Netflix and WWE Team Up: Paul "Triple H" Levesque and Bela Bajaria
Moderator: Jessica Gelman
Panelists: Paul "Triple H" Levesque, Bela Bajaria
From Drive to Survive to Quarterback, Netflix has reshaped how fans engage with sports through immersive storytelling. Now, with WWE’s flagship Raw moving to Netflix, the streaming giant is making an even bolder play in live sports entertainment. But what makes for compelling sports storytelling? How do you build anticipation for big events, cultivate new audiences, and sustain engagement beyond the game? This panel brings together two of sport’s most influential content executives, Netflix’s Bela Bajaria and WWE’s Paul “Triple H” Levesque, to explore how sports media is evolving, what it takes to craft narratives that captivate global audiences, and the future of sports entertainment in the streaming era.
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47:26
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47:26
The Role of the Storyteller in a Data and AI World
Moderator: Ben Alamar
Panelists: Jackie MacMullan, Jeff Bennett, Rebecca Dyer, Brant Berglund
Storytelling plays a vital role in the fan experience. Across the sports landscape, storytellers are relied upon to convey the drama and excitement of sports, bring new fans in, and satisfy fans' hunger for knowledge. The tools available to storytellers have expanded significantly over the last few years with the expansion of new data sets and metrics that provide new insights and perspectives on sports. The recent advances in AI also provide the opportunity for new tools, but also a potential to replace certain types of storytelling through automation. This panel discusses how the role of the storyteller has changed, skills and perspectives needed to tell good stories, and how AI is and will change how fans engage with sports stories.
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46:29
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46:29
The Fan Attention Game: How Sports and Data Build Fandom presented by Wasserman Foundation
Moderator: Valerie Camillo
Panelists: Shelley Pisarra, Tim Clark, Kathryn Kai-ling Frederick
In 2025, sports are fighting harder than ever for fans’ attention – contending with an unprecedented news cycle, shorter attention spans, and changing modes of content consumption. This panel will discuss how teams and leagues are using data to adapt in this rapidly changing world, and how they can play – and win – the attention game.
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46:52
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46:52
Checkmate and Innovate: The Future of Engagement in Chess
Moderator: Danny Rensch
Panelists: Alexandra Botez, Levy Rozman, Daryl Morey, Ella Papanek
Chess is experiencing a global renaissance, fueled by emerging innovations in streaming, social media, and format variety, but where does the game go from here? Join Levy Rozman, Alexandra Botez, Ella Papanek, Daryl Morey, and Danny Rensch as they explore how chess is evolving to engage new audiences. This panel will dive into the growth of chess content creation and how the sport is expanding into new mediums and formats.
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48:22
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48:22
When the Odds Don't Add Up: Navigating Anomalies and Uncertainties in Sports Betting
Moderator: Chad Millman
Panelists: Jeff Ma, Nate Silver, Sean Zerillo
The rapidly evolving landscape of sports betting presents unique challenges for both bettors and bookmakers, especially as data anomalies and unexpected outcomes increasingly disrupt predictive models. This panel, featuring industry experts, will explore strategies for identifying and addressing situations when actual results deviate from model expectations. The panel will explore the implications of unusual betting patterns and dive into the sports betting challenges of the 2024 NFL Season, where favorites won 72.1% of the time, the highest winning percentage in almost 20 years.
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