John Ourand

After decades of dysfunction, the Knicks won their first title since 1973 thanks to Jim Dolan, of all people, finally trusting the right basketball specialists and resisting the mistakes that defined the previous 25 years. Mike Breen, the voice of the team, and clutch ESPN analyst Brian Windhorst break it down.

For a while, it seemed as though YouTube was coming to eat everyone’s lunch in the sports media business. But after its recent miss on a suite of NFL games, many media insiders are wondering how much the Google guys really want to be in on the actual game action—and if they need the league at all.

John Ourand Welcome back to The Varsity, heading into one of my favorite weekends of the year. No, not Father’s Day—the U.S. Open. I plan to spend a significant portion of the weekend mesmerized by the sight of the best golfers in the world out at Shinnecock, looking like your average weekend duffers. Check this […]

FanDuel president Christian Genetski is only six weeks into his newly expanded role running the company, but he’s got plenty of thoughts about the state of the sports betting business—from FanDuel’s move into prediction markets to the Sorsby headache and why this year’s World Cup is like March Madness on steroids.

Since their pandemic-era Last Dance peak, sports documentaries have become harder and harder to get greenlit—even at Netflix. Superstars and monoculture nostalgia plays can still find a home, but the bar has been raised while the payouts have fallen. So what’s a sports doc producer to do?

With World Cup ratings smashing expectations, Fox Sports C.E.O. Eric Shanks opens up about his network’s long bet on soccer, the Zlatan phenomenon, and the virtue of hydration breaks.

As talk of a new suite of NFL deals cools, analyst Steven Cahall predicts a bruising rights fight that will reshape media economics, while casting doubt on blockbuster M&A scenarios for NBC and Fox.

With the overperforming World Cup headed into its final (and probably thrilling) stretch, FIFA is seemingly in the catbird seat in negotiating rights deals for 2030 and 2034.

Fanatics Fest has evolved from a collectibles convention into the closest thing sports has to Comic-Con, with enough gravitational pull to drag the ESPYs—and much of the industry—to New York this week.

John Ourand Welcome to The Varsity from a smoke-filled New York City. I attended the ESPYs last night for their cross-country, Lincoln Center debut. The show had a bit of a New York vibe, from the hometown Knicks cleaning up to performances by De La Soul and Ghostface Killah. (The Knicks have really seized on […]