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How I am seeing the field across sports, media, entertainment, wellness and CPG

No Huddle has spent a lot of time and research on the fan side of the sports, media, and entertainment world. From the in-game experience (Jump) to event planning (VOW) to e-commerce (Cheers Cash) to stadium developments, there’s no denying the convergence of focus, capital, and innovation on the fan side of the coin. More than ever before, teams, leagues, brands and entertainment companies are looking for smarter ways to understand and monetize their fans. If a stakeholder can better understand their fanbase, they unlock a new aspect of the value chain: targeted, strategic growth with the people most passionate about what they’re building. 

Passion in sports and entertainment cannot be understated. Fans travel, cheer, post and often spend beyond their means to support and feel part of their team or organization. Yet to date, many of these fans are just stagnant names in a database — if they show up in a team or league’s CRM at all. 

One thing that I haven’t covered so far? Online gaming. The scale of the online gaming industry is almost incomprehensible. We’re talking more than 3 billion active gamers and a market worth well over half a trillion dollars. To put that into perspective, that’s nearly half of the world’s population and roughly the combined populations of the US, China and India. 

The gaming industry is also well diversified. Women now make up nearly half of gamers globally and engage across similar communities, streams, and titles as men. Gaming also sits squarely in the Gen-Z sweet spot - a team and media company’s dream.

Interestingly enough, teams and leagues realized this years ago; however, they may have taken miscalculated approach by focusing on eSports. A few years ago, we saw a huge surge of teams and clubs launching or buying into eSports organizations, and other ownership groups entering the fray. While there is real ROI and impact to these initiatives, I believe the real treasure trove is the millions of “regular” gamers who come home from practice to play or stay up late with the Turtle Beach headset on, gaming and hanging with friends. These gamers also watch streams for hours on end - in Q2 2025 alone, viewers watched 5.1 billion hours of streams on Twitch and 2.2 billion on YouTube Gaming. The biggest signal though? These aren’t passive viewers letting a stream run in the background to keep their Teams dot green; these fans are actively participating in communities and comment sections while spending money both in-game and with the creators and brand they follow. 

See what I’m getting at? This online community is passionate and omnipresent, making it essential for teams, leagues, and brands to tap into. The time is now. 

Platforms like Rival are already helping forward-thinking organizations such as the Detroit Lions, New York Giants, and Detroit Pistons do exactly that by creating branded gaming hubs where fans compete in tournaments, earn rewards, and most importantly, provide the underlying data that teams need to grow their bottom line. 

Teams and leagues love to boast viewership numbers because they show the wide reach of their IP, and in turn, have helped push team valuations higher. The next catalyst for rising team valuations? How well teams can understand, measure and monetize their audience.

The question isn’t whether the online gaming community matters, it’s now how effectively stakeholders can integrate with it. Gaming provides an always-on, loyal and data-rich channel for teams to engage and monetize their followers in a new way. 

A mini investment memo on the most innovative sports tech companies

The Company: Rival

The Business in a tweet: Rival is a white-labeled platform that transforms owned interactive gaming communities into a revenue-driving engagement engine for teams, brands and creators.

The 101: 

If you are interested in learning more about Rival or want to speak directly with the management team, please respond to this email or reach out directly to [email protected]

📶The Signal (No Huddle’s Take):

Rival is leading a structural shift that is well underway: online gaming has become a dominant entertainment pillar within the sporting ecosystem. Teams and leagues are slowly starting to realize this, and Rival’s white-labeled platform flips gaming communities into engagement and revenue drivers that didn’t exist before. What excites me most about Rival comes down to two things: the management team and the early traction.  

The management team is well-positioned for continued success, combining decades of sports and brand knowledge with a proven track record building gaming products. Matt led Rival from a strategic seat before stepping into the CEO role, giving him a unique lens into the story and future of the business that a lot of companies do not have. He has also had stops across the sports, brand, and rightsholder world, which is a huge value-add when it comes to cracking into these industries. In addition, Jack brings a wealth of experience to the ops side of the house, having scaled a business and product through an acquisition with Shake. I absolutely love — and couldn’t agree more with Jack’s quote to SBJ: “15 years ago, every sports team needed a social media strategy; 10 years ago, they needed content; five years ago, they needed influencers; and now they need gaming. Properties typically want ownership of the offerings, which is why Rival (and Shake now, too) work in the B2B2C space.” To round it out, CTO Spencer helped co-found Shake and brings the technical expertise needed to properly entrench Rival in this space.

On the traction front, Rival has already partnered with tier-one logos and shown clear product-market fit. From marquee brands to teams to leagues, Rival is just starting to emerge as a star in the space. The best part of Rival’s work is that the proof is in the data: those that step into this “new” gaming world immediately reap the rewards and power of the Rival community.

Take MLS for example. The league wanted to strategically roll out its eMLS Open Qualifier in a way that actually drove real-world MLS fandom and engagement, so it tapped Rival to execute. The results: a younger audience, sold-out demand (all 12 tournaments filled within 24 hours of announcement), and strong conversion (73% of community members also watched the MLS Cup). That's direct impact to the bottom line, and it’s strengthened the connection between MLS and its growing fan base. 

I see a direct and clear path for Rival to become the infrastructure layer for gaming as a marketing and revenue channel for brands, teams, and leagues. With already strong retention rates and a growing customer base, I’m excited to see a big surge in 2026 for the Rival team. 

If you are interested in learning more about Rival or want to speak directly with the management team, please respond to this email or reach out directly to [email protected]