Deep Blue Sports + Entertainment

What’s ahead at our Business of Women’s Sports Summit on 4/23? It’s a packed agenda inclusive of every role in our business’s ecosystem. Athletes, coaches, team owners, marketers, media executives, journalists and more. We’ve lined up panel discussions including the rule-breakers and changemakers who’ll be influencing women’s sports for the next 50 years. In fact, this annual industry-leading event -hosted in partnership with Axios - is SOLD OUT!! This year’s Summit will open with proprietary research we partnered with COMN on regarding the impact of advertising in women’s sports - presented by Rachael Rapinoe, MS, Business Development & Design Research. This research will set up our programming and will be followed by the day’s first panel discussion - “The Brands Influencing Women’s Sports” - will include Patty Morris, Kate Johnson, and Stephanie Marciano - brand marketers who are paving the way for the future of women’s sports. This conversation will be moderated by Deep Blue Sports and Entertainment Founder & CEO, Laura Correnti. We’d love to hear from our industry colleagues on topics you’re most interested in learning more on within the meteoric rise of women’s sports - so please let us know in a comment below: What’s the #1 thing you’re hoping to take away from our event? 👏 Big thanks to our partners MassMutual, Ally, Snap Inc., Align Technology, NYSE and Footballco for supporting this year's event. As well as our partners at GLAMSQUAD, Glossier, Inc., Honors, PepsiCo, Vestaboard, Sequel, and Paper Plane Coffee.

⚽ Congrats to the Orlando Pride on winning the 2024 National Women's Soccer League (NWSL) Championship - where the team, led by soccer legend & team captain, Marta, took home the franchise's first title. In Kansas City in front of a sold out crowd at CPKC Stadium - the first stadium in the US built for women's pro sports and home to the KC Current - another record-breaking year for the NWSL culminated with the Pride lifting the trophy and stand-out star (and my favorite striker) Barbra Banda winning MVP honors in her debut season. A few growth stats from this season include: 🏟️ Over 2 million fans attended NWSL matches in 2024. 🎟️ The league averaged 11K+ fans per game, making it the first women's soccer league in the world to achieve this milestone. ⭐ A record-breaking 35,038 fans attended a match between the Chicago Red Stars and Bay FC at Wrigley Field. 📺 Over 7 million viewers tuned in to NWSL matches on national broadcast platforms, a 95% increase from the previous year. The league also experienced significant growth in digital viewership across various platforms, including streaming services and social media. While this marks the end of Year 12 of the NWSL, in many ways, it feels like just the beginning. With record valuations, expansion teams on the horizon, the USWNT winning Gold in Paris, and more interest / investment pouring in - women's soccer is the past, present AND future in the US & around the world. Congrats to Jessica Berman, Julie Haddon and the team at the NWSL for continuing to drive the business of women's soccer forward, and a big thanks to the brand partners leading the charge including Andrea Brimmer and the team at Ally (who are on the precipice of hitting their 50/50 pledge), Ramon Jones and the team at Nationwide (love their Lauren Holiday Impact Award!), Kate Johnson, OLY and the team at Google (Pixel creators were out in full force in KC!), Nike, Adobe, Deloitte, Carmax, and the many others who are helping to elevate the game. -- 🎙️ Bonus: During Championship weekend, Deep Blue Sports + Entertainment teamed up with iHeartMedia for the first "Good Game Brunch" featuring a live taping of "Good Game with Sarah Spain" featuring conversations with KC Current Co-owner, Christopher Long and star player for the KC Current & USWNT, Alana Cook. Listen here: https://lnkd.in/exRJ2Cam

Our Shiver is growing! 🦈 Now hiring a new Senior Account Manager in NY. Apply today or share this post with your network.

Our Shiver - along with women's sports - continues to grow! 🦈 Deep Blue is hiring for a Senior Account Manager - details in link below. Apply today or share this post with your network.

*** JOB ALERT - OUR SHIVER IS GROWING *** 🦈 Deep Blue is hiring for a Senior Strategist to join our team as we continue working toward bringing more commercial investment to women's sports. Interested? Please apply here: https://lnkd.in/eqZnG4Ki Tag, comment or share with anyone in your network who may be interested.

📣 Introducing the Deep Blue Exchange (DBX), our newest division at Deep Blue Sports + Entertainment and our answer to the the traditional Properties / Sponsorship model in women's sports. 🏟️ In August, Front Office Sports shared just 33 of the Fortune 500 companies sponsor women's sports (6%!) while of the 40 industries audited, none exclusively. At Deep Blue, we felt an alternative approach to positioning, packaging, and valuing women's sports leagues & teams was needed. The current impression-based, asset-focused model simply doesn't apply when critical scale has yet to be realized and inventory is challenged (ie. most pro women's sports teams don't own their stadiums). The currencies & metrics we've been transacting on are leaving money and value on the table. 👀 We believe women's sports is a brand play - one that provides rich (often untold) stories & deeply loyal fan engagement (check out the engagement stats from this year's WNBA season, they surpassed the NBA), versus a model that relies on rate cards. The latter requires volume - women's sports, while on its way, is still in its development stages to reach the masses needed for many advertisers and agency buyers to make the business case to "buy" patches or LED boards. DBX's team will sit at the intersection of women's sports strategy, commercial innovation & brand partnership expertise, and executional prowess - focusing on transformation, not transaction. It's what women's sports requires, and its where the ROI exists. At DBX, we aren't selling, we're building. ✔️ Services include: commercial strategy & marketplace positioning for teams & leagues along with partnership development, pricing & packaging, execution & measurement. Leveraging our deep media buying experience, we have the ability to understand what moves the marketing needle and will build accordingly. DBX will also support leagues & teams across media, creative and experimental services [in partnership with our affiliate agency Giant Spoon]. 🏒 DBX formally launches today, announcing our first pro league partnership is with the PWHL - the league is heading into just its 2nd season, and has already seen world attendance records, sold out merchandise, an international loyal and growing fanbase, 6 new team brand identities, and entering new arenas (literally and figuratively) in this upcoming season. Amy Scheer and the team at PWHL are transforming the way it's done - leading with brand narratives, tapping into what makes hockey (and women's sports) fans tick, and are consistently pushing on the rules of engagement - both on and off the ice - to create an effective product built specifically for women's hockey. 🦈 DBX clients at launch include the PWHL, Arizona Athletic Grounds and The Program NYC, with others to be announced in the coming weeks. For more on DBX and our partnership with the PHWL, read this exclusive from Jason Notte in ADWEEK: https://lnkd.in/emMN5Q9U

🦈 Join us in LA on September 25th as we celebrate Women of Impact and support the 2024-2025 upcoming season for the UCLA Bruins Women’s Basketball season. 🎟 Tickets available to attend this year’s Gala honoring Nina Westbrook, Lauren Holiday and Suzi Weiss-Fischmann, co-hosted by Cari Champion & Baron Davis, are available here: https://lnkd.in/euMBEPBG ✨ See you there!

The Women’s Sports Audio Network. Launching Summer 2024. Charge your AirPods. For more on the development of the network, read this great article from The Current: https://lnkd.in/eJF-5Ce7

🇫🇷 Who's swimming with us in Cannes?! 🦈 Drop your shark emojis and must see speakers in the comments below. 🎟 Register to reserve your spot: https://lnkd.in/ebBEJ8J2

Deep Blue is excited to be playing a part in supporting the Wrexham Women's first ever U.S. tour. Get your tickets for the 7/19 & 7/21 Los Angeles games below! 🎟 Wrexham AFC 7/19: https://lnkd.in/d-xR_YDv 7/21: https://lnkd.in/d58QVKse