Pull up a streaming service, scroll down to the “Top 10” section for TV shows and movies and there’s likely to be a piece of sports content somewhere among the lists.
No matter the network or streaming platform, sports content has become abundant in recent years. “The Last Dance,” Michael Jordan’s 10-part docuseries that debuted in 2020 on ESPN, is a perfect example of the type of content audiences are looking for these days, access never before seen for some of the world’s greatest athletes.
But the sports content bubble isn’t just traditional mainstream sports as it continues to evolve. From live programming to niche angles that focus more on storytelling, sports content has boomed over the years. It’s a saturated market in which many are trying to throw ideas at the wall to see what programs stick.
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However, WME Sports, part of the William Morris Endeavor talent agency, was ahead of the curve when it began working with clients and setting up deals that led to sports content.
“I think we took it seriously before anybody else,” Lee White, partner and head of sports content at WME, told FOX Business. “I think the success we’ve had with our clients like [LeBron James’ The] Springhill [Company] and with what Kobe [Bryant] was doing before he passed, Serena Williams, folks that were early adapters in the sports content world. It seems obvious now, but at the time, it wasn’t, right? Because somebody would’ve done it.
“I think that gave us a lot of experience. We got our 10,000 hours before a lot of other people did. To me, it’s not a secret. It’s just elbow grease, hard work and being out there every day pounding the pavement. I think that’s our super strength.”
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The WME sports content team works with partners across the agency, including the non-scripted department who they share clients with and sell content alongside, to produce content all audiences will love.
Some of the most renowned sports documentaries and projects in recent years have had WME’s fingerprints on them, whether it’s FX’s popular show “Welcome to Wrexham,” produced by Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney, owners of the Welsh soccer club Wrexham A.F.C., or Netflix’s “Full Swing” docuseries co-created by Vox Studios, which gave a never-before-seen look into what some of the world’s best golfers deal with during a PGA Tour season.
Three of the top 10 shows on Netflix in July — “Receiver,” “Simone Biles Rising” and “America’s Sweethearts: Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders” — were all WME Sports clients.
And there’s more projects to come, including a new look into the MLB season with the Boston Red Sox, who are being followed this season for a Netflix documentary produced/directed by WME Sports clients Greg Whiteley and Boardwalk Pictures.
As White put it, “it’s undeniable” how much the audience wants this type of content today.
“I think when something works, you just naturally see a lot more of it,” he explained. “And it’s been working.”
Kelly Sherman, an agent with WME Sports who works with Peyton Manning’s Omaha Productions, among other clients, also believes the rise in sports content comes from documentaries like “The Last Dance,” in which a sports legend was willing to sit down and trust these productions to tell the story.
“I also think that as you see more athletes start to tell their stories in certain ways and tell their sports stories, it urges other athletes and other people to want to tell their story the same way,” Sherman said. “For so many years, we heard people use someone’s ‘Last Dance’ as an adjective. So, I think as someone like Michael Jordan is sitting down for a 10-part series, then maybe David Beckham is going to do it. As these types of huge docs on these incredible athletes start to work and get such incredible reception from the audience, it creates more and more athletes (wanting) to tell their story in the same way.”
“Beckham,” produced by WME client Fisher Stevens’ Highly Flammable, was well received on Netflix as it looked into the roller coaster life of one of soccer’s global superstars.
This documentary seamlessly weaved in the battles Beckham had to deal with on and off the pitch with his global popularity, while trying to chase greatness in soccer. It especially shed light on the relationship Beckham has with his wife, Victoria Beckham, as they dealt with constant pressure from their respective careers while trying to build a family.
Beckham’s whirlwind career is just one example of a story that can be told with the right direction, but WME Sports has also found that a non-traditional/alternative sports bucket has seen rapid success with every project that comes out.
Take “America’s Sweethearts: Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders” on Netflix, for example. Cowboys cheerleaders are a staple in the NFL, but not many know the stress and determination it takes to cheer at AT&T Stadium on game days.
It’s storytelling that doesn’t involve a high-profile athlete, but everyday people chasing their dreams. Either way, the audience finds that connection and can’t get enough of the content.
“I think we also reverse engineered a lot of what’s happened the last couple years and tried to put it in buckets as opposed to having some strategic plan,” White explained. “It’s like the Mike Tyson saying, ‘Everybody’s got a plan until you get punched in the nose.’ I think that’s part of being a salesperson and working with content creators and trying to get that content made.
“We just try to analyze where we’ve found success, and most importantly, it’s like what areas have we not really been selling in? Because you try to stay one step ahead of what the audience is consuming at the moment. At a certain point, the audience is going to start to lose interest in these super-premium documentaries. We’re going to start to run out of David Beckhams and Roger Federers and Cowboys and Patriots. You got to be ready to zig and zag through the space.”
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As White bluntly put it, the audience’s “bulls— meter” is acute. It is also quick to turn something off when it doesn’t stick. So, instead of just working with anything and everything, WME Sports is working with its clients to find those projects where passion can clearly be felt by the producers and directors.
“The short answer there is it’s not just about selling something,” White said. “It’s about trying to sell something that is going to resonate with an audience, and I think that’s what we try to look at and troubleshoot before we even take it to market.”
Working with Omaha Productions, Sherman also sees how much legends like Manning care about the content his company is producing.
“It’s very much not a vanity thing for him,” she said. “In the early days, every pitch that came in — I mean, he still reviews everything that comes in — but he had thoughts on every project that got sent to them. If he passed on it, it was because it had a specific reason. … He’s a really involved member of Omaha. It’s not just this company that slaps his name on things.”
It was Manning’s idea to bring “Quarterback” and “Receiver” to the sports content audience, and they were instant hits.
Projects like these are easy sells for WME Sports because of the type of access, but not all are developed in this way, which brings up the “crucial” piece of the puzzle for leading the charge in the sports content world, at least in White’s eyes.
Authenticity.
“We have our finger on the pulse of what’s selling and what’s not,” he said. “I think one thing that’s usually doomed from the beginning is when a buyer can tell when something’s not authentic.”
Sherman believes the same, especially after seeing what the crews at Omaha and others have done to make sure that trust is built with athletes and others who will have their stories told.
“It’s so much building trust with them and letting them know ahead of time — this is not to be exploitative,” Sherman said. “We’re not going to include a fight that you have with your wife because it’s going to make good TV. That never happened, but I’m trying to make an example. I think it’s building that trust with them.”
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