Sports Media Report
The National Lacrosse League (@NLL), the longest running and most successful professional lacrosse league in the world, and WAVE, the sports media company for today’s fan, today announced a content and sales agreement that will increase the volume of lacrosse coverage across WAVE’s portfolio of media brands, while expanding the NLL’s fan base across the US.
The agreement will include the distribution of NLL athlete, franchise and league content where applicable across WAVE’s entire portfolio of media brands. The first-of-its-kind, 360-degree nature of this partnership allows for WAVE and the NLL to collectively work with brands to offer new sponsorship inventory within WAVE’s programming.
“We are a sport and league of first adopters and innovative digital strategies, so being able to expand our reach of storytelling with WAVE is a great next step for us,” said NLL Commissioner Nick Sakiewicz. “The majority of our fans in arena are less lacrosse enthusiasts and more fans who love the action and excitement of our league, and this partnership will expand that growing base of fans while also giving WAVE’s 60 million followers and subscribers content matched to their passions as well.”
“Within sports entertainment, there are fandoms that exist across every single genre of sport. Since our inception, we have been going fandom by fandom to launch a portfolio of media brands, mastering programming formats for core and emerging digital platforms, and re-imagining the same stories and IP sports fans have cared about for years, into programming best suited for our audience.” said Brian Verne, co-founder and CEO, WAVE. “There is such a large, engaged fanbase surrounding the sport of box lacrosse, and the NLL is confident in our ability to drive fandom around their content. We are thrilled to be working with such a strong organization and cannot wait to see how the partnership will grow.”
The NLL and WAVE will work together in this partnership to create new programming that WAVE will distribute across social media. This will heavily promote the NLL as they head into their 35th season and showcases WAVE’s ability to become the next arm for rights holders’ distribution strategies.
The content partnership will also complement the NLL’s live games available on Turner’s BR LIVE platform and will serve as a key cross promotional tool for all NLL action.
