🏀 Why NBC is Hiding Caitlin Clark

Comedian Neal Brennan once said, “America doesn't have poor people, they have temporarily embarrassed millionaires.”

But what happens when one of those people actually strikes gold?

Well, then you get Steve Ballmer… you’ll see what I mean in a bit:

🗞 The Big Story: Apple’s Live Sports Takeover

📉 Biggest Loser: NBC is Paywalling Caitlin Clark

🏆 Winner’s Circle: Steve Ballmer’s Custom Hoop

🗞 The Big Story

Everyone is missing the point with Apple’s new score app.

Background: (Per Apple) Apple Sports is a free app for iPhone that gives sports fans access to real-time scores, stats, and more.

Designed for speed and simplicity, Apple has reportedly been perfecting this thing so it has game data that is as up-to-the-second as possible and even features a game clock that ticks down in real-time.

The app currently features scores from:

• MLS

• NBA

• NCAA basketball (men’s and women’s)

• NHL

• Bundesliga

• LaLiga

• Liga MX

• Ligue 1

• Premier League

• Serie A

Additional leagues will become available on Apple Sports over time, including MLB, NFL, NCAAF, NWSL, and WNBA for their upcoming seasons.

But it’s not the app I’m interested in. It’s what this app reveals for Apple’s plans in live sports.

Stage 1: The real genius of Apple Sports is that the company now has access to first-party data from millions of people to see which sports their users like and follow.

People are, of course, going to tend toward the major four sports leagues (NFL, NBA, MLB, and NHL), but it’s the other leagues that Apple is also launching with that will prove most valuable.

That’s because, if the company sees that a high proportion of their users are following live scores from lesser-known leagues, it might signal to them that they should:

1. Buy the rights to air games from those leagues AND/OR

2. Create unscripted series around them (see F1’s Drive to Survive)

Stage 2: This second part is more interesting to me, mainly because it’s been a relatively under-discussed aspect of Apple Sport’s launch:

It’s the fact that all the scores on the app feature live betting odds from DraftKings.

Now, at the time of this launch, Apple doesn’t have any betting integration or direct connection to the DraftKings app…

But I think that might be their next step.

I mean, just think about it: They literally ran the exact same playbook with the Apple Card where they just took an existing credit card from Goldman Sachs, slapped their brand on it, and integrated it into their ecosystem.

And that card went down as the most successful credit card launch ever.

Meanwhile, Apple was able to diversify its business without taking on any of the risks, so why wouldn’t they do the same with sports betting?

1. It’s a far more profitable business than streaming live sports

2. They wouldn’t have to build their own app.

They could just white-label an existing company’s technology and put “Apple Sports Betting” on everyone’s iPhone.

Honestly, don’t be surprised if this happens in the next couple of years.

📉 Biggest Loser

You couldn’t watch the biggest moment in basketball this year because NBC decided to air Law & Order reruns instead.

But this is actually a really good sign for women’s sports.

Background: As a part of NBC Sports’ seven-year contract with the Big 10, Iowa Women’s Basketball will have seven of its games aired on Peacock this year.

The most recent of which was when Caitlin Clark became the all-time leading scorer in women’s college basketball history.

But instead of moving the game to NBC, which can be seen by hundreds of millions of people, the network opted to keep the game behind a paywall and use their prime-time slot to run three reruns of Law & Order.

Big Numbers: The last time Caitlin Clark and Iowa played on NBC they averaged almost 2 million viewers, which is more than the entire NBA has been averaging all season, but because of:

1. Contractual obligations

2. A desire to highlight its own original programming

NBC passed up on the opportunity to let this historic moment be seen by millions more.

Big Miss: Amanda Christovich from Front Office Sports points out that this was a blown opportunity for NBC, and I agree, but there are some other factors at play:

For starters, Law and Order reruns average over 5 million viewers as compared to the 1.93 million people who watched Iowa’s last game on NBC.

Not to mention, the network is clearly making a concerted effort to promote its streaming product, especially after it had so much success with the Dolphins-Cheifs Wildcard game.

Silver Lining: However, Amanda Christivoich also points out that using Caitlin Clark and women’s basketball as a promotional tactic to drive viewership to Peacock is actually a really good sign for the sport.

Sure, it’s annoying for us viewers that a massive network is just trying to stuff their pockets even more, but it’s clear that women’s basketball drives viewership, otherwise they wouldn’t be putting it behind a paywall.

However, that still doesn’t change the fact that the women’s college game could grow even faster if networks weren’t trying to capitalize on every last important sporting event and instead invested in a sport that has already been undercovered for decades.

📥 We’re Hiring!

Uncle Charlie (my sports marketing agency) is hiring for several paid, part-time sports marketing internships this summer.

The role involves covering games live on Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok for the American Association of Professional Baseball.

If you, or someone you know, might be interested - send them this link to apply.

We’ll be closing applications at the end of the month!

🏆 Winner’s Circle

The Los Angeles Clippers just invented a new kind of basketball hoop just to please their owner.

Background: Steve Ballmer is funding the $2 billion construction of the Intuit Dome completely with his own money.

And this means that the new arena, which is set to be complete next year, will have some of the most ridiculous features in American sports.

Please Stay Seated: The arena is designed to keep its 18,000 fans in its seats for as long as possible.

Which is why Ballmer insisted there be a league-high 1,200 toilets and urinals around the stadium so one is never more than 60 seconds away.

Speaking of bathrooms, Ballmer has reportedly obsessed over the design of the sinks.

He even went on Paul George’s podcast and shared his disdain for shallow-bowled bathroom sinks, complaining how he hates it when there’s water on the bathroom floors:

So he requested that each sink be made deeper to avoid water splashing over, along with well-calibrated water pressure and ideal faucet angles.

Grab-and-Go: The venue will also feature checkout-free concession stands so that fans can simply:

• Scan their finger, palm, or face

• Pick the items they want off the shelf

• Simply walk away without ever having to take out their wallet

This is all in an effort to get fans back in their seats within 12 minutes, the length of an NBA halftime break.

‘The Wall’: For the most diehard fans, there will be a 51-row section called ‘The Wall’ where the opposing team’s gear isn’t allowed, and fans’ cheering levels will be monitored by sensors in the seats.

But Steve Ballmer is taking things even further:

• If you attend five games

• Show up early to each game

• You cheer loud enough (measured through the sensors in your seats)

You can claim rewards like, free food, at the arena for “exceptional behavior".”

Custom Hoop: But by far, the most ridiculous feature in Intuit Dome will be the new basketball hoop the team designed in collaboration with the NBA and Spalding.

Evidently, Steve Balmer is frustrated that he’s unable to see weakside corner threes from his base-line court-side seats.

So the team worked to design a custom stanchion that allows him to see all the way down the baseline so he doesn’t miss a single play anywhere on the court.

Honestly, you gotta respect this man’s dedication to the details. He’s just spending his money the same way any of us would if we were as rich as him.

⏱ In Other News

• Amazon Prime and the NFL just broke another record.

• EA Sports 25 is paying peanuts.

• MLB isn’t expanding… yet.

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Respond to this email with an emoji for how we can identify ourselves… I’ll report back with ideas next week.