Unrivaled 3-on-3 women's basketball league
Courtesy: Unmatched
Unrivaled, a new women's 3-on-3 professional basketball league, launches Friday and represents both a major test and an opportunity for women's sports to boost its growing profile in the United States.
The league, co-founded by WNBA superstars Napheesa Collier and Breanna Stewart, has already announced deals with a dozen sponsors and raised $35 million in funding. Collier told CNBC that the league has already shown it has “immense” potential and opportunity.
“If you invest in the players and in women’s sports, I think we’re already seeing a return,” she said. “This is just the beginning for us. It’s the first year and we’ve already been able to do this, so we’re really excited about the future.”
The games will continue to be broadcast Owned by Warner Bros. Discovery TNT Sports platforms under a multi-year media rights deal. TV ratings will be important not only in terms of total viewership but also demographics, said Lee Berke, president and CEO of sports consulting firm LHB Sports, Entertainment & Media.
“You're looking for an audience that tends to be younger, men and women watching, you're looking for the size of the audience,” Berke told CNBC. “Obviously there’s a lot of hype on the first day. You want to see the audience grow and expand as the season progresses.”
Here's what you should know about Unrivaled before the first clue:
This is how the league works
In the first season of Unrivaled, six teams play against each other for two months. The season culminates in a four-team playoff tournament, with the championship taking place on March 17. A 1v1 player tournament is also planned for mid-season.
The games are played in a 3-on-3 format and take place on a smaller court compared to WNBA courts. They last one hour and air Fridays and Mondays on TNT and Saturdays on TruTV. Games can also be streamed on WBDs Max.
All games will be played at the Mediapro US venue in Medley, Florida, a suburb of Miami. The season takes place during the WNBA offseason and is intended to provide an alternative to playing abroad.
Many WNBA players spend their offseasons playing for teams in Russia, China and other countries to supplement their income. However, the WNBA collective bargaining agreement signed in 2020 now suspends players without pay for the season if they do not return from their overseas teams in time for training camp. WNBA training camp begins April 27th.
“It's trying to fill a gap in these players' calendars. It expands the trajectory of professional basketball,” Alex Bazzell, president of Unrivaled and husband of Collier, previously told CNBC.
How players get paid
Unrivaled will also pay many players a higher salary than the WNBA. The total salary pool is over $8 million, Bazzell told SB Nation, which averages out to about $242,000 per player this season. Players also receive equity and revenue shares from the league, which says it offers the highest average salary in the history of the women's professional sports league.
At a news conference Friday, Bazzell said the league does not have a minimum or maximum salary, but that pay is based in part on what competitors and other women's sports leagues pay.
“We're taking an extremely aggressive approach when you look at the entire landscape and the entire ecosystem,” Bazzell said. “We try to look at numerous things: What might you be doing abroad? What do you do in the WNBA? How can we beat those numbers, honestly, to make it worth it for them?”
WNBA annual salaries currently range from a minimum of $66,079 to a maximum of $249,244 for core players. Only one player per WNBA team can be named a core player and earn this amount.
Unrivaled Basketball League: Rae Burrell
Courtesy: Unmatched
Who is involved?
The league has 36 participants in its first season, all of whom played in the WNBA last year. There are 15 2024 WNBA All Stars on the roster, led by first-team All-WNBA honorees Collier, Stewart and Alyssa Thomas. Other notable players include Sabrina Ionescu, Brittney Griner and Angel Reese.
Unrivaled has raised $35 million from its seed and Series A rounds from a variety of high-profile investors. His supporters include basketball stars like Giannis Antetokounmpo and Carmelo Anthony, as well as Olympians like Alex Morgan and Michael Phelps. Tennis star Coco Gauff was announced as a new investor on January 6th.
Collier said while everyone else now recognizes the rise of women's sports, athletes recognized the value of the industry early on.
“I think people in sports have known this for a long time,” Collier said. “Seeing the support from other athletes is really encouraging. They believe in us so much, it was really nice to see.”
Unrivaled's corporate partners, Collier added, are aligned with their vision to grow the sport.
“We have said for a long time that this is not a charity. This is a great business opportunity and these brands have recognized that,” said Collier. “Not only do they do this out of the goodness of their hearts, they also believe in the growth of women’s sports. But they also do it because they know this is something that has great potential to be profitable.”
About a dozen companies have signed sponsorship deals with Unrivaled, including Sephora, State Farm, Wilson, Ally Financial and Samsung. Most recently, Unrivaled named Sprite as the presenting partner of the 1v1 tournament and Bodyarmor as the official sports drink.
“It's hugely impressive, both in terms of the number of sponsors, the quality of the sponsors and the fact that they are non-traditional sports sponsors,” Berke said.
TNT Sports' announcers and studio hosts for unparalleled coverage include Basketball Hall of Famer Lisa Leslie and two-time WNBA MVP Candace Parker.
Why it matters
Unrivaled's debut comes amid a surge in national interest in women's sports — particularly basketball.
The WNBA in particular experienced a resurgence with former college stars Caitlin Clark, Cameron Brink and Reese leading an attention-grabbing rookie class. The league said it broke an all-time record with more than 54 million unique viewers during the season and posted its best in-person viewership numbers in 22 years.
Last year's WNBA Finals, in which the New York Liberty defeated the Minnesota Lynx in five games, was the league's most-watched championship series in 25 years, according to ESPN.
The WNBA is expanding the Finals from a best-of-five format to a best-of-seven series starting next year. Next season, the company will also introduce its 13th franchise, the Golden State Valkyries, and will add teams in Toronto and Portland, Oregon in 2026.
Both the WNBA and its players are poised to capitalize on the momentum.
The league may re-evaluate its current 11-year, $2.2 billion media rights deal after 2028, CNBC previously reported, and the WNBA players union withdrew from its current collective bargaining agreement in October. A new agreement that would take effect after next season could offer players higher salaries and more benefits, and the increased attention given to WNBA athletes gives them greater influence at the negotiating table.
“Unrivaled” will have a major impact on the business of women’s basketball, Collier told CNBC.
“We’re already seeing it expand the landscape. Foreign contracts are increasing, other domestic league contracts are increasing,” Collier said. “We’re trying to expand the normal mindset in the business of women’s sports and you’ll definitely see us pushing for the same things in the CBA.”
—CNBC's Lillian Rizzo, Jake Piazza and Alex Sherman contributed to this report.
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