While the New York Liberty won the Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) Championship this year, women’s basketball as a whole had a winning year. A monster 2024, catalyzed by the popular athletes like Caitlyn Clark and Angel Reese, pushed viewership and attendance to new records — and helped the league score an upsized media rights contract. But during the months-long offseason, a new league called Unrivaled is hoping to make 2025 its year — with a fresh twist on the sport.

• Unrivaled will be a three-on-three league boasting a smaller court, shorter games, and over a dozen WNBA stars — including Aliyah Boston and Brittney Griner.
• The eight-week season will stream on MaxWBD
  , with games telecasted on TNT and truTV — filling a big gap left by the reshuffle in NBA media rights, which mostly leftWBD
  high and dry.

A different kind of all-star roster: The new six-team league could rival the WNBA with its commitment to pay participants the highest average salary in women’s sport, plus equity. Signing those big checks is $28M raised from athletic icons like NBA star Giannis Antetokounmpo, USC women’s basketball coach Dawn Staley, and tennis icon Coco Gauff. And in the brand power department, the league has stacked up super sponsor support from Ally FinancialALLY

, Under ArmourUAA

, and Samsung. The first Unrivaled match will air Fri., Jan. 17 at 7 pm ET.