The Business Case For Women's Sports

In this episode of The Business Case For Women’s Sports, presented by Ally, we meet Megan Lanham, the Co-Founder & CEO of Rithmm .  Rithmm is a personalized predictive analytics tool for sports betting that aims to make it easy to make smart bets. Rithmm simplifies sports analytics for everyday bettors.  Their team of PhDs, data scientists, and machine learning engineers helps betters build their...

In Ep. #50, Caroline sits down with Emily Caron - a reporter at Sportico who is focused on covering the business side of women's sports. Prior to joining Sportico, Emily spent two years at Sports Illustrated, and has also written for ESPN, espnW, CBS Sports, SB Nation, and  the Religion of Sports. ✍ In Emily’s role at Sportico, she covers the biggest stories around women’s sports sponsorship deals...

In Ep. #49, Caroline sits down with Nicole Pawlak - the Senior Director of Special Projects at Athletes Unlimited - to talk about how the team at AU is innovating the product of women’s sports.  Nicole, who is a seasoned sports industry professional, has been part of Athletes Unlimited since it was created back in 2020.  The team at Athletes Unlimited believes that the traditional model of pro spo...

In Ep. #48, Caroline shared the microphone with Mara Fitzgerald - who happens to be Caroline’s sister, and the creator of SHOT:CLOCK which is a 'facts only' women's sports media platform.  In August of 2018, Caroline and Mara were frustrated that women’s sports weren’t receiving more media coverage. After a lot of brainstorming on a Fitzgerald Family vacation, SHOT:CLOCK was born as an Instagram a...

In Ep. #47, Caroline sits down with ESPN's Sarah Spain - a women's sports legend, leader and now investor.  Sarah has an incredible tenure through sports - both as a collegiate athlete at Cornell and most notably as an incredible radio host, anchor, and sports reporter. Through her work at ESPN and ESPNW, Sarah has used her platforms to promote the importance and business opportunity around invest...

In Ep. #46, Caroline interviews Ann Kletz - the Co-CEO & Co-Founder at Goal Five - to hear the story behind the sportswear brand's work to create performance apparel for women, by women.  Inspired by United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 5 - “Achieve equality and empower all women and girls” - Ann and her team at Goal Five set out to put women athletes first and create a sportswear brand for...

In Ep. #45, Caroline talks with Faatimah Amen-Ra A - the Founder of the Women’s Premier Basketball Association - to discuss how the WPBA is working to create more opportunities for women to play basketball professionally in the United States. As the first FIBA certified basketball league in California, the WPBA is a collaboration of professional athletes, community leaders, coaches and staff that...

In Ep. #44, Caroline interviews Jess Smith - the Head of Revenue at the Angel City Football Club - to discuss how the Los Angeles-based NWSL team booked $35 million in sponsorship revenue before playing a single game.  Women's sports currently receive only 1% of global sports sponsorship dollars, but despite this massive disparity, there is one team in the National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) tha...

In Ep. #43, Caroline sits down with Gina Waldhorn - the Chief Marketing Officer at Sports Innovation Lab - to discuss Sports Innovation Lab’s work to grow women’s sports, including teaming up with Ally to launch the Women’s Sports Club; a club that will assemble a cohort of businesses that buy and sell sports media and sponsorships with a shared goal to elevate investments in women’s sports. The i...

In Ep. #42, Caroline sits down with Jen Barnes, the Founder & Owner of Rough & Tumble Pub - Seattle's pub for women's sports. In this episode, hear Jen tell the full story behind creating the second sports bar in the world made specifically for women's sports. When Jen couldn’t find a bar or any place outside her living room to watch the 2021 OL Reign’s semi-final playoff game, she was inspired to...

In Ep. #41, hear from Sara Gotfredson - the Founder of the Trailblazing Sports Group , which is a new, mission based, female-founded sports marketing company focused on elevating women's sports via storytelling and brand partnerships. Sara is a seasoned sports marketing executive with nearly 20 years in digital and traditional media experience and brand building with ESPN and the Walt Disney Compa...

In episode #40, hear Alana Casner and Phillippa Thomson talk about the work they do at Parity to close the gender pay gap in sports by creating financial opportunities for women athletes. The team at Parity does this by matching athletes with inclusive and equitable brand partners.
 Not only do they believe fundamentally that women athletes should be paid more – but also that their voices are unta...

In episode #39, hear Ginny Gilder - an Olympic silver medalist, an author, the founder & CEO of an investment business, and co-owner of the WNBA's Seattle Storm - talk about her incredible journey over the last 40 years to fight for the rights and opportunities for women in sport.  From participating in an iconic protest as part of Yale's rowing team in 1976, to joining as a co-owner of the Seattl...

In Ep. #38, hear from Karen Issokson-Silver, the Vice President of Research & Education at the Women’s Sports Foundation. In her role, Karen oversees proprietary research, program evaluation, and education, as well as directs the organization’s research agenda to drive programming and advocacy within girls and women’s sports when it comes to health, gender and equity. Most recently, Karen and her...

In Ep. #37, hear Amanda Christovich - a reporter at Front Office Sports - talk about what it's like working full-time to cover the business of women's both college & professional sports.  In her role at Front Office Sports, Amanda mainly covers the business of the college sports industry, as well as the business of women's professional sports.  In the sports industry, it's rare to come across a re...

In Ep. #36, hear Susie Piotrkowski - the newly appointed to Head of espnW - share her vision for how we can grow women's sports.   In her new role as an ESPN Vice President, Susie helps drive the future vision for the espnW portfolio, including the new W. Studios group. Susie is responsible for leading the further development, creation and execution of espnW content, amplifying the espnW voice acr...

In Ep. #35, hear Fielding Jamieson tell the story behind creating the Trailblazer Venture Studio , which is the first venture studio focused on the intersection of women and sports. Fielding is part of the senior leadership team at R/GA Ventures where she leads their sports vertical and their strategy practice. As part of this work, Fielding is also the Managing Director of the Trailblazer Venture...

In Ep. #34, Caroline interviews Ari Chambers. Named a Forbes 30 under 30 honoree in 2021 and one of Sports Illustrated's 100 Influential Women in Sports in 2022, Ari is best known for her work covering the WNBA and NCAA women’s basketball, and founding the platform highlightHER, which is Bleacher Report’s dedicated women’s sports content channels, and one of the fastest growing women's sports plat...

In Ep. #33, Caroline sits down with Ali Kershner, the Director of Creative Strategy at the Art of Coaching and was formerly the Associate Olympic Sports Performance Coach of the Stanford Women’s Basketball & Golf teams. On March 18, 2021, Ali shared comparison photos of the men’s & women’s weight room and strength & conditioning facilities at the NCAA March Madness basketball tournaments. The phot...

In Ep. #32, Caroline interview with Laila Brock, the Vice President of Business Development at JMI Sports - a media rights and venue development company, providing management of collegiate multimedia rights, sponsorship sales agency representation, and project management or the development of collegiate and professional sports facilities.  Laila has spent years working on both the operations and r...

In Ep. #31, Caroline talks with Ashley Hart, the CEO & Founder of She Plays - a fantasy sports gaming provider that focuses exclusively on women's professional sports in the U.S. While fantasy sports are commonplace in men's sports, they are a brand new segment of the women's sports industry. Fantasy gaming opportunities in women's sports are few & far between, so Ashley and her team are working h...

In Ep. #30, Caroline talks with Chad Groves from SponsorUnited about the recent growth of sponsorship deals within the women's sports industry. In October of 2022, SponsorUnited - the leading global sports, entertainment and media intelligence platform - released the 2022 Sponsor United Women In Sports Report, which is a first-of-its-kind report that delivers an in-depth analysis of more than 350...

In Ep. #29, hear Sophie Goldschmidt, the CEO & President of U.S. Ski & Snowboard, discuss her incredible career journey spent in the global sports industry creating opportunities for female athletes & women in sport. Before joining U.S. Ski & Snowboard, Sophie held executive positions across the sports industry, with past experiences including time spent as the CEO of the World Surf League, the Ch...

In Ep. #28, hear Brooke Donberg, the Sports Marketing Manager at Clif Bar & Company, tell the story behind featuring six women athletes on CLIF BAR packaging for the first time ever. Back in 2020, for the first time in the brand's 28-year history, CLIF BAR replaced the iconic male climber on the packaging with real-life trailblazers - six women athletes.  The six athletes included Venus Williams,...

In Ep. #27, Caroline sits down with Bridget Sponsky, the Executive Director of Brand, Sports and Sponsorship Marketing at Ally Bank. At the 2022 espnW Summit, Ally announced a pledge to achieve equal spending in paid advertising across women’s and men’s sports programming over the next five years. Additionally, to mark the 50th anniversary of Title IX, Ally will turn its 50/50 media spend pledge i...