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Picture this: The weekend is finally here, it’s game time, and you’ve got your homemade nachos all set to go (your secret ingredient: home-pickled jalapenos!). You plop down on the couch, crack open your first beer, turn on the big screen and...shoot. Where’s the game? Didn’t you read something about Amazon securing the rights for this season? No wait, that was Peacock...or was it Apple TV+? ESPN+? Maybe TBS? Or TNT? One of the Ts? Fox? CBS? Hulu? YouTube TV? Is this one of the games on Netflix? Why can’t you find it?! Was there ever even a game today? THE NACHOS ARE GETTING COLD!
Tuning in to live sports used to be so simple. And we’re not even talking about 50+ years ago, when that meant “going to the game” or “turning on the radio” for 95% of your live sports consumption. As recently as the 2000s, when it came to sports broadcasts, there were the major networks, ESPN, an occasional game on one of the Turner channels, and that pretty much was it.
Today, sports leagues are scattering their broadcast rights around like digital Johnny Appleseeds, adding to an already-complex CTV and streaming video environment and creating new challenges for advertisers and consumers alike. The clear reason for this shift? Money—big money. US sports TV and streaming rights hit $29.54 billion in 2024 and are forecast to reach nearly $35 billion by 2027—almost double what they were just a decade earlier. All this has taken place in the face of (or, perhaps, helped fuel) cord cutting that drives essential revenue away from traditional broadcasters and into the pockets of streaming services.
In light of these dramatic shifts, how can digital advertisers effectively reach and connect with sports fans? And is navigating the disparate live sports landscape worth all the trouble? (Spoiler alert: yes, yes it is!) Read on to learn all about it.
First off, let’s look at some of those new (or, at least, new-ish) sports broadcast partnerships, an area that’s seen some significant departures from the “old normal” in recent years:
The fact that so many major American sports entities have granted exclusive broadcast rights to streaming platforms marks a significant shift in the industry. And with digital live sports viewership surpassing linear TV in 2023—a gap that’s expected to keep widening—it’s clear that the streaming-first revolution in sports broadcasting has arrived.
Just as meaningful is the price those companies paid for their live sports streaming rights: $200 million a year from Disney, Amazon Prime Video, and NBCUniversal for WNBA games; $85 million a year from Apple for baseball; $5 billion over the next ten years from Netflix for the WWE “Raw” programming; $1 billion per year from Amazon for their weekly regular season NFL matchup; a reported $2+ billion per year from Google for Sunday Ticket; and $150 million from Netflix for their two Christmas day games in 2024.
To make up for these kinds of skyrocketing costs, linear broadcasters and streaming video platforms alike are turning to two main revenue sources: subscription price hikes and—you guessed it!—advertising. So, without further ado, let’s take a look at how (and why) advertisers can make the most of this evolving landscape.
More than two-thirds of Americans are sports fans. And people who watch sports aren’t going to catch a replay of the game once it hits Netflix in a few months—they’re going to watch it live. This is a valuable “guaranteed” audience upon which platforms and advertisers alike can place outsized value compared to other broadcasts (no wonder sports tend to dominate lists of the most-watched US broadcasts year after year). When brands want to ensure they are meeting a large, built-in audience all at once, there are few opportunities quite like live sports.
Which is not to say that brands can’t benefit from advertising against other sports content, such as highlights, clips, and replays (more on this in a bit!). Those often represent prime contextual advertising opportunities, whether via contextual partners like Comscore and DoubleVerify, or with specific publishers such as the AP, Gannett, or (of course) ESPN.
On the more local level, no matter what embarrassment, scandal, or years-long losing streak might afflict their favorite team, fans tend to “root root root for the home team” through thick and thin. For advertisers that want to geotarget, sporting events often post remarkable ratings in specific markets—and fan loyalty can translate to brand loyalty. No wonder organizations of all kinds pay out top dollars to be the official beer, official pizza, official bank, official cryptocurrency platform, or even official HR/payroll provider of your hometown team.
Another key factor that’s fueling sports viewership? Gambling, which has gone from being federally banned (save for in Nevada) in 2018 to being all over American sports coverage today. As legalized sports gambling has come to more and more states, total consumer spending on gambling has skyrocketed—surpassing $100 billion for the first time in 2023, and expected to exceed $200 billion in 2025.
This growing excitement around sports betting is delivering new, passionate audiences to live sports. Eleven percent of the US population was a sports bettor in 2023, and in 2025, there are expected to be nearly 37 million online sports bettors in the US. And if someone is spending money on the game, they’re a whole lot more likely to tune in, with 85% of sports bettors saying it makes them more interested in watching the games.
As for where and how they're watching...
More than 163 million Americans regularly watch live sports—nearly 50% of the total population. Perhaps even more notably, more than 114 million of those viewers currently tune in on digital devices, and that number is projected to rise to 133 million by 2028. Yep: just like the rest of the video world, the future of live sports advertising is digital.
Of course, as is the case with that larger digital video environment, the increasingly disparate nature of sports broadcast agreements (even in light of new offerings like ESPN’s forthcoming sports streaming service) is only adding to the complexity and fragmentation that mark the digital video and CTV space. Among avid sports fans, 69% feel it’s a hassle to navigate multiple providers to watch the same sport and 59% feel it’s gotten more difficult to find what they want to watch, and you can only imagine how frustrating that must be when the start of the game is rapidly approaching (and your nachos are getting cold...) And for advertisers, the evolution from a few reliable live sports hubs to numerous broadcasters across multiple channels can mean added complexity in campaigns targeting these audiences. So as streaming becomes the norm for live sports, advertisers and viewers alike are adapting to some growing pains.
That said, to their credit, the big tech companies that have waded into the live sports streaming wars are taking crucial steps toward optimizing benefits for advertisers. Amazon has a deal in place with Nielsen to measure the Thursday Night Football streaming numbers using the same panel-based national TV ratings system that it applies to linear programming, so advertisers will have some good transparency into viewership numbers on the property. Amazon has also rolled out shoppable ad experiences to allow advertisers to more deeply engage with live audiences. Meanwhile, NBCUniversal and Walmart rolled out new shoppable experiences and measurement capabilities across both linear and streaming ad inventory in November 2024, allowing advertisers to harness the power of retail media (through Walmart Connect) during live sports.
Even the more traditional homes of live sports have readily embraced the potential of streaming those events for maximum impact. CBS, for instance, included viewership across all platforms including the CBS Television Network, Paramount+, Nickelodeon, Univision, CBS Sports, and NFL digital properties when it reported the ratings from Super Bowl LVIII—the most-watched TV broadcast of all time besides the 1969 moon landing. And annual events like the Masters golf championship and NCAA men’s basketball tournament have long had authorized (and ad-filled) streams as part of their overall broadcast packages. As viewers increasingly flock to OTT and CTV for their live sports consumption, brands will have new ways to personalize and target these consumers as part of their cross-channel marketing strategies.
Speaking of which...
The digital evolution of live sports broadcasts goes beyond individual devices.
More and more fans are watching the game on digital platforms, particularly bigger screens like CTV. For instance, sports viewership on YouTube’s connected TV app grew by 30% in 2024. Connected TV (CTV) is becoming a major player in sports advertising—and if you’re a brand that’s trying to connect with millennial and/or Gen Z viewers, CTV may already be your best bet.
But the real secret weapon for advertisers may be resting in your pocket (or your hand) right now: smartphones. Sports broadcasts present a unique cross-platform marketing opportunity, with viewers across generations saying they often use second screens to look up players and team statistics, use social media to engage with others, watch other games on a separate device, place bets, and more—all while watching live sports at home. Additionally, cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase became the talk of the 2022 Super Bowl ad scene with its 60-second, $14 million spot that featured nothing more than a floating QR code. That spot got more than 20 million people to pull out their phones and scan the code within one minute of its airing, driving so many people to a site offering $15 in Bitcoin to anyone who registered for a new Coinbase account that it crashed the app itself.
While few cross-channel efforts will lead to those kinds of jaw-dropping results, the strategy behind it shows the potential of cross-channel advertising during sporting events. Additionally, sports fans are a widely targetable audience segment through private marketplaces (PMPs) like Tapjoy and can be further segmented via top data providers like Alliant (golf), eXelate (NBA), and Cuebiq (NHL), helping advertisers continue to market to viewers even after the game clock hits 0:00. Put it all together, and sports programming represents a great way to consistently reach and remarket to specific target audiences across multiple devices.
Beyond allowing advertisers to connect with viewers across a variety of devices when and where they’re tuning into sports, there’s also a significant opportunity to build upon the momentum of live sports and continue the conversation after (or even leading up to) the big game. Sports fans are often ideal audiences for marketers as they are deeply engaged when it comes to their favorite teams. Considering the fact that 41% of fans are already locked into their favorite pro sports team by the age of 12 (and 62% by the age of 17), it’s clear that sports fans are an active, impassioned audience ripe for engagement. By leaning into this passion and connecting with these fans within relevant content related to their favorite teams, marketers can further deepen brand loyalty and drive meaningful engagement.
Whether by running ads alongside clips and replays, within sports shows, or even alongside social media content, advertisers have ever-expanding opportunities to engage with sports fans beyond live events themselves—and perhaps even to persuade more viewers to tune into live games. The power of such placements is underscored by deals like the recent NBA and Warner Bros. Discovery agreement which includes the studio show Inside the NBA, as well as other NBA content like Bleacher Report and House of Highlights, a social media network that distributes sports clips and content.
In addition to using ad placements within gameday-adjacent content, brands and marketers can also harness the power of sports by working with athlete influencers. Take, for instance, rugby star and Olympian Ilona Maher. She rose to fame not only for her powerful presence and performance on the field, but also for her active presence on social media—where she now has over three million followers across Instagram and TikTok and works with major brands like Brooks, Paula’s Choice, and Secret. Additionally, many athletes have also started their own podcasts (like Angel Reese’s “Unapologetically Angel” and the Kelce brothers’ “New Heights”), offering brands the opportunity to place high-impact ads to connect with fans within their shows.
Sports offer brands a unique opportunity to connect with deeply passionate and engaged audiences, both during and outside of the game. By leveraging gameday-adjacent content and collaborating with athlete influencers, brands and marketers can tap into the enthusiasm of sports fans to build stronger connections, deepen brand loyalty, and drive meaningful engagement across a variety of platforms.
Sporting events are a fixture of American culture. From Super Bowl Sunday every winter to the WNBA Finals every summer, live sports are a reliable way to bring people together in front of their TVs, laptops, and other streaming devices to catch the action (and, of course, the commercials). And even as the way fans consume their sports continues to evolve hand-in-hand with the rest of the video realm, advertisers will look to live sports as a pillar of their omnichannel marketing strategies. In short: it’s a home run opportunity for brands to hit their goals, assist in the revenue-driving process, and score some big wins.
(And yes, there were seven sports puns in that last sentence. Touchdown.)
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As noted above, the role of CTV in live sports advertising is expected to dramatically increase in the years ahead. But sports are not the only programming powering CTV’s rise, and advertisers are taking notice: US CTV ad spend hit $28.79 billion in 2024, and it’s projected to soar to $46.89 billion by 2028.
Want to learn more about CTV advertising? Check out our guide for tips on everything from CTV campaign best practices, to safeguards against CTV ad fraud, to effective targeting tactics, and much, much more.