Startup basketball league Unmatched introduced on Monday it’s closed a Sequence A funding spherical, elevating an extra $28 million earlier than its inaugural season.
“Our gamers haven’t even taken the courtroom but and the inspiration we’re constructing with our companions unites unparalleled experience, strategic perception, and an unbelievable product,” Unmatched President Alex Bazzell mentioned in a press launch. “Collectively, we’re setting the stage for Unmatched for years to return.”
The 3×3 ladies’s hoops league already secured $7 million in a seed round introduced in Could, that means the league has obtained $35 million in whole funds in 2024. The most recent spherical was led by the Berman household and likewise included NBA champion Giannis Antetokounmpo and 28-time Olympic medalist Michael Phelps, amongst others.
Unmatched was co-founded in 2023 by WNBA stars Breanna Stewart and Napheesa Collier and advertises that the player-owned group will give each Unmatched participant “fairness and a vested curiosity in its success,” in line with the press launch.
The league has signed 36 prime gamers and mentioned it provides the best common salaries throughout any ladies’s skilled sports activities league.
Whereas the Ladies’s Nationwide Basketball Affiliation has seen exponential progress in the previous couple of years, celebrity rookies Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese received base salaries simply over $70,000, compared with star rookies within the Nationwide Basketball Affiliation who obtained hundreds of thousands their first yr.
Unmatched introduced final week it had signed Under Armour as its official uniform partner. It’s additionally signed an unique, multiyear media rights take care of Warner Bros. Discovery to air its games on TNT and truTV, in addition to streaming platform Max. WBD participated within the Sequence A funding spherical, the league mentioned Monday.
The spherical additionally included non-public investor Marc Lasry, College of South Carolina ladies’s basketball head coach Daybreak Staley, and USC guard JuJu Watkins. Earlier traders embrace soccer phenom Alex Morgan and actor and investor Ashton Kutcher.
The inaugural season begins on Jan. 17.
Kristian Burt, CNBC
Kristian Burt is a digital rotational program affiliate at CNBC. A graduate of New York College in 2024, he beforehand reported for TODAY.com, V Journal, and Gotham Gazette.
