How Unrivaled is building a $650M women’s basketball league with players at the helm
Professional three-on-three women’s basketball league Unrivaled is headed into its third season with a serious infusion of cash.
The two-year-old league on Wednesday announced the completion of its Series C funding round, which brought in more than $100 million and values the organization at $650 million—nearly double its valuation last fall.
Led by the University of California-backed Ten Pillar Sports Fund, the Series C round is a marked jump from its Series B raise, which closed in September 2025 and valued the league at $350 million.
The UC Investments fund was joined by investors that include NBA star Carmelo Anthony, soccer player Alex Morgan and her Trybe Ventures, actor Ashton Kutcher, and Washington Wizards point guard Trae Young.
“It’s very important for us to have the right people that invest financially, but also contribute a lot of value to what we’re building,’ says Unrivaled Commissioner Micky Lawler, adding that the league’s investors have “a shared passion for the vision that we are creating.”
Unrivaled leaders say the strength of its fundraising is based on its model of giving players who want it an equity stake in the league, and that it will fund an ambitious third season that will build on strong results from earlier this year.
A player-first model
Cofounded by WNBA superstars Napheesa Collier (of the Minnesota Lynx) and Breanna Stewart (of the New York Liberty) in 2025, Unrivaled began as an alternative for WNBA players who typically spend their offseasons competing overseas in Europe or Asia.
Rather than require players to spend upwards of seven months abroad, Unrivaled lets athletes stay in the league’s Miami hub over its ten-week calendar while offering competitive salaries and benefits.
Unrivaled also offers players year-round exposure to fans, which bolsters the players’ personal brands and the league’s alike.
“We solved the big problem in the off-season,” says Unrivaled President and CEO Alex Bazzell, “which is these players being away from home, being out of market, not being visible.”
That visibility skyrocketed during the league’s historic sophomore season, which ran from January to March of this year.
Over the course of 61 games, Unrivaled generated $45 million in revenue and saw year-over-year increases of 130% in merchandise revenue and 204% in revenue from ticket sales.
Unrivaled also experienced significant growth across social and fan engagement, achieving 1.2 billion earned social media impressions with the help of its stars’ social media engagement.
Following Season 2, the combined social following across Unrivaled accounts reached 926,600.
Unrivaled players also hold equity ownership in the league, making each fundraising round a literal investment in the talent.
From Season 1 to Season 2, the value of the player equity pool grew 290% from $30 million in 2025 to over $120 million.
Going into the third season, players remain the highest shareholder group with the player equity pool now valued at nearly $200 million. “That’s what I think I’m most proud of,” adds Bazzell. “Our largest group of ‘investors’ are the athletes.
So them seeing the upside of this new raise and the new valuation is also really exciting to us.”
Poised for growth
Unrivaled’s fans aren’t just showing up for its ownership structure.
They’re also in it for the unconventional but engaging format.
Teams face off on a compressed court over four quarters, the first three of which last for seven minutes each.
In the untimed fourth quarter, teams play to a winning score—the leading team’s score after three quarters, plus 11 points.
Conclusions can be nail-biting even without a looming game clock.
The league is now bringing the action to more cities.
The league’s home hub is Miami’s Sephora Arena, which has a 1,000-person capacity.
In its second season, Unrivaled made tour stops in Philadelphia and Brooklyn.
The 21,490-strong crowd in Philly broke Xfinity Mobile Arena’s all-time attendance record (held since 1999 by the Backstreet Boys).
Two weeks later, the semifinal game at Brooklyn’s Barclays Center—organized more or less on a whim—drew 18,261 fans and produced $1.1 million in ticket revenue.
“It’s a testament to the demand because one of those was planned for months and the other one was planned for hours,” Lawler says, noting that season three will be even more ambitious, bringing games to eight arenas around the country. “We’ll be starting the season on the road, ending the season on the road.”
Still, Unrivaled is balancing its national ambitions with Miami’s status as a key winter destination for basketball fans; 70% of its home-game attendees fly in from out of state.
Season 3 will also feature a number of new players, including WNBA rookie phenoms Olivia Miles (of the Minnesota Lynx) and Flau’jae Johnson (of the Seattle Storm), as well as French national team stars Gabby Williams and Marine Johannès (the pair plays for the Golden State Valkyries and the New York Liberty, respectively, stateside).
Unrivaled’s ability to attract star power is in part due to its robust NIL strategy, which creates a talent pipeline between elite college players and the professional basketball ecosystem.
With the latest cash injection, Unrivaled is poised to explode even more in the coming years. “We’re still in our infancy,” Bazzell says, “so there’s a lot of brand awareness that we want to continuously build, and we want to make sure we put on an incredible show as we continue to scale.”
Unrivaled season three tips off in January 2027 and will air nationally across TNT, truTV and HBO Max.