courtesy of wme (3)
WME
Josh Pyatt (co-head of WME Sports)
Lee White (head of sports content, WME)
Kelly Sherman (agent, WME Sports)
In the era of the star athlete-turned-entertainment executive, there are countless examples across the spectrum of sports.
Peyton Manning, LeBron James and Tom Brady all have something in common in that regard: William Morris Endeavor.
WME plays a key role in representing the trio’s off-the-field endeavors, in addition to representing many other high-profile athletes and their content-related initiatives, including Luka Doncic, Sabrina Ionescu, Kylian Mbappé and Lindsey Vonn.
Take the example of James, whose SpringHill Company is now one of the most reputable brands in sports-related entertainment. When WME first signed on to represent the production company in 2020, it had only one show under its belt.
“When LeBron started SpringHill, it was still a bit of a foreign concept for an athlete to have a production company,” said Lee White, the agency’s head of sports content. “It took a lot of convincing to get athletes to commit to doing something like this because they were so protective of their brand.”
But now the upside has been made apparent.
“There’s so many different athletes with production companies now because they see the opportunity there,” White said, “and that there’s a huge business for it.”
WME Sports, which is led by Josh Pyatt, is growing accordingly. It created a sports content division about two years ago, though it has been working and innovating in this space for the better part of a decade. A couple recent examples of the way the division is influencing the industry are two big hits from Manning and his production company, Omaha Productions: ESPN’s “ManningCast” and Netflix’s “Quarterback,” a pair of deals that WME brokered with help from agent Kelly Sherman.
“Our sports content division was built organically in the company because Josh Pyatt, myself and a number of our other colleagues are just huge sports fans,” White said. “We really just made a business out of it just because we love sports and wanted to do more in sports.” — Erik Bacharach
