The Athletic Names Fubo Its Official Streaming Partner

Continuing The Athletic’s partnership strategy

The Athletic’s previous lack of advertising offered the publisher a blank-slate opportunity to selectively bring in partners that organically integrated into its content offerings, according to Tomich.

Since the publisher began bringing aboard sponsors, it has penned partnerships with eBay to power its collectibles business, BetMGM to power its sports gambling offerings, and StubHub to power its ticketing business.

The strategy entails understanding what pain points The Athletic’s audience might have in their consumption experience and then partnering with providers to ease them.

Fragmentation has bedeviled the sports landscape for the last several years, so striking an arrangement with a streaming partner has long been a goal for The Athletic, according to Tomich. In the future, the publisher might soon look to solve similar consumer frictions by partnering with a fantasy sports platform or local sports provider.

“The user experience is incredibly important for us,” Tomich said. “We want to have exclusive relationships where we can build integrated products together.”