Stephen A. Smith Is the Face of ESPN. How Much Is That Worth ...

The league entered talks at a time when the sports rights market was tightening, economic headwinds were rising, and TV ratings were flattening. Before negotiations started, some thought the NBA would struggle to achieve a significant increase over its current nine-year, $24 billion deal. Instead, as Front Office Sports has learned, the league coul... See more

Thus, as the cable-tv-dominated status quo crumbles, pro sports will develop a new playbook, centered around better telling player stories. Players will also have more opportunity to tell and sell these stories themselves, direct-to-consumer:

When we spoke to Josh, he mentioned how shockingly under-monetized esports is: “The average NFL viewer is valued at, like, $45 per fan or something; esports is at around $3. Especially in esports, the viewer has been trained to get too much value for free.”