As sports rights get even more fragmented across the entertainment industry, it’s no secret that fans are struggling to find their most anticipated games, leading sports streaming bosses to find unique ways to enhance the fan experience.
“Absolutely, as sports moves from predominantly linear to predominantly streaming, there is a challenge with the ability to find the sports you want to watch, however there’s also an opportunity for a platform like Roku,” Roku head of sports Joe Franzetta said at TheWrap’s TheGrill 2025 panel “Sports & Streaming: Driving Value Across the Ecosystem,” moderated by CBS sports anchor Jaime Maggio. “
Sports’ migration from linear to streaming has proven to be a windfall for the various leagues, with TV and streaming rights worth a more than $29 billion this year, and projected to grow to $37 billion by 2030. But it’s also led to games being divvied up to different services and broadcast channels, forcing fans to do their homework to figure out where to catch their favorite teams.
With Roku partnered with many of the major leagues, Franzetta noted it aggregates and bundles content in an effort to replicate the ease of the linear TV sports viewing while taking advantage of new technological advances, including personalization, interactivity, targeting and other additions. “There’s all sorts of things that you can add over time that make the experience both more robust and more personalized,” Franzetta said, pointing to fantasy football, merchandise and ticket sales.
A big point the panelist made was the importance of understanding the audience. Fubo, for instance, employs a massive analytics team to analyze what sporting events viewers are watching out of the 55,000 available to them, according to Pamela Duckworth, head of Fubo studios.
Franzetta’s Roku team utilizes AI machine learning to tailor recommendations, though he admits it’s a work in progress. “It’s got to continue to train itself and to get smarter,” Franzetta said. “It’s a critical development loop that has to be ongoing.”
That ability to know what viewers want and more effectively cater to them will be key all of the players.
“It will also add a whole level of efficiency for the platform and retaining subscribers, which I think is a big challenge for platforms now, as people jump around from platform to platform,” Gerber Kawasaki Wealth & Investment Management CEO and President Ross Gerber said. “A highly personalized environment is really important.”
The desire for that personalized environment was the impetus for the creation of Bleacher Report over a decade ago, with GM Bennett Spector explaining sports coverage was predominantly focused on national happenings, and the outlet sought to create a space for fans to focus solely on their teams.
Still, as the bar for personalization gets raised even higher, Spector revealed AI is instrumental in that goal, saying “we can see, did you read an article, did you watch a video? Did you comment on a poll, and we start feeding a very personalized team and topic experience,” Spector said.
While the fragmented viewing experience might cause a headache for sports fans, the embrace of sports on streaming has also given streamers the opportunity to test out new challenger brands, as Franzetta noted that streamers have “more shelf space” than linear channels.
“There are a lot of really competitive sports out there that are really well produced, that have well-funded businesses and good business models,” Franzetta said. “They eventually want the big fat check, but in the meantime, they’re trying to create excitement and awareness for what they’re doing.”
Duckworth pointed to Fubo’s bet on Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship, which they helped market and has now been boosted into the platform’s top 10 and has done so well that Fubo became a minority owner. “We’re looking at all these smaller sports and seeing if we want to invest in them and then take them to the next level,” Duckworth said.
Catch up with all of TheWrap’s TheGrill 2025 coverage here.
