A 3v3 league built in collaboration with the biggest stars in women’s basketball, co-founded by Napheesa Collier and Breanna Stewart. Launching in January 2025.
Unrivaled | Official Site of the Unrivaled Basketball League
Ice Cube’s Big3 League sold 4 franchises this year. This is an important step in expanding and integrating the league into communities setting the ground for arenas and city investment into the growth of individual Big3 franchises.
The initial format was akin to the Harlem Globetrotters. The league, made up of retired NBA players, travelled from city to city in a tour format. This created a lack of association with a particular region and doesn’t provide the type of stability needed to cement a league into the hearts of fans. The selling of franchises will allow the tour to have a more consistent fanbase.
Some Numbers on the Big 3 (generated using Copilot)
YouTube: 246K subscribers with 41,653,411 views
- Estimated Monthly Revenue: Approximately $10,000 to $20,000 (assuming a CPM of $0.25 to $4.00).
- Estimated Yearly Revenue: Approximately $120,000 to $240,000.
The BIG3 basketball league has an estimated annual revenue of $4 million.
The BIG3 basketball league consists of 12 teams. Each team has a roster of 5 players, which includes a mix of former NBA players and international players. Additional revenue is created via sponsorships: BIG3 Names Microsoft as the League’s Official Technology Partner And Jersey Patch Sponsor – BIG3
Additional ad revenue is generated through televised partnerships with CBS and Paramount+ Sports. The Big 3 has been around for 7 years and the franchising aspect is going to solidify the league as a viable entertainment product.
YouTube’s Growing Ability to Disrupt the Sports Viewership Landscape
Viewership across many sports has shifted to streaming services giving the perception that live sports can no longer draw viewers as it did in the past. The reality is sports viewership is more mobile than any other time in history and the game is no longer viewed in its entirety during the event. Sports events are now broken down and placed on YouTube creating a completely different opportunity for monetization.
This can be seen in the NBA’s recent Creator Cup featuring Basketball Influencers. The livestream generated 163,396 views (Streamed live on Dec 15, 2024). Today is the 17th. This is important because it shows the diversification of basketball fans. With a bevy of options to engage with, the NBA realizes the power of digital and smaller events in the sport.
As marketing teams for various companies seek to capture audiences as cable dies, YouTube and digital outlets have become much more important in the landscape of sports viewership. The Big3 has understood this, and to capitalize the league airs games on FUBO and drops entire events on their YouTube station providing sponsors with additional options for connecting with potentials consumers.
The NBA realizes the importance of digital media. Their YouTube has over 22 million subscribers and 14,772,312,452 views. While traditional viewership numbers are falling, channels like Inside the NBA are thriving. Podcasts featuring former NBA players and personalities are exploding creating an atmosphere perfectly suited for women’s athletes to launch this new league.
Unrivaled Takes the Big3 Concept and Centralizes the Competition
The rise of the WNBA last season and the success of the Big3 provided women’s basketball with an option and the Unrivaled League will launch in 2025. Like the Big3, Unrivaled is a three vs three league with 6 teams:
The growth of the Big3 and the interest in women’s hoops has led to a total of $35 million in seed funding for the Unrivaled League. TNT will be the home of Unrivaled Basketball on traditional media and MAX will handled streaming duties via Bleacher Report. Under Armour is the official outfitter providing UA with greater involvement in the women’s game.
Consider Under Armour’s sponsoring of the South Carolina Gamecocks women’s team and events like Kelsey Plum’s Dawg School, UA is showing a commitment to sport which will endear fans of the game to the brand.
Unrivaled takes an interesting turn from the Big3. The Big3 is a half-court competition.
Unrivaled will feature a brand new style of 3v3 basketball. The games will be played on a compressed full-court (70X50 feet). The league is also setting a record with the highest average salaries in women’s sports history. All 36 initial players will receive equity ownership.
Unrivaled removed the touring aspect. The league created a state-of-the-art facility in Miami. While this may save the league money initially, it does limit the fan experience. The Big3 has had a similar issue. Leagues without hometown representation lack the regional appeal and inherent competition between cities.
The building of a facility, however, offers the league camera angles and a familiar court offsetting any homecourt advantage, but it also relies heavily on one city to support the league. Miami is a tourist’s location and while the games can provide alternative entertainment, it’s a lot to ask locals to support the league. At only 850 seats the experience will be much more intimate, but the early ticket prices could lead to the arena being empty for most games.
The fracturing of sports viewership has created a landscape where niche aspects of larger competitions can potentially support athletic endeavors and create opportunities for new business models. Do you think the Unrivaled Basketball League will succeed?