It’s no secret that the NBA has been losing viewership in recent years, something the league has often sought to address with creative and successful solutions inspired by women’s basketball. These learnings could lead to increased collaboration between men’s and women’s hoops, including a shift in how the men’s game interacts with the women’s.

Unrivaled is leaning into its name with its inaugural 1v1 tournament, an uncommon format in pro basketball leagues like the WNBA and NBA. Although the idea of an in-season tournament and a casual 1v1 knockout tourney isn’t new, capitalizing on both concepts in a professional league is.

Yesterday, sports data platform Relo Metrics released a report on 2024 sponsorship across six major American sports leagues, including the WNBA. The leagues generated over $11B in sponsor media value (SMV) amid a 15% jump YoY in sports sponsorship, meaning this space is more profitable than ever — especially in rising leagues like the WNBA.

Birth control company Opill leveled up its WNBA partnership yesterday by increasing its collegiate campus presence. The two brands teamed up with the Black Women’s Health Imperative for IRL activations designed to inform Black women about their reproductive health and improve health equity while reaching another crucial demographic: college students.

Another group has entered the WNBA expansion chat. Yesterday, the NHL’s Nashville Predators’ chairman and former Tennessee state governor Bill Haslam and wife Crissy announced a bid to bring the W’s 16th team to Nashville, Tennessee.

A new Nielsen report illustrates how Black Americans are “power TV viewers” who consume video content at a higher rate than the general population and are loyal women’s sports fans. In fact, they have been a critical demographic in driving the growth of women’s basketball over time and have favored committed advertisers in the space.

As seen from the craze surrounding Victor Wembanyama’s first NBA game on French soil yesterday, the European nation is quickly becoming a basketball hotspot. And it’s not just the NBA that stands to benefit — women’s basketball is primed to capitalize on the American sports trend of going overseas.

Unrivaled saw solid viewership numbers for its opening night doubleheader, indicating the 3v3 pro women’s basketball league is off to a strong start. Keep scrolling for some major takeaways from Unrivaled’s early numbers.

It’s been a year since the NCAA extended its ESPN media rights partnership, which includes coverage of the women’s March Madness tournament. While women’s college hoops fans wanted it to have a separate media deal like the men’s, the tourney has still been able to make meaningful progress toward getting its athletes paid.

The College Football Playoff (CFP) National Championship isn’t the only significant collegiate event on Monday — the inaugural Coretta Scott King Classic (CSKC), a first-of-its-kind women’s basketball doubleheader, will air on Fox ahead of CFP kickoff.

Yesterday, the WNBA’s Toronto Tempo announced Sephora Canada as the team’s first founding partner and official beauty partner. It’s a major step forward for sports newcomer Sephora — which recently signed a multiyear U.S. partnership with Unrivaled — as it quickly covers ground in women’s basketball, where the next generation of beauty shoppers is sitting courtside.

In a recent SB Nation interview, Unrivaled president Alex Bazzell confirmed the new 3v3 pro women’s basketball league boasts a salary pool exceeding $8M. That’s a $242K average salary for the league’s 33 players (and $222K if all 36 spots are filled), exceeding the WNBA’s current $214K max salary. This doesn’t consider player equity or revenue sharing, which is worth millions.