Amazon has made a huge splash on the sporting scene and is set to tighten its grasp with some major talent acquisitions who made their names at ESPN.
The e-commerce and tech giants bought podcast company Wondery for a reported $300 million in 2020. And, according to Front Office Sports, they’re set to boost their sports profile with new shows from former ESPN stars Michelle Beadle and Trey Wingo, as well as from Dan Le Batard’s Meadowlark Media.
Wondery is set to launch original programming this month, including ‘Beadle Royale’, which will cover sports and pop culture. Wingo, who is a former ‘SportsCenter’ host who spent 23 years at ESPN, will host an alternative sports history podcast named ‘Makin’ Waves’.
Former Riner journalist Shea Serrano is also set to host a new basketball podcast that hasn’t yet been named.
“We’ve done a bunch of activations around ‘Thursday Night Football’ for our [podcast] shows, and we’re constantly looking for ways to work together,” Marshall Lewy, chief content officer at Wondery, told the aforementioned publication.
“I think Amazon’s commitment to sports across the board is really important to us, but we’re also looking at it from the Wondery lens as well, of we want a sports slate. Sports is the fastest-growing category in podcasting and we just see a real opportunity to lean into that area.”
The news of this development drops just ahead of Amazon announcing its Q2 financial earnings. It also drops in the wake of ESPN laying off several popular on-air talents, including Jalen Rose, Jeff Van Gundy, and Suzy Kolber.
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It’s also understood that Amazon could purchase a piece of ESPN at some point as Disney is looking for partners to share the network with.
