Bloomberg Originals24 min
Why Alexis Ohanian Bet on Women's Sports Before Everyone Else | The Deal
Alexis Ohanian, Alex Rodriguez, Jason Kelly
Fireside Chat, Interview
- Over the next five to ten years, the value of owned women's professional sports teams is expected to surpass the revenue of Reddit, driven by a projected cultural shift where consumers seek in-real-life (IRL) experiences and shared stakes in response to increasing synthetic content and personalized "dopamine hits."
- While the US women's sports market is currently in the "third or fourth inning" of growth, the global market remains in the "first inning," with rapid growth anticipated for approximately a decade before reaching a saturation point due to the finite number of inventable sports.
- Expansion fees in leagues like women's volleyball and emerging entities, currently in the low tens of millions, are predicted to increase significantly in value as the sector matures.
- Angel City FC reached a billion-dollar valuation in approximately seven years, while the Golden State Valkyries surpassed the mark in about 1.5 years with $80 million in first-season revenue, outpacing initial ten-year projections.
- Operational efficiency and margins are expected to rise as the industry transitions from traditional ownership models prioritizing tax offsets to "builders" focused on enterprise value and financial metrics.
- The integration of software into team management will accelerate, creating a gateway for infrastructure startups to replace the inefficient tools currently used by major leagues, with predictions that half the NWSL, a third of the NBA, and major grand slams will adopt these solutions.
- Fragmentation in media inventory is expected to be resolved as incumbent platforms like ESPN and Yahoo Sports increase their allocation, driving the development of "critical mass" in women's sports marketing and front-of-kit deals.
- Viewership data, such as 3.2 million viewers for WNBA games, is expected to compel networks to prioritize women's sports programming as they recognize tangible economic value.
- Brand partnerships will increasingly rely on the "free market of attention," where social media follower counts and engagement validate athlete value, creating a compounding flywheel for team funding and visibility.
- The "tattoo test," measuring fan devotion by the willingness to get a logo tattooed, is cited as a valid indicator for future brand success and community building in new investments.
- Expansion into new sports, such as pickleball, is expected to fill market gaps and sustain growth as the market moves toward higher innovation and standards.
- Ticketing and engagement platforms are expected to evolve to provide better fan experiences, driven by demand for improved data understanding and treatment of customers.
- Women's college basketball is identified as an inefficient market where high attention on players like Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese should drive revenue exceeding current media allocations.
- Long-term projections anticipate that women's sports will achieve parity with legacy sports regarding pay, recognition, and valuation, eventually outperforming assets like Reddit in total value created.
- The business models for movies and music face threats from AI, whereas live sports are positioned as the "ultimate anti-AI bet" due to their reliance on genuine human performance.