Happy Wednesday, and welcome back to the 52nd weekly edition of Broken Marketing by Anvara, where we discuss marketing that breaks.

For those of you who are new here, we’re Nick and Andrei, the co-founders of Anvara. We’ve included you here because one way or another, we’re connected. We’re happy to have you as a part of the Anvara family.

Gotham FC just announced Bank of America as its Official Retail Bank.

That’s the headline. But the real story is what they actually bought access to.

At the center of the deal is Elevate Play, a community initiative built around a pretty stark reality: only one in five kids across New York and New Jersey are meeting daily activity levels, while screen time has quietly taken over childhood at more than five hours a day.

So Gotham built a system around that problem - and Bank of America stepped directly into it.

Now the brand shows up in schools, in structured play sessions, in free clinics, and in financial literacy workshops. And eventually, it shows up in the stadium too, where more than 10,000 kids and families will get access to matches through the partnership.

That’s not just awareness.

That’s real time spent with the next generation before brand preferences even start to form.

And that’s exactly why women’s football keeps attracting finance and fintech brands.

The entry costs are lower than the men’s game. The growth is faster. The storytelling feels more authentic. But more importantly, there’s still room to actually build something within the partnership, instead of just placing a logo on top of it.

We’ve seen Visa lean into the global women’s game, while Revolut and Starling Bank used it to shape their brand positioning in Europe.

But this one stands out because everything connects.

A kid attends a clinic, then goes to a match. That experience ties into content, community, and education. And somewhere along the way, the brand stops feeling like a sponsor and starts feeling familiar.

That’s the real shift.

Sponsorship is moving upstream - not at the moment of purchase, or even at the moment of fandom, but much earlier.

Right at the moment when habits and preferences start forming.

University of Wisconsin-Madison is expanding its partnership with UW Health, adding jersey patches across four women’s programs: basketball, hockey, volleyball, and softball.

On the surface, it looks simple. The NCAA approved jersey patches, schools gained a new asset, and brands moved in.

But what’s happening underneath is much more interesting.

Because the patch itself isn’t really the product. It’s just the most visible part of a much larger system.

What UW Health actually gets is a continuous presence across the entire academic year. Volleyball in the fall rolls into basketball and hockey in the winter, which then moves straight into softball in the spring. There’s no real gap - just steady, repeated exposure.

And that consistency matters more than one big moment.

Because repetition builds familiarity much faster than reach.

Then you layer in everything else: broadcast exposure, social content, in-venue integrations, and deeper storytelling around women’s athletics. On top of that, both the university and the health system already have strong ties to the local community, which makes the partnership feel more natural and embedded.

At that point, the jersey patch stops acting like simple signage.

It starts acting like a distribution.

And that’s exactly how these deals are being structured now - not as single assets, but as bundled platforms that combine media, IP, and experience.

There’s a clear reason for that shift.

The cost of running major college athletic programs keeps rising, from facilities to staffing to NIL. So instead of just adding more inventory, schools are pushing each asset to do more.

The smartest ones aren’t just selling space anymore.

They’re building platforms.

And women’s sports, with consistent schedules and highly engaged audiences, are becoming one of the most efficient places to do it.

For the last few years, sportsbooks had one of the cleanest runs in sponsorship.

The structure was simple: clear positioning, strong demand, and relatively limited competition.

That’s starting to change.

Leagues are now bringing in prediction market platforms alongside traditional betting partners, and suddenly the category isn’t so clearly defined anymore.

MLB is a good example. FanDuel holds an Official Sports Betting Partner position, while Polymarket comes in as the Official Prediction Market.

Different labels, but ultimately tapping into the same fan behavior.

And once that door opens, it doesn’t stay contained.

NFL is already working with multiple platforms, while MLS and the UFC are moving in a similar direction. It’s only a matter of time before the NFL and NBA follow.

From the league’s perspective, this is ideal.

Two different companies can now pay to access the same audience from slightly different angles.

From the sportsbook’s perspective, it’s a lot less comfortable.

Exclusivity starts to blur. Pricing power becomes less stable. And maintaining a strong position in the category starts to require more spend and broader rights.

So instead of simply buying access, they’re now focused on protecting it.

That’s what category expansion really looks like.

Not a brand-new vertical appearing, but an existing one being redefined just enough to let new players in - and new revenue flow through.

🏟️ Oak View Group x Regions Bank - An eight-figure naming rights deal for Regions Arena, but the real play is scale. Regions locks in the arena, convention center, theater, and a future hockey team, turning one deal into a full citywide platform.

🏈 NFL x U.S. Bank - The NFL splits its banking category for the first time in 30 years, bringing in U.S. Bank while American Express takes payments. One category becomes many - a clear move toward fragmented, higher-value deals.

🌍 FIFA x ADI Predictstreet - FIFA adds a prediction market partner for the World Cup, layering in brackets and forecasts. Sponsorships keep shifting from watching to interactive participation.

Quote of the Week

“I always believe that if you work hard, results will come.” - P. V. Sindhu