Reflections from Thomas Archer Bata’s recent conversation with Profluence on emerging sports formats, fan behaviour, and the changing economics of attention.
There was a time when sports competed mostly against other sports.
Today, a tennis match competes against TikTok, Netflix, gaming, livestreams, podcasts, creators, and every other corner of the internet fighting for attention.
That changes the equation.
For decades, sports benefited from something incredibly powerful: scarcity. Fewer channels. Fewer alternatives. Fewer distractions. Live sports occupied a privileged place in culture almost by default.
But younger audiences consume entertainment differently now. Attention moves faster. Identity matters more. Passive viewership is giving way to participation, interaction, and emotional connection.
And that’s forcing the industry to evolve.
These were some of the themes explored during Thomas Archer Bata’s recent conversation with Profluence founder Andrew Petcash, discussing why sports is beginning to behave less like a protected institution and more like an open, experimental marketplace.
At Triple B International, this is part of why we find the category so compelling right now.
Not because traditional sports are disappearing. They are not.
But because the rules around growth, fandom, and value creation are changing.
In many ways, sports is entering a phase that looks surprisingly similar to the early years of startups and digital media:
- New formats emerging rapidly
- Communities forming organically online
- Storytelling becoming central to distribution
- Smaller players moving faster than incumbents
- Fan engagement evolving from audience → participation
The most interesting sports businesses today are no longer thinking only about the game itself.
They are thinking about:
- atmosphere
- identity
- media behaviour
- culture
- community
- live experience
- emotional connection
The competition still matters, of course. But increasingly, so does everything around it.
That shift is already visible across the industry. Emerging leagues and formats are experimenting with pacing, production, team structures, creator integration, fan access, and immersive experiences in ways that would have felt unconventional only a few years ago.
Some of those experiments will fail. That’s normal.
But experimentation itself is becoming important because the market is changing faster than many legacy structures were originally designed for.
A younger audience doesn’t simply want to watch. They want to feel involved.
That idea is particularly interesting in tennis.
Tennis remains one of the most participated-in sports globally, yet there are still significant opportunities around accessibility, fan engagement, storytelling, and modern media design.
This broader shift is part of why we support INTENNSE.
What interests us about INTENNSE is not the idea of “replacing” traditional tennis. It is the willingness to ask different questions:
- What happens when a format is built around modern viewing habits from day one?
- What happens when athletes, coaches, and fans are brought closer together?
- What happens when the experience around the sport becomes as important as the competition itself?
Those questions matter because sports today exists inside a much larger entertainment ecosystem than before.
And increasingly, sports properties are competing not only on athletic quality, but on relevance, emotion, accessibility, and cultural energy.
Another point raised during the Profluence conversation that resonates strongly with us is the growing value of real-world experiences in an increasingly AI-saturated environment.
As digital content becomes infinite, physical experiences may become even more meaningful.
Atmosphere. Collective emotion. Human unpredictability. Shared moments. These are difficult things to replicate artificially. Which is precisely why we believe sports remains such an interesting category long term.
Not static. Not solved. Not fully modernised yet.
And that’s where opportunity tends to emerge.
Listen to Profluence's podcast here.
Explore more about INTENNSE here: Triple B x INTENNSE
