🇺🇸 ENTERTAINMENT CROSSOVERS
Paramount becomes Arsenal’s first official entertainment partner

A club becomes a distribution channel — swapping storyworlds and audiences, not just selling rights.

Paramount+ strikes marketing deal with Arsenal
Paramount+ has signed a partnership with Premier League club Arsenal that will see the team’s players, club legends and supporters come together to celebrate some of Paramount+’s iconic series.
Sports Business Journal

🇬🇧 CREATOR CLUBS
Hashtag United attracts 500,000 fans as a content-first football club

A football club becomes a media format — building fandom through feeds before trophies.

Meet Hashtag United, the English semi-pro soccer team supported by 500,000 people on YouTube and part-owned by a Chelsea FC star
Hashtag United, the brainchild of YouTuber Spencer Owen, has over 450,000 followers on Instagram and 500,000 subscribers on Youtube.
Business InsiderBarnaby Lane

🇺🇸 PAYWALLED PLAY

Wall Street firms are buying youth sports facilities and putting leagues behind paywalls

Private equity is acquiring community infrastructure and turning participation into a subscription model.

Wall Street Is Paywalling Your Kids’ Sports
Private equity-owned Black Bear Sports Group is buying up youth hockey — and icing out parents who want to record their kids’ games.
The LeverLuke Goldstein

🇬🇧 MERCH AS MEDIA

Amateur women’s football teams hire designers to create kits that double as streetwear

A kit becomes a cultural product — monetising identity beyond the sideline.

Women’s Football Team Kits Are Becoming Coveted Style Items
Amateur women’s teams are straying away from mass-produced merch and instead bringing on board designers to create kit that is functional and eye-catching.
BroadsheetFelicia Pennant

🌐 BETTING LAYERS

New betting app launches exclusively for women’s sports

A dedicated women’s sports wagering platform is emerging as betting markets expand beyond men’s competitions.

New app plans to exclusively cater to women’s sports as sector sees growth | The GIST
Last week, Rival — set to be the first sportsbook built exclusively for women’s sports — shared its plans to be active in three U.S. betting markets by 2026. The platform will include bets across the NWSL, WNBA, NCAA women’s basketball, WSL, WTA, and more, differing from the existing platforms that center men’s sports.
The GIST

🇦🇺 ALGORITHMIC GUARDRAILS (@Rea’s pick)

NSW moves to regulate AI and “digital work systems” under workplace safety laws

The black box becomes inspectable — shifting algorithms from “management tech” to safety territory.

NSW Government strengthens guardrails around digital safety in workplaces
Modern workplaces are evolving, with digital work systems offering enormous potential to boost efficiency and unlock creativity, drive productivity, innovation, and job opportunities.
NSW Government

What I’m watching: The money is moving into new corners of sport — and a few of the systems underneath are starting to attract scrutiny.

Each signal lives in The Scout Library with AFLPA implications, "so what" questions and searchable tags.

Explore the library →

Also...got a signal to share? Send it to reanna@workfutures.com.au