the new pro volleyball league won’t begin play until November, well after the Games. A real medal detector.

The business model: LOVB is creating a rare, complete pipeline in women’s sports with offerings at the youth, college, and pro levels. Since its 2020 launch, LOVB has become the top U.S. youth club volleyball brand with 1.3K teams across 22 states. Its grassroots approach has also allowed LOVB to leverage youth popularity into NIL deals with athletes at top schools like Wisconsin and Nebraska.

• LOVB is building on that further through its pro arm, which notably features teams in college volleyball hotspots like Austin, Omaha, and Madison. When naming Austin as its sixth and final city (for now), LOVB credited UT’s devoted fandom, which ranks among the best in the nation for attendance.

• Additionally, recent business wins from LOVB include raising $35M in Series B funding last September, an all-star roster of athlete investors, and a partnership with smart gym brand Tonal. Stacks on stacks.

The calendar: LOVB Pro will begin with a November preseason, followed by a 14-week regular season set to spike the week of January 6th, 2025. While this does conflict with the competing Pro Volleyball Federation (PVF) that launched this January, Athlete Unlimited’s five-week pro volleyball tournament in October will likely end right before LOVB’s November 11th preseason tipoff.

Zooming out: Men’s sports leagues like the NBA, MLB, and NHL have had the cultural presence and resources to build full ecosystems that act as talent-feeders for elite teams. While pro women’s sports are accelerating, they are still playing catch-up in this regard: The WNBA and NWSL don’t actually own the pipelines for their sports, which is what makes LOVB different.

• Its widespread presence in the volleyball space is already paying off with Olympic talent, while its youth leagues will continue to foster grassroots development and lifelong fans of the game. You can’t buy loyalty, but you can grow it.

The GIST: Sponsorship insight platform SponsorPulse recently published its Sport Team Sponsorship Value Guide, which estimates and ranks the value of NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL, MLS, and WNBA teams’ brand partnerships. While no WNBA team cracks the top 50, the report contains key insights about the league’s potential value. Let’s dig in.

🏀 Some WNBA franchises have an opportunity value comparable with MLS and NHL teams. SponsorPulse calculated the midpoint opportunity value, or how much it costs for sponsors to get involved with a team somewhere between a minimum value point (like community partnerships) and a maximum value point (like stadium naming rights).

• The report includes a high, low, and team average for this midpoint opportunity value. While the midpoint opportunity value for the average WNBA team is $750K, its highest-valued team is estimated at $2.05M, which isn’t far behind MLS’ high of $2.63M and the NHL’s $2.67M.

📈 No MLS or WNBA team appear on the top 50, and only one NHL team cracked the list, highlighting a notable gap between these leagues and the NFL, MLB, and NBA. Conversely, these leagues offer a cheaper entry point into sports sponsorship, especially for women-owned brands like The Honey Pot, which just inked its first-ever sports deal with the Atlanta Dream.

• Meanwhile, existing WNBA partners are responding to the league’s exponential growth by doubling down on their deals. This week, Commissioner’s Cup sponsor Coinbase invested an additional $120K in crypto to its $500K tourney prize pool, with $5K payouts to each player in the finals. Luckily, they have purse.

🗽 The New York Liberty are the top women's sport team on the list at No. 71. The Liberty’s sponsorship value exceeds dozens of men’s pro sports teams, and SponsorPulse’s data found that NY is cultivating a growing, highly-engaged fanbase that is delivering high impact to its 35 corporate partners.

• This sponsorship value is a testament to the Tsais’ invested ownership and award-winning front office. Start spreading the news…

The GIST rang in the start of the NBA Finals in style last night, celebrating female basketball fans at Get in the Game, an event hosted by the NBA and PROLINE+ dedicated to increasing women’s voices in the sports betting industry.

• As the exclusive sports betting partner of the NBA in Canada, PROLINE+ is all about celebrating female basketball fans. That’s why they awarded one lucky attendee a free trip for two to Las Vegas to watch the NBA Summer League.

And get this — one lucky Ontario GISTer could win that same free Vegas getaway by entering this contest today. A true slam dunk.

Despite sports betting being on the rise among female fans — 51% more women placed a wager on this year's Super Bowl than last year's — the perspective of women in the space can often be overlooked or underrepresented.

So, last night, PROLINE+ and the NBA hosted an event to shift that narrative, inviting 100+ basketball fans to a Get in the Game panel ahead of Game 1 of the NBA Finals — and The GIST was there capturing all the action.

• Geared at shifting the odds (literally), attendees were treated to a conversation around breaking down stereotypes in the sports betting space.

As a partner of the NBA, PROLINE+ is in a prime position to move the needle in the sports betting space.