“Content is king” is a familiar refrain in the media and entertainment industry. More specifically, compelling content enables companies to attract large audiences regardless of the distribution channel. Sports is the king of kings in this context. The reason that companies have spent billions of dollars on media rights deals with leagues, teams, and events is that sports consistently attracts large audiences watching live programming.
Traditionally, there have been two ways to monetize sports audiences. Broadcast networks and digital companies with streaming platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, and Yahoo have focused on using sports to sell advertisements to companies looking to target lucrative sports audiences.