During a hectic year in sports business, college sports continued to transform rapidly, new media and streaming deals changed how we watch games, and prediction markets shook up sports betting. We charted all of it at Sportico. Here are our favorite data visualizations over the past 12 months.
 
NBA 3-Point Spree Draws Fan Ire but No ‘Imminent’ League Action (Jan. 7)

Throughout the 1990s, 2000s and 2010s in the NBA, 3-point shots were much more efficient than 2s on a points per attempt basis. That gap, however, had been closed by 2021-22 due to the gradual replacement of inefficient long 2s by 3s, and the relative value of 3s and 2s has been roughly the same ever since.

Cable’s Not Dead Yet, but It Sure Does Smell Funny (Jan. 10)

In 2014, the cable bundle was in 86% of all U.S. TV households. That’s now
plunged to 38%. Per MoffettNathanson analysis, even when you toss the 20.3 million virtual MVPD subs into the mix, total pay-TV penetration of occupied homes has been winnowed down to 51%.

Super Bowl 2025 Almost the Most Boring This Century (Feb. 10)

Using play-by-play data, we created an estimation of an NFL game’s “excitement” by adding the changes in win probability on every play over the course of the game. By this metric, the Philadelphia Eagles’ win over the Kansas City Chiefs in Super Bowl 59 ranks as the second-least exciting championship game of the 21st century.

College Basketball Is Getting Older—Except for Duke (Mar. 27)

Men’s college basketball has gotten older across the board. In 2019, the year before the COVID-19 pandemic, the average age of Sweet 16 starters was 20.8. In 2025, it was 21.6. The relaxing of rules related to transferring and the extra year of eligibility granted to COVID-era athletes both contributed to the rising number of college basketball stars who could legally grab a beer after their March Madness game.

The Historically Great Thunder Are in It for the Long Run (Apr. 20)
 
It is rare for a team as young as the 2024-25 Oklahoma City Thunder to be even very good, much less historically elite with a +12.8 net rating. The only other team since 2000 younger than 25 years old with a regular season net rating of +7.0 or better was the 2023-24 Thunder.

Tariff Shock Wipes $318 Billion From Sports Stocks in a Week (Apr. 9)
 
Amidst president Donald Trump’s announcement of new tariffs, U.S. stocks fell more than 15%, peak to trough, from April 2 to April 7. Then Trump ordered a 90-day pause on his tariff plan, leading to one of the best days for the stock market in the past two decades.

The Modern NBA Is No Country for Short Men (June 6)
 
Within the past decade, opportunities for shorter players have significantly diminished in the NBA. Five years ago, 38% of the time that the ball was possessed, it was by a player 6-foot-3 or shorter, per NBA tracking data. In 2024-25, that was just 27% of the time.

Odds Say Pacers Would Be Unlikeliest NBA Champion Ever (June 16)
 
The NBA has seen a fair share of unlikely finalists in recent history. Teams ranked outside the top 10 in preseason title odds made the Finals in 2020, 2021, 2023, 2024, and 2025, after only three such teams did so between 1985 and 2019.

Head Games: A Data Dive Into Lee Corso’s 430 Mascot Picks (Aug. 28)
 
This year, longtime football coach-turned-broadcaster Lee Corso made his final College GameDay appearance. That meant it was also the last time Corso revealed his game prediction by donning a mascot’s headgear. Corso had made 430 headgear picks in his career, with a 286-144 record (66.5%).

It Will Cost $935 to Stream Every NFL Game This Season (Sep. 5)
 
If you want to stream every NFL game directly, you now can. For a pretty penny, mind you. Altogether, the regular season costs $328, and that’s before out-of-market games and the postseason.

Kalshi’s Volume Has Been 90% Sports During Football Season (Oct. 3)
 
During the four weeks between Sept. 1 and Sept. 28—encompassing the first month of the NFL season—there was $1.13 billion in trading volume on prediction market Kalshi’s NFL contracts, accounting for roughly 42% of the company’s total volume during that span. Sports accounted for around 90% overall.

How to Watch NBA Games This Season (It’s Complicated) (Oct. 20)
 
In total, there will be 247 national regular season NBA games on ABC, ESPN, NBC, Peacock and Prime Video this season. That’s up from the 172 contests airing nationally last year.

The Dodgers Aren’t ‘Runing Baseball’—They Have Plenty of Help (Oct. 24)
 
The Los Angeles Dodgers won the 2025 World Series with the most expensive roster in baseball by far. Their luxury tax bill this season was projected at $169 million, higher than the actual payroll of 13 MLB teams.

Sunk-Cost Football: UMass’ Faltering Quest to Belong in the FBS (Nov. 24)
 
Since 2012, UMass football has posted the worst record in FBS, winning only 16% of its games. Accompanying these brutal game logs has been a parade of financial miscalculations, strategic misfires and other indignities.

Sports Franchise Valuations Database
 
The NBA’s “get-in” price, or the value of the lowest-ranked team, is now $4 billion. That’s up 145% from $1.63 billion in 2022. During the same time span, the NHL’s is up 180% and the NFL’s is up 94%, but MLB’s is only up 23%.