A version of this article first appeared in the CNBC Sport newsletter with Alex Sherman, which brings you the biggest news and exclusive interviews from the worlds of sports business and media. Sign up to receive future editions, straight to your inbox. Happy New Year! To kick off 2025, three new sports leagues are launching this month. TGL, the indoor golf league created by TMRW Sports (a venture founded by Tiger Woods , Rory McILory and media executive Mike McCarley ), debuted Tuesday in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida. Last night, Atlanta hosted Salt Lake in the first-ever pro match for League One Volleyball, a new U.S.-based professional women’s league. And Unrivaled, the three-on-three women’s basketball league, debuts next week on Jan. 17. I watched TGL’s debut on ESPN, which featured golfers including Ludvig Aberg , Justin Thomas and Xander Schauffele hitting into a giant screen and putting on an indoor green that changes its structure depending on the hole. While I was watching, my 4-year-old buzzed around me, as he always does. He was repeating his favorite saying of the moment, which he crimped from an episode of “Bluey.” “And whyyyyyy should I care?” I couldn’t help but link his endless repetition of Unicorse ‘s catchphrase with what I was watching. There have been many attempts at inventing startup sports leagues over the decades, and almost all of them have either failed or stayed small. Part of the problem has been that most of the leagues (XFL, Slamball, Big 3) haven’t incorporated the top athletes in their sports. That’s not the case with any of these leagues. Besides Woods and McIlroy, TGL will showcase many of the best golfers in the world. Brittney Griner, Breanna Stewart , Angel Reese and Cameron Brink are among the WNBA stars that will play in Unrivaled ( Caitlin Clark won’t .). More than 80% of the U.S. Olympic volleyball team will be playing in LOVB, said Katlyn Gao , League One’s co-founder and CEO, who is counting on the level of competition to drive the league’s success. Matches will air on ESPN+. “This is the NBA of volleyball, and it’s never been seen before in the U.S.,” said Gao in an interview. “We’re going to market with the best players. That’s our strategy.” The inclusion of the league’s top talent could make Unrivaled an extension of the WNBA and serve the same role as Formula 1’s “Drive to Survive” or other documentary series that got fans more interested in the athletes and the league, said Craig Barry , TNT Sports’ executive vice president and chief content officer, in an interview. Warner Bros. Discovery owns the exclusive broadcast rights to Unrivaled. Games will be shown live on TNT, truTV, and Max, the company’s flagship streaming service. “In addition to the game itself, you also have the opportunity to create a deeper emotional connection between fans and these players,” said Barry. “You see the follow-on docs – Netflix’s ‘Receiver’ or ‘Quarterback’ or ‘Drive to Survive’ – you know how those stories end. With this, we can tell the story as the season progresses.” Barry says he’ll define success by a consistent uptick in ratings as the weeks go by. The ratings during week 1 are almost irrelevant, he said. What matters is that TNT’s storytelling and the league itself become more popular over time. “It doesn’t have to be a huge audience, it just has to grow a little bit week over week,” Barry said. “This is a marathon. You have to build the product.” This is also going to be an obstacle for TGL. Watching on Tuesday, I thought the technology was amazing, but the stakes were virtually non-existent. While many of the best golfers are playing, a successful sports league requires more than that. It has to give people a reason to care. This is not lost on McCarley, who used to run The Golf Channel before co-founding TGL. It’s hard to manufacture drama in Week 1, but as the weeks go by and matches are decided on the last hole, the players’ competitive juices will give fans a reason to care, he said. “We’ve seen it in practice matches. When the matches get tight at the end, the joy of competition comes out,” said McCarley in an interview. “They will compete over throwing a piece of paper in a trash basket. It’s live and unscripted, and the different cast of characters each week will lead to new sets of storylines.” On the record With Amazon Prime Video’s Global Head of Sports Jay Marine … Marine says he doesn’t like the word “conqueror” when it comes to his company’s modus operandi. Of course, Amazon has already conquered the world of retail. It’s in the company’s DNA to dominate. It’s only natural to wonder if Amazon is on a quest to take over live sports rights. I asked Marine: Is Amazon interested in UFC rights? Yup. How about MLB rights if ESPN opts out of its deal this year? Sure. Is Amazon interested in renewing Canadian NHL rights? Yes. He also explained Amazon’s strategy when determining which sports to bid on and told me how much of a threat he expects from Netflix for upcoming sports rights. Watch the full interview. CNBC Sport highlight reel The best of CNBC Sport from the past week: Earlier this week, I interviewed Eli Manning about his business aspirations after football. He acknowledged that he’s still trying to find a new passion after dedicating his life to playing quarterback. He also may be interested in owning a piece of his former team, the New York Giants. Watch our full interview here. Tiger Woods is scheduled to make his TGL debut on Tuesday, but he’ll have some legal documents to read in the meantime. Puma has filed a notice of opposition against his apparel and sneaker company Sun Day Red over its logo, arguing the company’s tiger symbol looks too much like Puma’s logo. CNBC’s Jess Golden has the details. Another from Jess Golden – DraftKings is testing out a subscription service for select customers in New York. DraftKings Sportsbook+ will give players an odds boost if they subscribe for $20 a month. OK, the hat trick from Jess: The NHL will have two outdoor hockey games in sunny Florida next season. To keep the ice from melting, the surface will be temporarily stored under the roof of LoanDepot Park, where the Miami Marlins play. The roof is retractable and will open up once the game begins. The big number: $370 million FanDuel is lowering its previous 2024 revenue guidance by $370 million, its parent company Flutter announced this week. The reason? “Customer friendly results,” the company said in a filing. That’s corporate verbiage for “winning bets.” In other words, more people won money than anticipated this NFL season. The house may always win, but this time, it didn’t win by as much as expected. Quote of the week “The 2024/2025 NFL season to date has been the most customer friendly since the launch of online sports betting with the highest rate of favorites winning in nearly 20 years.” — That’s a line from that Flutter filing , released late Tuesday. The culprit was mainly NFL parlay outcomes. Around the league Could the changing landscape of college football end Notre Dame’s longtime independent status? Penn State coach James Franklin said this week he believes a larger College Football Playoff requires an equal playing field, including every school involved having a conference championship game – or eliminating the idea altogether. LIV Golf is taking direct aim at the PGA this year with a tournament schedule that puts the league’s season finale on the same weekend as the PGA’s FedEx Cup Playoffs. After taking 93 of the top 100 most watched shows last year, the NFL only had 72 of this year’s top 100, according to Sportico . That’s similar to four years ago, the last time we had a presidential election. Candidate debates and convention speeches were the primary interlopers. Awful Announcing reports that former ESPN executive Norby Williamson has a new job: He will oversee production for what used to be called Bally Sports – the regional sports network group owned by Diamond Sports. Now Bally Sports is called FanDuel Sports Network, it has only 16 RSNs as opposed to 19, and Diamond is now called Main Street Sports – all thanks to the wonders of Chapter 11 bankruptcy! Liberty Media – the holding company for Formula 1 – has named Derek Chang as its new CEO, replacing Greg Maffei . He’s a current board member and media executive, most recently acting as executive chair of EverPass Media, a joint venture between the NFL and private-equity firm RedBird Capital that distributes sports via streaming to commercial establishments.
Wyndham Clark of The Bay Golf Club plays his shot from the fourth tee during their TGL presented by SoFi match against the New York Golf Club at SoFi Center on January 07, 2025 in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida.
Mike Ehrmann/tgl | Tgl Golf | Getty Images
A version of this article first appeared in the CNBC Sport newsletter with Alex Sherman, which brings you the biggest news and exclusive interviews from the worlds of sports business and media. Sign up to receive future editions, straight to your inbox.
Happy New Year! To kick off 2025, three new sports leagues are launching this month.
TGL, the indoor golf league created by TMRW Sports (a venture founded by Tiger Woods, Rory McILory and media executive Mike McCarley), debuted Tuesday in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida.
Last night, Atlanta hosted Salt Lake in the first-ever pro match for League One Volleyball, a new U.S.-based professional women’s league.
And Unrivaled, the three-on-three women’s basketball league, debuts next week on Jan. 17.
I watched TGL’s debut on ESPN, which featured golfers including Ludvig Aberg, Justin Thomas and Xander Schauffele hitting into a giant screen and putting on an indoor green that changes its structure depending on the hole.
While I was watching, my 4-year-old buzzed around me, as he always does. He was repeating his favorite saying of the moment, which he crimped from an episode of “Bluey.”
“And whyyyyyy should I care?”
I couldn’t help but link his endless repetition of Unicorse‘s catchphrase with what I was watching. There have been many attempts at inventing startup sports leagues over the decades, and almost all of them have either failed or stayed small.
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Subscribe here to get access today.
Part of the problem has been that most of the leagues (XFL, Slamball, Big 3) haven’t incorporated the top athletes in their sports.
That’s not the case with any of these leagues. Besides Woods and McIlroy, TGL will showcase many of the best golfers in the world.
Brittney Griner, Breanna Stewart, Angel Reese and Cameron Brink are among the WNBA stars that will play in Unrivaled (Caitlin Clark won’t.).
More than 80% of the U.S. Olympic volleyball team will be playing in LOVB, said Katlyn Gao, League One’s co-founder and CEO, who is counting on the level of competition to drive the league’s success. Matches will air on ESPN+.
“This is the NBA of volleyball, and it’s never been seen before in the U.S.,” said Gao in an interview. “We’re going to market with the best players. That’s our strategy.”
The inclusion of the league’s top talent could make Unrivaled an extension of the WNBA and serve the same role as Formula 1’s “Drive to Survive” or other documentary series that got fans more interested in the athletes and the league, said Craig Barry, TNT Sports’ executive vice president and chief content officer, in an interview. Warner Bros. Discovery owns the exclusive broadcast rights to Unrivaled. Games will be shown live on TNT, truTV, and Max, the company’s flagship streaming service.
“In addition to the game itself, you also have the opportunity to create a deeper emotional connection between fans and these players,” said Barry. “You see the follow-on docs – Netflix’s ‘Receiver’ or ‘Quarterback’ or ‘Drive to Survive’ – you know how those stories end. With this, we can tell the story as the season progresses.”
Barry says he’ll define success by a consistent uptick in ratings as the weeks go by. The ratings during week 1 are almost irrelevant, he said. What matters is that TNT’s storytelling and the league itself become more popular over time.
“It doesn’t have to be a huge audience, it just has to grow a little bit week over week,” Barry said. “This is a marathon. You have to build the product.”
This is also going to be an obstacle for TGL. Watching on Tuesday, I thought the technology was amazing, but the stakes were virtually non-existent. While many of the best golfers are playing, a successful sports league requires more than that. It has to give people a reason to care.
This is not lost on McCarley, who used to run The Golf Channel before co-founding TGL. It’s hard to manufacture drama in Week 1, but as the weeks go by and matches are decided on the last hole, the players’ competitive juices will give fans a reason to care, he said.
“We’ve seen it in practice matches. When the matches get tight at the end, the joy of competition comes out,” said McCarley in an interview. “They will compete over throwing a piece of paper in a trash basket. It’s live and unscripted, and the different cast of characters each week will lead to new sets of storylines.”
On the record
With Amazon Prime Video’s Global Head of Sports Jay Marine …
