This is the fourth in a series from TheWrap exploring how sports is transforming the entertainment business. Read our third story here.
Two years ago, when Shohei Ohtani agreed to the richest contract in baseball history, the 10-year, $700 million deal was a bonanza for more than just the Los Angeles Dodgers. It was also a windfall for CAA, the Hollywood talent agency powerhouse that brokered the deal.
As sports contracts balloon into the nine-figure range and athlete endorsement deals rival the packages of A-list movie stars, the town’s biggest talent agencies are making a major play for the world’s top athletes, reimagining themselves as full-service talent shops across sports and entertainment rather than just Hollywood-focused firms.
CAA, WME, UTA, Gersh and others are changing the sports representation business through acquisitions, strategic partnerships and major investments, building the entertainment infrastructure around pro-athletes where their success on the field becomes the launching pad for a broader media career.
The expansion of the agencies into the sports world is a prime example of the convergence of entertainment and sports, with the agencies recognizing that top athletes need the same full-service representation as A-list actors. It’s another illustration of how sports has taken a massive hold over the entertainment world. As athletes look to become content creators, sign massive endorsement deals and launch media projects, the agencies are putting their cross-platform skills to good use.
It’s a lucrative market. The global sports agency services market is projected to nearly triple from $5.88 billion this year to $15.17 billion by 2034, growing at an 11.11% annual rate, according to market analytics firm Business Research Insights.
Travis Kelce is a prime example of this sports-entertainment crossover, as the popular Super Bowl-winning Kansas City Chiefs tight end and fiancé to Taylor Swift has parlayed his fame into hosting “Saturday Night Live,” cameoing in Adam Sandler’s “Happy Gilmore 2” and creating his own hit podcast in “New Heights.” But he’s not the only one.
“Certainly, there are more athletes now expressing interest in the content side of the business,” Will Funk, Range Sports co-president, told TheWrap. “It really means social media. How do we help them manage that? How do we help them with their messaging? How do we help curate that? How do we help them build their following? That is critically important.”
Here’s a breakdown of all of the top talent agencies and their work in the world of sports.
CAA Sports
Out of all the agencies, CAA Sports is the largest, having launched in 2006 and now repping more than 3,000 of the world’s best athletes in football, baseball, basketball, hockey and soccer, while bringing in a $1.14 billion haul in maximum commissions. Back in July, the agency topped Forbes’ Most Valuable Sports Agencies list for the 10th consecutive time, continuing its hot streak as the industry leader.
CAA oversees an estimated $15.9 billion in team-sport playing contracts and $4.59 billion in non-playing contracts, including endorsements. The agency’s 2025 achievements in football alone include representing all three major NFL award winners (Josh Allen, Most Valuable Player; Saquon Barkley, Offensive Player of the Year; and Pat Surtain II, Defensive Player of the Year), negotiating contracts for left tackle Rashawn Slater, the highest-paid offensive lineman, and Trey Smith, the highest paid offensive guard in NFL history and T.J. Watt, the highest non-quarterback salary in NFL history, making him highest-paid edge rusher in the NFL, surpassing Myles Garrett’s record-setting deal from earlier in 2025.
The agency also signed the most first-round NFL Draft picks for the second consecutive year. Beyond repping players on the field, the agency has built a comprehensive sports business while working with the entertainment side of the agency to broker content deals like Allen’s movie and TV deal with Skydance Sports in March.
WME Sports
WME Sports launched in late 2019 and primarily focuses on tennis, golf and action/Olympic sports. The agency reps the marquee names in tennis including Carlos Alcaraz, Coco Gauff, Iga Świątek and Serena Williams, while its broadcast division reps major on-air personalities like Stephen A. Smith and former multiple Super Bowl winner Tom Brady.
Max Eisenbud leads WME Sports’ client representation business, overseeing tennis operations that reps six of the world’s top 10 ranked male and female players. WME services clients and identifies cross-platform opportunities through its sports content division, managing production companies for elite athletes including Peyton Manning’s Omaha Productions, Derek Jeter’s CAP 2 Productions, Lionel Messi’s 525 Rosario and Eli Manning’s Ten Till Productions.
Following parent company Endeavor taking the agency private, WME Sports divested its basketball representation business and its football division spun off as WIN Sports Group, allowing WME to focus on its core strengths in individual sports and broadcasting talent.
Range Sports
While CAA, WME and UTA have built their sports divisions through the acquisitions of established agencies, Range Media Partners, a talent management and production company, has taken a different approach: building the sports division from scratch with Hollywood DNA at its core. In 2022, it launched Range Sports and has already grown to 50+ employees across eight cities, completed eight acquisitions of other companies like Sunrise Sports Consulting and has built out 10 distinct business lines from athlete representation to sports content.
“We’re not really consciously trying to differentiate ourselves from our competitors, and we’re running our own playbook based on what we believe is the best path to be a hugely valuable business,” Funk told TheWrap.
Range Sports has a unique selling point: It’s the only sports agency with an in-house film and TV studio as part of Range Media Partners. Having in-house production facilities creates a one-stop shop where the agency can develop, finance, produce and distribute content without the need to partner with outside production companies.
If an athlete is having a hot moment, Range can quickly pair them with producers, writers and directors that are also management clients, for a quick turnaround with content. That integrated model has paid dividends for clients like Ilona Maher, who parlayed her Olympic rugby bronze medal into a “Dancing With the Stars” run, a Sports Illustrated Swimsuit cover, a podcast and an upcoming docuseries with Reese Witherspoon’s Hello Sunshine — all while Range Sports handled her endorsement deals with Adidas and Maybelline.
“The one thing I love about being at and working at Range Sports is the opportunities that our athletes and our clients have within our platform,” said Range Sports Head of Football Kyle Strongin, who brokered Brock Purdy’s historic $265 million contract with the San Francisco 49ers, the largest annual increase in NFL history. “We’ve got full service, and we have a lot of access, and a lot of our colleagues are the best at what they do in that space.”
Range Sports has secured over $50 million in endorsement deals for their clients.
UTA Sports/Klutch Sports Group
UTA’s sports division operates through its partnership with Klutch Sports Group, in which it acquired a stake back in 2019. Since then, Klutch has positioned itself as the fastest-growing multi-sport agency, expanding its reach beyond its basketball roots into the NFL, Major League Baseball, the WNBA, NIL (name, image and likeness) deals and soccer.
Along with repping current Super Bowl MVP Jalen Hurts, the agency made waves earlier this year by brokering Myles Garrett’s $104 million extension. Klutch has repped 56 NFL Draft picks over the last three years, including five first-rounders in 2025 alone.
Klutch prides itself in helping clients build platforms outside of their sports careers and taking full advantage of all opportunities in the entertainment and culture space.
Of note, Klutch has become the dominant player in jersey patch deals, working directly with sports teams to broker sponsorship deals where brands pay to display their logos on team uniforms. The agency has negotiated more NBA jersey patches than any other agency, with recent deals spanning the Brewers, Jazz, Heat, Mystics and Grizzlies. They also serve as NASCAR’s agency of record and operate stadium sales for clients like New York City FC and Monumental Sports.
Some of the agency’s wins on the athlete marketing side include guiding Hurts to become the first NFL Jordan Brand athlete with his own merchandise line, helping A’ja Wilson launch a Nike signature shoe that sold out in three minutes, and securing JuJu Watkins’ groundbreaking NIL partnerships, including the first-ever docuseries following a women’s college basketball star.
On the international front, UTA opened new London offices in 2023 and acquired ROOF football in 2024, with global expansion a priority as the agency reps footballers across Europe’s top leagues including the Premier League, La Liga and Bundesliga.
Gersh Sports
Gersh is the latest Hollywood talent agency to wade into sports, having launched Gersh Sports in December 2024 via its acquisition of You First, a global sports and entertainment agency with over 1,000 clients across 22 offices in 14 countries. The acquisition doubled Gersh’s size to over 600 employees worldwide and established the agency’s first major sports footprint, with a strong presence in soccer and basketball.
“What’s really important for us is not to abandon in any capacity what we’ve done in the entertainment, traditional, film, television, broader entertainment ecosystem,” Steve Gersh, managing partner and head of Gersh Sports, told TheWrap. “So really it’s more of a desire to diversify the business and expand the platform, all with an eye to figure out how we can co-mingle the different divisions and amplify all of the verticals together.”
The agency’s sports roster includes soccer players like PSG’s Fabian Ruiz and NBA ballers including Desmond Bane (Orlando Magic), Jarrett Allen (Cleveland Cavaliers) and Jeremy Sochan (San Antonio Spurs), plus Hall of Famers Ray Allen, Tim Duncan and Grant Hill.
Gersh’s approach focuses on transitioning athletes into entertainment brands, continuing a legacy that dates back to Gersh’s grandfather, Phil, taking NFL legend Jim Brown into major studio films after his football career, and in recent years helping WWE’s Dave Bautista transition into acting with projects like Marvel’s “Guardians of the Galaxy” franchise.
Innovative
Innovative represents the most niche approach among Hollywood talent agencies. The boutique agency launched its sports division this summer by hiring veteran sports and entertainment lawyer Brad Small to focus primarily on professional wrestling and mixed martial arts performers. Small brings 30 years of experience and approximately 40 professional wrestling clients, including world champion Goldberg, Jack Perry and Dallas Page.
His clientele shift from entertainment to sports was accelerated by the pandemic and strikes, when athletes were among the few still earning under their contracts while other entertainment work stalled. “When Netflix is paying $5 billion for 10 years of ‘Monday Night Raw,’ that is game changing,” said Small, highlighting the growth driven by the recent streaming deals transforming the wrestling industry.
Rather than pursuing big acquisitions like larger competitors, Innovative is taking an organic approach to growth, focusing on signing talent that fits the agency’s culture. Small’s clients regularly cross over into mainstream entertainment, appearing on shows like “Dancing With the Stars” and “Shark Tank,” writing published books and serving as expert consultants on projects like “The Iron Claw,” where Small’s clients coached headliners Zac Efron and Jeremy Allen White.
Coming up on Tuesday: TheWrap explores how tech is changing the way we view sports, as well as how its changed the relationship with our favorite teams.
