By Jon Prabhu and Alyssa Wood @MKTG

We’re just halfway through the first month of 2025 and there are already multiple new leagues hitting the sports market. Tiger's TGL has achieved some impressive early numbers with over a million live viewers, beating out the NBA games it was up against. Now it's the turn of the highly anticipated women’s 3-on-3 basketball league, Unrivaled, which tips off tonight in Miami and on TNT.  But whichever way the ball falls on the court, this league has already racked up some serious buzz.  Here are four reasons Unrivaled is succeeding where other sports start-ups often struggle:

1. They’re addressing a glaring inequity with women’s basketball – and they have a powerful story to tell:  WNBA players have spent decades facing a number of unsettling challenges compared to their NBA counterparts, most notably unequable pay and spending their offseason playing abroad in international leagues varying in quality. Unrivaled keeps the best players at home, competing in a format that creates meaningful off-season play, compensates the average participant financially with 5x their entire WNBA salary, and all the while helps the league promote their best players year-round.

2. They’ve got the right people invested (literally and figuratively): League founders Breanna Stewart and Napheesa Collier capitalized on the boom of women’s sports to get the right leadership in place, led by long-time WTA executive Micky Lawler as Commissioner. Additional investments from notable figures, such as Michael Phelps, Dawn Staley, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Coco Gauff, and Juju Watkins, round out a star-studded roster of stakeholders. Add in a financial stake for each participating player and you’ve got an arsenal of walking brand ambassadors that are all committed to amplifying exposure and sustained success.

3.  They’re rightly prioritizing eyeballs and interest over revenue – at least in the near term: It’s become commonplace for challenger sports to put much of their content behind a paywall – sacrificing eyeballs for short-term value. Unrivaled realized that traditional broadcast was critical to long term success, and as a result, partnered with TNT Sports to broadcast games via live telecast on TNT and truTV in addition to Max. This strategy gives casual and avid fans alike the chance to fall in love with the product and players, create long-term fandom, and sustain interest between WNBA seasons.

4.  They found the perfect founding partner in Ally, now the sponsorship floodgates have opened: Securing early-stage sponsorships is another place where start-up properties often falter, as blue-chip brands can be hesitant to take a leap of faith before proof of concept. Unrivaled nailed their founding partner with Ally – a brand synonymous with championing women’s sports. Their immediate alignment with Unrivaled’s vision and investment in activating their partnership boosted the league’s legitimacy and overall profile. As a result, the next six months yielded a major influx of major partners, such as Under Armour, Samsung, State Farm, Ticketmaster, Miller Lite, Sprite, amongst others, fueling long-term league feasibility.

We’ve long since entered an era where sports have become an entertainment product first and foremost – fans are constantly inundated with the next challenger league competing for their attention. So, despite all of the buzz and positive momentum, the question remains: will Unrivaled set themselves apart from LOVB Pro, TGL, Major League Pickleball, and all of the others? Suffice to say, at least in the upfront, they’ve pushed all of the right buttons in capturing our attention and giving us a reason to care. Only time will tell if Unrivaled will be a long-term success once the honeymoon period ends, but at least for now, we’re tuning in.