Sports
The Rise Of The Sports Influencer
The largest advertising company in the world, Publicis Groupe, just announced a new offering to connect brands with sports influencers. Influential Sport is a combination of the French company’s flagship Publicis Sports and their recent acquisition Influential, a talent agency for influencers. The announcement is one of many signals that a shift is happening in sports media. The traditional sports broadcast model still drives the biggest live games, but more of the day-to-day sports audience and advertising value is now being captured through athlete and creator channels on social platforms. That change shows up in how colleges, brands, and media companies are organizing around athletes as publishers, not just performers.
A clear inflection point in the U.S. came after the NCAA changed name, image and likeness rules in 2021, allowing college athletes to earn money from things like endorsements and their own personal brands, ways that had previously been strictly forbidden. The New York Times reported on a University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill backed-initiative designed to help all of its 850 student-athletes participate in influencer-style content and brand work, with the school framing it as beneficial for recruiting, fan engagement, and revenue. The same reporting described brands paying student-athletes for routine content such as “game-day outfits” and “daily routines,” illustrating that NIL income is not limited to highlight-reel stars when a creator can consistently produce sponsor-friendly posts.
The economic context is no longer speculative because influencer marketing budgets are tracked and forecast like other ad channels. Jay Pattisall, vice president and senior agency analyst at research and advisory firm Forrester, told Digiday – “Sports are the last and most consistent shared experience for U.S. consumers…Marketers are keen to take advantage of the mass interest.” Influencer campaign marketplace Collabstr’s 2025 Influencer Marketing Report projects global influencer marketing will reach $22.2 billion in 2025 and estimates the broader creator economy will grow from $191 billion in 2025 to $528.39 billion by 2030, with high audience intensity in Athletes and Sports. Additionally, college athlete-influencers average a reported 10–15% engagement, significantly higher than standard content creators.
USC Annenberg’s Norman Lear Center studied athlete-owned media, identifying over 30 athlete-owned production companies, focusing on building direct-to-fan revenue streams rather than relying on traditional media distributors. Sports leagues are also working with non-athlete sports creators when the goal is reach and format innovation. The revenue structure for most sports influencers is not a single endorsement contract. Brands increasingly want integrated packages that follow athletes across channels, which pushes the market toward bundles that include creator-led social distribution rather than treating it as a side add-on. YouTuber Jesser has a number of collaborations with the NBA, extending the league’s presence to audiences that may not consume traditional broadcasts.
Traditional media companies have responded by repositioning around services and infrastructure rather than pure distribution control. The measurable change is who owns the fan relationship day to day. In 2026, athletes and creators with direct channels increasingly have direct access to an audience that used to be mediated primarily through leagues and broadcasters.
