Why We Invested: Baller League
At Courtside, we’ve been closely tracking a dynamic of two potentially competitive forces in sports content: 1) unprecedented demand for new IP among sports fans and 2) changing consumer viewership preferences seeking short-form experiences.
While equally important and noteworthy in their own right, together, these two trends have had an unexpected impact that we’ve been exploring as we search for investment opportunities best positioned to capitalize on these collective trends.
It is with this backdrop that we are excited to announce our latest investment into one of the most exciting modern sports IP properties we’ve ever come across: Baller League. Founded by media & entertainment executive and pro soccer insider, Felix Starck, Baller League is an emerging league bringing a new era of soccer competition to various parts of the world. Started in Germany and now expanding into the US and UK, the league offers a brand new six-a-side format made for and distributed through streaming platforms such as YouTube, TikTok, and Twitch. Catering to a massive cohort of younger soccer fans globally, the league offers 11 matches over the course of the season, each only 30 minutes long with innovative rules that keep competition and entertainment levels high.
Beyond the innovative structure of the league itself, Baller League’s distribution method is what caught our eye most when evaluating the opportunity. From Day 1, Baller League has attracted key personalities across each of its markets to act as distribution and a driving force behind its free-to-stream offering. In Germany, the league has seen support from former professionals including Luis Figo, John Terry, and dozens more. In conjunction with the league’s US & UK launches (the latter set for March 24th), Baller League has similarly attracted key former professionals, but has also brought in major creators including Olajide Olatunji (known as KSI) and Darren Jason Watkins Jr (known as IShowSpeed), who combine to bring more than 58M YouTube subscribers to the platform.
In a world where younger sports fans are following players and personalities more than leagues and teams, Baller League is tapping into a revolutionary shift in content consumption: using athletes and creators as distribution instead of leaning solely on paid channels. This has led to astounding viewership and Tier 1 sponsorship interest in Seasons 1 & 2 of Germany alone, with similar momentum leading into the US & UK launches in 2025.
There has never been a time in history with greater consumer appetite for sports content than today. In the US, 96M people watched live sports on digital platforms in 2023, marking the first time digital viewership surpassed traditional television engagement. On the international stage, recent worldwide sporting events have reached historic viewership levels, with the ICC Men’s T20 Cricket World Cup attracting 2.6 billion viewers, the 2024 Paris Olympics registering over 3 billion viewers, and the UEFA Euro 2024 tournament in Germany bringing in an astounding 5 billion viewers. This global surge has led to unprecedented growth in the value of sports media rights, which collectively surpassed $60B globally for the first time ever in 2024
In spite of all this growth and demand, the modern world of short-form, hyper-changing content loops are changing the way younger generations consume content…with traditional sports IP largely hamstrung in its ability to adapt. With only 19% of younger fans wanting to watch full sports games, 34% of younger fans preferring highlights over full games, and short-form sports content expected to grow in value by 100% over the next year (faster than the value of live media rights), it’s abundantly clear that younger sports fans are seeking their content in shorter bursts over social media compared to traditional, long-form viewership on television.
While emerging leagues cater perfectly to this phenomenon, not all are created equal. Over the past two years, there has been a notable rise in the formation of emerging leagues, with significant investor interest across the board. We’ve seen multiple examples of leagues pop up recently in fresh categories like golf, snowboarding, sailing, and many more. While we at Courtside we have closely followed all of these launches to date and have made previous league investments in IP such as Drone Racing League (sold to Infinite Reality for $250M), we’ve continued to search for leagues that specifically offer new sports IP but, more importantly, accomplish the rare feat of appealing to traditional sports fans while simultaneously offering modern distribution that caters to a younger demographic hooked on short-form content, something Baller League is tailor-made to accomplish and in our opinion is a perfect fit to succeed as a key sports IP of the future.
