Sports Media Report
TeamWorks Media, the parent company of La Vida Baseball, today announced the launch of La Vida Sports, a newly created business to connect brands, media companies and content creators with the LatinX community, the largest growing and most underserved demographic in the U.S. La Vida Sports is a natural progression of TeamWorks Media’s development and growth of La Vida Baseball which launched in 2017. More than $10 million of investment capital has been committed to develop La Vida Baseball and La Vida Sports.
“We have had a growing number of clients, from brands to media companies to leagues and teams, come to us and say ‘we’ve seen how your reaching the LatinX audience through baseball, but we’d like you to help us with our ability to connect with audience in other ways’ to the point where we know we are responding to an important business need,” said Jay Sharman, CEO of TeamWorks Media. “Our opportunity is to help solve this gap for clients to connect with English, Spanish and bilingual fans by leveraging our decades of experience producing engaging content and building media platforms to the vital and underserved Latinx audience. Very few have the track record or cultural understanding of the Latinx audience like our La Vida Sports team does and we are excited about this opportunity to empower millions of fans at the intersection of culture and sports.”
“We’ve demonstrated the concept of building an engaged audience and delivering culturally relevant content,” said Jesse Menendez, Managing Director of La Vida Baseball. “What we do within La Vida Baseball has always been transferable. We’re expert storytellers and each sport is brimming with incredible Latinx stories that demand to be told. We’ve supported others with their engagement within the Latinx space; so now to meet the demand for culturally rich content, we are proud to expand our scope with the launch of La Vida Sports.”
Menendez further added, “This move allows us to expand our mission beyond one sport. We truly believe in creating inroads into the Latinx community in a way that amplifies the incredible stories that exist. We’ve done this for current partners at Marquee Sports Network, NBC Sports Chicago, Minute Media and look forward to many more.”
La Vida Sports contains three business units, delivering both Spanish and English language solutions:
Consulting – Research clients’ existing approach to the LatinX marketplace, build new revenue-generating roadmaps, and implement new creative strategies and execution plans.
Content Studios – Expand existing resources to create, execute and manage turn-key Latinx-focused content solutions for media companies and brands, similar to La Vida Baseball’s recent projects with Turner Sports, MLB, NBC Sports, Topps, Goose Island and the Smithsonian.
Media Publishing – La Vida Baseball, the four-year old LatinX baseball and culture media company, provides daily, year-round content to US & Latin American baseball fans reaching 10 million per month. A trusted award-winning supplier, La Vida Baseball is currently producing primetime TV content for NBC Sports Chicago, Marquee Sports Network and will have new content partnerships to announce soon.
“La Vida Baseball has a stellar reputation in the industry for creating culturally relevant sports lifestyle content,” added Carlos Sanchez, EVP and GM, FOX Deportes. “The expansion to create a company dedicated to connecting with the rapidly growing US LatinX population in both English and Spanish through all sports makes a ton of sense given the momentum in the marketplace and brands’ increased awareness of this important audience.”
In recent months, TeamWorks Media has launched a partnership with NBC Sports Chicago for content around Ozzie Guillen and his sons, ‘Being Guillén,’ with other projects that include ‘Locker Room Talk’, a weekly show highlighting the achievements of women and Latinas in sports hosted by Julie Alexandria and Jennifer Mercedes, ‘Pólvora, Voz & Diamante’, a high-energy Spanish language show hosted by Jesse Castillo, a two-time Mexican League MVP, Polo Ascencio, the Cardinals Spanish language broadcaster, and Mexican rock star Pliego Villarreal, as well as a Latino Heritage Month show on Chicago Cubs Marquee Sports Network.
More programs and a now expanded portfolio outside of baseball will be coming in the fourth quarter and in 2022.
