#126 🆕 The Cheat Sheet to 10 New Sports Leagues

News, features & insights from the world of Sports Tech & Biz. Every Week.

With so many new leagues and formats popping up, we felt we needed a cheat sheet - a quick summary to make sense of everything that’s going on. So we made one, and shared it here.

As always, have a great weekend.

10 New Sports Leagues & Emerging Formats

Personally, we’ve really enjoyed watching Baller League UK. The football quality is solid, and the entertainment value - especially from the influencer commentary and vlogs - is high. The ‘Gamechangers’ are gimmicky, but generally add to the fun.

The future of football? Probably not, but we definitely expect them to stick around for a while. With that in mind, this week we broke down 10 new leagues & formats, across 7 sports.

Not all of them will stick, but a few definitely could. And we’ll be keeping a close eye on their progress.

FOOTBALL / SOCCER

⚽ 1. Kings League + Kings World Cup: Football meets Fortnite rules

• Launched: 2022 (Spain), global expansion in 2025

• Founded by: Gerard Piqué and Ibai Llanos

• Format: 7-a-side football with fan-voted rules, wildcard cards, and mic’d-up referees

• Viewership: 1.5 billion social impressions, 100M+ global viewers, 40K in-stadium attendance at the World Cup final in Turin

• Why It Matters: It’s football turned entertainment engine- think Twitch, TikTok, and chaos. Sponsors like Adidas and Cupra are on board, and its digital-native approach is influencing even UEFA’s youth engagement strategy.

⚽ 2. Queens League: Women’s football, reimagined

• Launched: 2023

• Format: Mirrors Kings League with 7-a-side matches, viral rules, and a heavy Twitch presence

• Viewership: 56.1K avg viewers, 4.6M hours watched on Twitch

• Why It Matters: It’s not just the women’s version, it’s showing that alternative formats can be vehicles for serious women’s sport viewership and creator collaboration. More than half the team owners are female influencers and athletes.

⚽ 3. Baller League: Indoor football gets a rebrand

• Launched: 2024 (Germany), 2025 (UK & USA)

• Format: 6-a-side indoor football with creator-led teams, livestream-first presentation

• Funding: $35M+

• Viewership: Over 62K across Season 3

• Why It Matters: Think of it as the Kings League, but starting in Germany and taking over the world with the UK and USA following pretty quickly. Fast gameplay, short halves, and media-trained creators as captains. Early signs suggest it’s ripe for youth crossover and brand integration.

Honourable mention: Icon League

BASKETBALL

🏀 4. BIG3: 3-on-3 Basketball, but with legends and flair

• Launched: 2017

• Founded by: Ice Cube

• Format: 3v3 basketball with 4-point circles, ex-NBA and global stars, city-based teams from 2025

• Funding: Over $80M raised

• Viewership: 515K avg TV audience (CBS), 14K in-person fans per weekend

• Why It Matters: An OG of this trend. It’s more than a nostalgia league – BIG3 has built its own fandom and monetization model, including NFT team ownership. With home markets now launching, it’s scaling up.

🏀 5. Unrivaled: Player-owned women’s basketball

• Launched: 2025

• Founded by: Breanna Stewart, Napheesa Collier

• Format: 6 teams, 6-player rosters, 3-on-3 full-court games in a custom-built arena in Miami

• Funding: $43.7M raised from investors including Giannis Antetokounmpo, Michael Phelps, and Coco Gauff

• Viewership: 377K from initial streams

• Why It Matters: Players earn ~$222K each + equity stakes. It’s a statement league. WNBA stars creating their own product, production value, and revenue share. First of its kind.

OTHER SPORTS

🎾 6. Intennse – Tennis meets team sport

• Launched: 2024

• What’s New: 10-minute timed “Bolts”, one serve per point, team-based format with coaching timeouts and fan cheering encouraged mid-point.

• Backed by: Early-stage private investors, building local franchises in the U.S.

• Why It Matters: Tennis has lacked innovation for years. Intennse compresses gameplay into a Gen Z-friendly format with a music-festival feel and no traditional etiquette rules. The league is designed for fast streaming, social media, and future broadcast partners.

🏃 7. Grand Slam Track – Track and field goes league-style

• Launched: 2025

• Founded by: Four Olympic golds. Countless records. Sprinting royalty—Michael Johnson.

• Format: 4 major events per year (“Slams”), featuring head-to-head races and points-based league standings.

• Funding: Raised $30 million seed round (led by athletics-focused investors and private equity).

• Why It Matters: Unlike the one-off nature of Diamond League meets, this model builds season-long storylines and recurring rivalries. Peacock has picked up early broadcast rights and the athlete-first revenue share model is a big draw.

⛳ 8. Tomorrow’s Golf League (TGL) – Golf in prime-time, indoors

• Launched: 2025

• Backed by: Tiger Woods, Rory McIlroy, Serena Williams, Alexis Ohanian, and major team ownership groups

• Format: 6 city-based teams, playing 15-hole matches in a simulator-equipped arena (SoFi Center, Florida).

• Funding: Nearly $500 million in Series A valuation

• Viewership: 502,000 average TV viewers per match across 15 broadcasts (early 2025)

• Why It Matters: Let’s be honest, for most people Golf is slow and long. TGL solves both issues with two-hour, high-production, made-for-TV matches. Built for storytelling, fan interaction, and second-screen engagement.

⛳ 9. 3ICE – Offseason hockey, turned up to 11

• Launched: 2022

• Format: 3-on-3, full-rink ice hockey with no stoppages and only 6 minutes per half

• Funding: $14.9M raised

• Viewership: Canada vs USA face-off final drew 16.2M+ viewers across ESPN/Sportsnet

• Why It Matters: Built for highlight reels and betting overlays. It’s an NHL-style product condensed into one-hour tournaments, held in multiple cities. Think of it as the “T20 of hockey.”

🏏 10. The Hundred – Shorter cricket with equal billing

• Launched: 2021, new investment in 2025

• Backed by: ECB

• Format: 100 balls per side, city-based franchises, men’s and women’s games on the same day

• Funding: £520M+ in franchise value, $650M total investment

• Viewership & Attendance: 540K broadcast viewers (2024); 4.1M total in-person attendees

• Why It Matters: It’s doing what T20 couldn’t – gender parity, family-focused attendance, and massive commercial potential. Already inspired women’s cricket spinoffs across South Asia.

Why are these leagues important?

• They shorten games for modern attention spans

• They favor streaming over traditional TV

• They empower athletes as founders, not just players

• And they treat sport as entertainment-first, competition-second

Not every new league will survive (many will face growing pains in monetization and player recruitment), but collectively they are pushing the sports industry toward a more open, creative, and fan-centric future.

LAST CALL FOR FEATURES!

If you’re looking to promote your latest initiative in front of the global sports tech industry, whether it's:

• A new startup launch

• A product or technology breakthrough

• Partnerships or funding news

• Or any major announcement you want the industry to notice

The Global Sports Tech Ecosystem Report 2025 is your platform to go to.

You could reach 50,000+ industry professionals and investors, with 2,000+ direct downloads from top decision-makers across the sports tech landscape. (2024 edition here)

Top News from the World of Sports Tech & Biz

👟 Nike and Hyperice finally announced the long-awaited launch of the Hyperboot, footwear innovation designed to enhance athlete warm-up and recovery performance, including an air-compression massage while wearing the shoe. Retailing for $899 on May 17, 2025, in North America via their website and select locations.

🏎 EA Sports announced that F1 25, launching May 30, will feature LiDAR-based realism, smarter AI racing, and reverse track gameplay for the most accurate F1 simulation to date.

🏀 The Brooklyn Nets, in partnership with Ticketmaster and OneCourt, became the first East Coast pro sports team to offer free tactile broadcasts to fans at all home games.

🧠 Sports Innovation Lab launched the “AI Advantage Program,” designed to bring sports domain expertise to AI education through its Women’s Sports Club platform.

🏈 The NFL and Adobe announced a partnership to deliver AI-powered fan engagement, including personalized content creation using Adobe Express and Firefly.

🎥 Infinite Athlete signed a long-term partnership with AI video clipping platform Magnifi to enhance its broadcast capabilities.

📺 NESN partnered with ViewLift to upgrade its NESN 360 streaming platform, with new direct-to-consumer and TVE apps launching in summer 2025.

⛳ TGL is in advanced discussions to expand its team lineup and is actively exploring the launch of a women’s version of its tech-enabled golf league.

📺 ESPN is preparing for major shifts in its business model, including league partnerships and preparing to launch its own direct-to-consumer platform.

🏏 Major League Cricket (MLC) is planning expansion with a new franchise to be launched in 2027, backed by New Zealand investors, marking the league’s first international ownership group.

Money Talks:

💸 Dave Checketts and The Cynosure Group announced a new private equity joint venture with a $1.2 billion fund, targeting investments across global sports and media assets.

💰 Superpower, a health-tech startup, raised $30 million to launch what it claims is the world’s first all-in-one health super-app.

💰 ALT Sports Data, a San Diego-based provider of alternative sports betting data solutions, raised $5 million in funding to expand its analytics offering.

💰 Puresport, a UK-based performance supplement and hydration brand, raised $3.6 million in funding to scale its product line and retail distribution.

⚽ The Larry H. Miller family and Miller Sports + Entertainment finalized their acquisition of the controlling interest in RSL Football Holdings, owners of Real Salt Lake and Utah Royals FC.

Recap from our content archive:

🔙 STX Article: Innovative Fan Engagement- The Future of Sports in the Metaverse, Web3, and Beyond.

✅ STX Monthly: Last month’s sports tech dealflow, in case you missed it.

💪🏽 SportsTech AllStars Recap: Indian Sports Business and Tech Report series.