In recent years, the professional sports world has looked and felt a lot like Silicon Valley. Huge investments — from private equity to sovereign wealth funds — are pouring in, and new leagues are forming with a frequency similar to that of tech start-ups.
Visibility and the potential for ultra-high valuations (and eventual sales) are among the many perks that attract sports investors. But even as sports fandom continues to grow, it’s unlikely that all of these upstart leagues will be able to succeed.
Below, we evaluate eight of the most prominent leagues founded from 2020 onward across several metrics, and offer a perspective on their long-term viability.
League: TGL (Indoor Professional Golf)
Founded: 2025
Broadcast Partner(s): Multiyear deal with ESPN
Viewership: ~500k per match
Social Media Following: ~575k across Instagram, TikTok and X
Brand Support: SoFi, Best Buy, AG1, Genesis, FanDuel, FedEx, MasterCard
Future Outlook: Strong. Golf has long been clamoring for a fast-paced, modern update, and Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy may have finally found just that with their upstart Tomorrow’s Golf League (TGL). The two-hour, once-weekly, technology-infused indoor golf competition beat viewership expectations and produced plenty of viral moments (including an impromptu performance of “My Heart Will Go On” by Celine Dion) in its inaugural regular season, which featured six teams comprised of some of the game’s biggest stars. A women’s division is also rumored to be coming to the league soon, another sign that TGL is well-positioned for future growth.
League: Unrivaled (Women’s 3v3 Basketball)
Founded: 2025
Broadcast Partner(s): Six year, ~$100M deal with TNT
Average TV viewership: ~200k per game
Social Media Following: ~329k across Instagram, TikTok and X
Brand Support: Sephora, Sprite, Ally, State Farm, Ticketmaster, Under Armour, VistaPrint, Icy Hot, Miller Lite
Future Outlook: Strong. Unlike some other upstart leagues, Unrivaled was founded to fill a legitimate market need: A place for WNBA players to stay competitive during the offseason without having to go overseas. This, alongside a roster of blue-chip brand partners offering all kinds of player perks, allowed the league to attract the best talent. Plus, its smaller, quicker 3v3 format and unique rules make for compelling content, reflected by solid average viewership figures in its inaugural season and a nine-figure television deal with TNT. With network executives already in talks to bring the league on the road next year, Unrivaled is poised to become a mainstay in the professional women’s basketball world.
League: LIV Golf
Founded: 2022
Broadcast Partner(s): Multiyear deal with Fox Sports
Viewership: ~100k per tournament
Social Media Following: ~2.3M across Instagram, TikTok and X
Brand Support: Maaden, Riyadh Air, Bahri, CES Power, New Era
Future Outlook: Serious doubt. In contrast to the other upstart golf league on this list, things are a bit more bleak for LIV. After airing on the CW for several years, LIV’s first event broadcast by new television partner Fox Sports last month averaged a minuscule ~40,000 viewers. (It’s worth noting that LIV’s CW viewership figures rarely exceeded the low-hundred-thousands, too). While the league will likely never be strapped for cash thanks to its backing by the wealth fund of Saudi Arabia, these ratings raise serious questions about the relevancy of a golf league that isn’t significantly differentiated from the PGA. Additionally, LIV’s association with Middle Eastern money has also made many American advertisers allergic to the league. Still, LIV’s massive social following and many social media-inclined players can’t be discounted. It may find a better long-term home as a digital-first property.
League: Professional Women’s Hockey League (PWHL)
Founded: 2024
Broadcast Partner(s): YouTube in the U.S., TSN in Canada
Viewership: ~130k per game in the U.S., ~700,000 per game in Canada
Social Media Following: ~385k across Instagram, TikTok and X
Brand Support: Shark, Ninja, Scotiabank, Barbie, EA Sports, Bread Financial
Future Outlook: Healthy. The PWHL’s story thus far is two-fold; it’s an unequivocal success in Canada, but is still finding its footing in the United States. Average viewership figures for the former are consistently three times that of the latter. That said, there are several signs that the league has a viable fanbase to cultivate here at home. Chief among these is the success of the league’s “Takeover Tour,” wherein two of its six teams face-off at a neutral, non-PWHL site. Just last weekend, the league broke the U.S. attendance record for professional women’s hockey (14,288) and notched its one-millionth fan at its Detroit Takeover Tour stop, which saw the Minnesota Frost take on the New York Sirens. With interest and participation in girls hockey on the rise across North America, expect the PWHL to keep breaking records for many years to come.
League: Women’s Lacrosse League (WLL)
Founded: 2025
Broadcast Partner(s): Games are available to stream on ESPN+
Viewership: Numbers unknown
Social Media Following: ~97k across Instagram, TikTok and X
Brand Support: Maybelline, Whirlpool, Lexus
Future Outlook: Too early to tell. The WLL is one of the first leagues born explicitly out of the recent women’s sports boom. And while explicit viewership numbers are not available to date, the league said its inaugural championship was the “most streamed women’s professional lacrosse game ever on ESPN+.” This bodes well for the league’s future, as does its backing by a host of big brands, including title sponsor Maybelline — part of a broader trend of beauty brands aligning themselves with women’s sports properties. Ultimately though, lacrosse is still a rather niche sport. The WLL’s male companion league, the PLL, has been around for more than five years and has still yet to breakthrough in a major way. The sport will likely require a transcendent player to bring it into the spotlight permanently. The most likely time for such a player to arise is 2028, when women’s lacrosse will take the Olympic field for the first time ever.
League: UFL
Founded: 2024
Broadcast Partner(s): Mulityear deal with Fox Sports and ESPN
Viewership: ~816k per game
Social Media Following: ~1.6M across Instagram, TikTok and X
Brand Support: Under Armour, Gatorade, ZOA Energy, Teremana Tequila, Molson Coors
Future Outlook: Strongish. With the UFL, a long-term spring football solution has likely been achieved. The league, which is the result of a merger between the XFL and USFL, saw consistently high viewership in its inaugural season last year and recently launched its first ever expansion process. It also enjoys a large, engaged social media following thanks, in part, to its more laidback style of play, which produces plenty of viral moments. As long as another, new competitor league doesn’t spring up and steal screentime, the future is bright for the UFL. The biggest challenge to the league’s long-term prosperity may be labor issues that have emerged before the start of the new season.
League: Professional Volleyball Federation (PVF)
Founded: 2024
Broadcast Partner(s): CBS and Fox Sports
Viewership: ~30k per match
Social Media Following: ~122k across Instagram, TikTok and X
Brand Support: Franklin Sports, Spalding, FICO
Future Outlook: Questionable. Volleyball is the most popular youth girl’s sport and is growing more popular at the collegiate level every year, but this energy hasn’t trickled up to the professional level — yet. The PVF’s average fan attendance was just over 4,000 during its first season last year, and has been roughly the same through the first half of its second season this year. Though not terrible, those numbers are still nothing in comparison to the tens of thousands that big time college programs like Nebraska and Texas are consistently bringing in. Ultimately, the long-term future of the PVF likely hinges on the success (or lack thereof) of fellow upstart league, League One Volleyball, which just launched in January. While the pipeline of young talent in the sport is strong, it’s likely not big enough to sustain two professional properties.
League: Major League Pickleball (MLP)
Founded: 2021
Broadcast Partner(s): ESPN2, YouTube
Viewership: ~200k per tournament
Social Media Following:~139k across Instagram, TikTok and X
Brand Support: EltaMD, Malk, Margaritaville, Gatorade
Future Outlook: Questionable. Pickleball’s growth has been well-documented in recent years. The sport has seemingly resonated with everyone from retirees to young singles. But interest in pickleball as a pastime is not totally translating to interest in the sport as a media property. As Awful Announcing has reported on in the past, it’s a little boring to watch, and the consistently middling ratings of MLP tournaments reflect this. So no matter how many dedicated “dupr’s” the sport attracts in real life, pickleball’s ability to get casual fans to tune in will likely be limited.