How Athletes Are Rewriting Sports Marketing
Athletes evolve into media brands, women's sports surge, and immersive tech reshapes fan engagement in 2025's dynamic sports marketing landscape.
Sports marketing in 2025 is shifting from pure celebrity endorsement to emotive storytelling as promoters seek deeper fan connections. The acquisition of A&A Management by Lionsgate’s 3 Arts Entertainment, encompassing NFL star Travis Kelce, illustrates how athletes now function as multimedia brands rather than athletes alone. This trend reflects brands prioritising narrative and purpose alongside performance to resonate with audiences.
Podcasting has empowered athletes to create and control narratives, exemplified by Travis and Jason Kelce’s “New Heights,” which topped Spotify’s sports charts after its September 2022 launch and secured a US$100M Amazon deal by August 2024, engaging millions with candid dialogue, sponsorship integration and live events that deepen fan loyalty and reshape partnership strategies without network filters.
Media platforms founded by athletes grant unparalleled narrative control, as seen with LeBron James’s Uninterrupted. Established in 2014 with Maverick Carter under SpringHill Company, Uninterrupted produces documentaries, podcasts and apparel reflecting athletes’ perspectives. Its video podcast Mind the Game, launched March 2024, amassed 814 K YouTube subscribers and 63.5 M views by 7 July 2025.
Naomi Osaka leveraged her own media enterprise to reshape sports marketing channels. After partnering with SpringHill Company to launch Hana Kuma in June 2022, she spun it off independently following a $5 M seed round in April 2023. The company’s video interview series, Good Trouble with Nick Kyrgios, exemplifies athlete‑led content creation and enables Osaka to integrate sponsors directly into narrative‑driven productions.
After Cristiano Ronaldo launched his UR Cristiano YouTube channel on 8 July 2024, he amassed 76.1M subscribers and 877M views by mid‑2025. Simultaneously, Instagram account reaches 661M followers, enabling bespoke campaigns and partnerships that bypass agencies. These channels allow Ronaldo to activate global sponsors leveraging follower data to inform creative content and monetisation strategies.
Alex Morgan expanded her influence by co‑founding TOGETHXR in 2021 alongside Chloe Kim, Simone Manuel and Sue Bird as a women’s sports media and lifestyle platform. TOGETHXR produces podcasts, videos and live events that spotlight female athletes’ stories, while securing sponsorships from major brands. This amplifies under‑represented voices and demonstrates the commercial potency of athlete‑owned content.
Derek Jeter pioneered athlete‑owned media with The Players’ Tribune in October 2014, offering first‑person essays, videos and podcasts. By mid‑2018, more than 1,8K athletes globally had contributed, presenting authentic stories directly to fans and brands. This platform demonstrated the strategic value of athlete narrative control, inspiring similar ventures that place content creation firmly in the hands of the talent themselves.
These examples show athletes are no longer passive brand ambassadors but media proprietors. By building channels on platforms they control, they engage fans with unfiltered authenticity and extract new revenue streams, from subscriptions to sponsor integrations. This trend compels marketers to partner on equal footing with athletes, co‑creating content that blends performance, personality and purpose for the modern fan.
Another solid piece! 🤝🏾