Unrivaled Basketball League Now Valued at $650 Million, Nearly Double Last Year

Unrivaled, the offseason 3-on-3 women's basketball league, announced Tuesday it raised more than $100 million in a Series C funding round that puts the company's valuation at $650 million. That's nearly double the $340 million valuation the league posted last September after its Series B raise, according to Front Office Sports and Sportico.

The round was led by Ten Pillars Sports Fund, a newly created vehicle backed by UC Investments, which manages $190 billion in retirement and endowment assets for the University of California system, according to Sports Business Journal. The raise was oversubscribed, meaning it beat the league's own $100 million target, according to the New York Times and Variety.

The investor list reads like a locker room and a boardroom had a baby. Carmelo Anthony, Trae Young, UConn coach Geno Auriemma, retired soccer star Alex Morgan through her Trybe Ventures fund, actor Ashton Kutcher, PEAK6 co-founder Jenny Just, Bessemer Venture Partners and Chegg CEO Dan Rosensweig all put money in, according to Sportico and Sports Business Journal. Several, including Anthony, Auriemma, Young, Morgan and Kutcher, are repeat investors from earlier rounds.

Players own nearly a third of the company

Unrivaled says its player equity pool is now worth almost $200 million, roughly 30% of the league, according to Front Office Sports. That pool has grown 550% since the league launched, per Variety and Front Office Sports.

Unrivaled co-founder and CEO Alex Bazzell told Front Office Sports that all 36 players who signed for the league's first season received an ownership stake, and that at least 95% of current players hold some form of equity. Players who prefer cash over ownership can negotiate that instead, Bazzell said: "Some still value cash a little bit more than equity, there's always that exchange between agents."

The equity vests over four years. Players who leave early, like Sabrina Ionescu, who played only Unrivaled's first season, keep whatever portion vested and the league can choose to buy out the rest or let it ride, Bazzell told Front Office Sports.

The WNBA's minimum salary was under $70,000 when Unrivaled launched in 2025. Unrivaled guaranteed six-figure salaries plus ownership from day one, according to Front Office Sports. Players received actual equity in an actual company that is now worth $650 million.

How it stacks against the WNBA

The math is getting hard to ignore. The Connecticut Sun, the most recent WNBA franchise to change hands, sold for $300 million earlier this year, according to Front Office Sports. Unrivaled's entire eight-team league is now valued at more than double that, and it trails only the Golden State Valkyries, which CNBC projected at $1 billion in May, among all WNBA and Unrivaled properties combined, according to the New York Times, citing Sportico's 2026 valuation rankings.

Unrivaled generated $45 million in revenue in its second season, completed earlier this year, according to Sports Business Journal. Second-season television ratings dipped from the league's debut year, Front Office Sports noted, even as the league expanded from its original six teams to eight clubs and 54 players, according to Yahoo Sports.

What's next

The league's third season tips off January 8, 2027, and will again air on TNT under Unrivaled's six-year media rights deal with Warner Bros. Discovery, which is itself an investor in the league, according to the New York Times and Variety. Bazzell said rosters will stay at six players per team plus six in a developmental pool, with possible roster expansion held off until Season 4.

The bigger question is geography. Unrivaled has played its home season in a custom-built, roughly 1,000-seat arena in Medley, Florida, outside Miami, but Bazzell told Sportico that Season 3 will be the league's last there. Games last winter at Brooklyn's Barclays Center and Philadelphia's Xfinity Mobile Arena sold out at more than 18,000 and 21,000 fans respectively, evidence the league can draw big crowds when it leaves its small home court.

Bazzell wouldn't say where the league lands long-term, only that it will "100%" stay in a warm-climate city and that tour stops will be announced in September, according to Sportico. Whether Unrivaled can convert sellout road crowds and a $650 million valuation into sustained TV ratings growth, after last season's dip, is the number that will actually decide if this is a long-term business or a very well-funded experiment.