Ad Tech Briefing: Corporate America finally buys into soccer as a mainstream sport; shadier elements of the ad industry are obliging

The fact that the U.S. Men’s National Team has consistently generated live audiences in and around the 30 million mark and has warranted presidential intervention, per media reports, underlines an already popular notion: sports is one of the last big live audience mass-market TV networks advertisers can reach.     

Piracy threat 

Of course, any mention of TV ad sales on Madison Avenue isn’t complete without “CTV” entering the conversation, especially as sports betting marketing in the region burgeons, with many marketers in the sector willing to tailor their tactical bids to reach such audiences.

However, amid such excitement, there’s an inconvenient truth: there really isn’t that much sports inventory on the market, and this scarcity amid huge demand is opening the door for shady actors to enter the fray, facilitated by a prevalence of willful blindness. 

Last week, the Trustworthy Accountability Group used the current zeitgeist to recoup some PR points — this was after a recent Adweek report signaled waning influence among platforms such as Google, The Trade Desk, and major marketers such as Procter & Gamble — telling The Athletic that it has halted ad spending on 1,376 piracy sites illegally streaming 2026 FIFA World Cup content via its “threat exchange” AdSec.

According to TAG, its efforts serve as a “complementary mechanism” to the U.S. Department of Justice’s seizure of 400 pirate domains on last month, plus they further echo similar efforts to cap leakage of ad spend to similar operations by Spain’s top soccer competition La Liga. Furthermore, the most recent Champions League Final generated more than 16 million illegal streams in the U.K., where the official rights-holding broadcaster did not offer a free-to-air viewing, according to reports.     

‘Nobody wants to know the answer…’

However, online privacy networks aren’t the only threat circling the lucrative sports sector, with several sources approached by Digiday in recent weeks telling of how the desperation for such in-demand content means many big publishers and platforms knowingly or semi-knowingly have to rely on a network of shady resellers. 

Such is the demand that awkward questions can be quickly shut down, according to some, noting that internal stakeholders can take shortcuts when it comes to vetting partners.

“People want sports, but there’s not much sports, so everyone’s forced to work with this shady reseller that claims to have all the sports, but they really don’t — but no one cares to check,” said one source who requested anonymity to preserve industry relationships. “No one wants to know the answer,” they added, “there’s too much money on the line.”

When things don’t add up

In recent weeks, sources approached Digiday, flagging allegations of the sale of premium live sports advertising inventory via a network of inventory resellers that raised several red flags. Most of the sources involved in the reporting declining to be named publicly in exchange for candor.

According to conversations reviewed by Digiday, the inventory in question, which was not confined to soccer content, appeared operationally legitimate, with audience signals closely matching authentic live-viewing patterns, but a series of technical and commercial inconsistencies prompted closer inspection by some sources involved in the transactions.

Such scrutiny raised red flags, including technical signals that should not have appeared on certain streaming platforms: the reseller offered audience feedback to partners, many of whom deal with tier one brands and media owners, that official rights-holders do not make available to advertisers. 

For example, one source noted that IP address samples returned by a reseller did not align with households believed to be watching the games in question. Furthermore, the inventory in question, which was tied to broadcasts, was also understood to be subject to exclusive distribution agreements — the Digiday source noted they later verified that the reseller did not have an official commercial relationship with the rights holders. 

Authorized resellers? 

For some, such questions mark the need for scrutiny in two areas: whether the impressions were real, and how (allegedly) premium live sports enter the advertising supply chain without demonstrable authorization from the rights holder or a licensed distributor? 

Separate sources noted techniques employed to muddy the waters for advertisers. “We see people clipping a live stream, repackaging that clip as a CTV ad, then selling it elsewhere as if it’s a live sports buy,” noted one source. “On the surface, the data can look relatively legitimate, but it wasn’t the live event — it’s shoulder content that never actually ran in the live CTV programming.”

Ultimately, this raises the question of how to verify not only that sports inventory is technically authentic, but also that it originates from an authorized source before media budgets are committed, though the industry’s commercial realities make this hard to verify. 

David Nyurenberg, svp, digital, InterMedia Advertising, told Digiday that it’s a case of supply simply not meeting demand, and added that high-value inventory has always attracted bad actors.

“What’s different in CTV is that the industry’s default posture is still to trust rather than verify. Premium sports CPMs create a massive financial incentive, and the lack of transparency creates the opportunity. Until buyers start asking tougher questions and demanding independent validation, not just relying on what’s declared in the supply chain, we shouldn’t be surprised when someone exploits that combination.”

“In the sports rights landscape, it’s basically unheard of for one company to hold every type of sport,” said one source, speaking on background, noting that when buyers are desperate for more live sports inventory, that demand creates a lot of confusion about what’s genuinely live. “It’s not in the leagues’ interests to concentrate everything with a single partner. Rights are spread across multiple broadcasters to keep a healthy competitive tension. So when someone claims they’ve secured ‘all the rights,’ just hearing that feels far‑fetched to me.” 

Josh Linforth, chief revenue officer,  Genius Sports, noted the growing sophistication of some of the industry’s less reputable players, especially in high-demand content areas such as sports, noting a lack of industry standards around “shoulder content,” i.e., non-live sports content that is repackaged into clips and sold as live in-game content. 

“In live sports, the most important question is whether the inventory is official, authorized, and connected back to the sport itself,” he added in an emailed statement, noting the importance of working with businesses built on official rights, trusted partnerships, and real-time data that helps ground advertising in what is actually happening on the field.

“Buyers should know who holds the rights, who is authorized to sell, and whether the money ultimately flows back to the league, rights holder, broadcaster, or platform. That is the value of working with a company like Genius Sports.”

What we’ve heard

“If OpenAI wants to get near its ad revenue goals… they need to open the platform to as many advertisers as possible.”

–  EMarketer’s Nate Elliott shares his opinion with Adweek’s Trishla Ostwal on why its ad tech partners keep dropping spend requirements. 

Numbers to know 

Findings from Zeno research that probed marketing professionals’ relationships with internal stakeholders.

• 92%: Orgs have marketing & comms integrated, yet only 43% view comms as a strategic partner
• 82%: Marketing leaders say reputation plays a larger role in growth decisions
• 83%: Say earned media beats paid in shaping AI answers, but fewer than half will boost investment
• 92%: Expect the CMO role to be fundamentally redefined by 2030

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