Long-time market bull Tom Lee is considering two new themes for his Fundstrat Granny Shots US Large Cap ETF. 

On CNBC’s “ETF Edge” this week, he revealed sovereign security could soon make the cut. 

“It’s now evident to me that the mechanisms are in motion for companies to really fix their supply chains within a sovereign border, and that’s a change,” the firm’s chief investment officer said. “That’s not going to just be one or two years.”

He’s also looking at Gen Z. Lee compares the generation to millennials, who he called “the engine” of the market when Fundstrat first began researching themes seven years ago.

“That means we need to be focusing on Gen Z and then Gen Alpha, so we might have to evolve our demographic theme to kind of orient towards the younger cohorts,” he said. “It may not be for a couple years, but I’m kind of sharing our thought process.”

Lee’s Granny Shots ETF was inspired by NBA legend Rick Barry’s awkward free throw style. 

‘If you buy the best stocks in each theme, then you’re hanging your hat on a single idea. So we said, ‘Let’s be like Rick Barry. Let’s do a correct physics basketball throw, underhanded,'” said Lee. “It doesn’t look great, but it makes 90% of the shots.”

According to Lee, the ETF’s strategy starts with seven themes Fundstrat predicts will define the market over the next 10 years — from millennials to energy security. To be considered a granny shot, a stock must fit at least two of the themes.

“We’re not buying junky stocks. We want to make sure that they generate earnings and high ROIC [return on invested capital],” Lee said. “We rebalance every quarter.”

So far, the Granny Shots ETF, which was launched on Nov. 7, is scoring investors. In May, Fundstrat reported the ETF crossed the $1 billion in assets under management milestone. As of last week, Lee said the fund grew to $1.3 billion.

Since its launch, the ETF is up 13% as of Thursday’s close. The fund is beating the S&P 500 so far this year. It’s up almost 15% since Jan. 1 while the index is up about 7%.

As of July 3, Fundstrat reports its top three holdings are Robinhood, Oracle and AMD.

Independent ETF expert Dave Nadig said he’s observed recently that ETFs with active management styles are gaining traction.

“Tom’s very much a part of it,” Nadig said in the same interview. “I think having an active management overlay, both on the stock selection and the thematic part, can make a lot of sense for investors. It’s certainly easier for investors to understand.”

The NBA is quietly preparing to bring back its iconic show “NBA Inside Stuff.”

On Monday, the league filed two trademark applications for “NBA Inside Stuff,” the name of the long-running NBA highlight show that has aired on three different networks during its history — most notably from 1990 to 2006 on NBC and ABC. The show was briefly resurrected from 2013 to 2016 on NBA TV.

NBC is considering bringing back a “refreshed version” of the program, according to a person familiar with the matter. NBC will once again air live NBA games next season after losing the broadcast rights in 2002.

No decision has been made on whether to renew the show, the people said. An NBC spokesman declined to comment.

The NBA did not immediately respond to a request to comment. However, a source close to the league said the filing is part of the NBA’s routine trademark process.

The league previously owned multiple “NBA Inside Stuff” trademark registrations, but let them lapse, likely because it was no longer using the trademark.

“NBA Inside Stuff” was initially hosted by sportscaster Ahmad Rashad, who aimed to popularize and humanize NBA players with behind-the-scenes access. The show’s “Rewind” segment, featuring game highlights and Rashad yelling out days of the week, became a staple of the show.

The league’s two trademark filings indicate the league aims to use the “NBA Inside Stuff” name for a television show and to produce branded merchandise.

Josh Gerben, a trademark attorney at Gerben IP, said television doesn’t necessarily mean linear TV. It could be in the form of a YouTube or TikTok show.

“This is great intellectual property for the league,” Gerben said. “I think it makes a lot of business sense right now.”

The league would likely try to license the IP to one of its media partners, Gerben said.

In July, the NBA signed a 11-year, $76 billion media rights deal with The Walt Disney Company, NBCUniversal and Amazon that kicks off next season.

NBC may be trying to tap into nostalgia from its past run showing NBA games. In November, composer Josh Tesh revealed on CNBC that he’s working with NBC to bring back his famous “Roundball Rock” song.

Disclosure: NBCUniversal is the parent company of CNBC.

Unrivaled, a new 3-on-3 women’s professional basketball league, launches Friday, presenting both a major test and opportunity for women’s sports to boost its growing profile in the United States.

The league, co-founded by WNBA superstars Napheesa Collier and Breanna Stewart, has already announced deals with a dozen sponsors and raised $35 million in funding. Collier told CNBC that the league has already shown it has “immense” potential and opportunity.

“When you invest into the players and invest into women’s sports, I think we’re seeing the return already,” she said. “This is just the beginning for us. It’s year one and we’ve already been able to do this, so we’re really excited for the future.”

Games will air on Warner Bros. Discovery-owned TNT Sports platforms in a multiyear media rights deal. TV ratings will matter not just in terms of total viewership, but also demographics, said Lee Berke, president and CEO of sports consulting firm LHB Sports, Entertainment & Media.

“You’re looking for audiences that skew younger, men and women watching, you’re looking for the size of the audience,” Berke told CNBC. “There’s obviously a lot of hype going into day one. You want to see that audience expand and grow over the course of the season.”

Here’s what to know about Unrivaled ahead of its inaugural tip-off:

Games are played in a 3-on-3 format and take place on a smaller court compared to WNBA courts. They last one hour and are broadcast on TNT on Fridays and Mondays and on TruTV on Saturdays. Games are also available to stream on WBD’s Max.

All games are played at the Mediapro US venue in Medley, Florida, a suburb of Miami. The season takes place during the WNBA offseason and is intended to provide an alternative to playing overseas.

Many WNBA players spend their offseason playing for teams in Russia, China and other countries to supplement their income. However, the WNBA collective bargaining agreement signed in 2020 now suspends players without pay for the season if they don’t return from their overseas teams in time for training camp. WNBA training camp starts on April 27.

“It’s trying to fill a gap in the calendar for these players. It’s extending the runway of professional basketball,” Alex Bazzell, Unrivaled president and Collier’s husband, previously told CNBC.

Unrivaled will also pay many players a higher salary than the WNBA does. The total salary pool is over $8 million, Bazzell told SB Nation, which averages out to about $242,000 per player this season. Players will also receive equity and revenue shares from the league, which has said it is offering the highest average salary in women’s professional sports league history.

At a press conference Friday, Bazzell said the league doesn’t have a minimum or maximum salary, but that pay is partly based on what competitors and other women’s sports leagues pay.

“We are being extremely aggressive when you look at the entire landscape and ecosystem,” Bazzell said. “We try to look at numerous things: What are you making overseas, potentially? What are you making in the WNBA? How do we beat those numbers, candidly, to make it worth their while?”

WNBA yearly salaries currently range from the minimum $66,079 to the core player maximum of $249,244. Only one player per WNBA team can be designated as a core player and earn that amount.

The league has 36 participants for its first season, all of whom played in the WNBA last year. There are 15 2024 WNBA All Stars on the rosters, headlined by All-WNBA first-team honorees Collier, Stewart and Alyssa Thomas. Other notable players include Sabrina Ionescu, Brittney Griner and Angel Reese.

Unrivaled has raised $35 million from its seed and Series A rounds from a host of high-profile investors. Its backers include basketball stars like Giannis Antetokounmpo and Carmelo Anthony as well as Olympians like Alex Morgan and Michael Phelps. Tennis great Coco Gauff was announced as its newest investor on Jan. 6.

Collier said while everyone else is now catching on to the rise of women’s sports, sports figures were early to recognize the value of the industry.

“I think the people in sport have known this for a long time,” Collier said. “To see the support of other athletes is really encouraging. They believe in us so much, so that’s been really nice to see.”

Unrivaled’s corporate partners, Collier added, align with their vision of growing the sport.

“We said for a long time, this is not a charity. This is a great business opportunity, and those brands recognize that, too,” Collier said. “They’re not just doing this out of the goodness of their heart, they do believe in the growth of women’s sports. But they’re also doing it because they know that is something that has a lot of potential to be profitable.”

About a dozen companies have inked sponsorship deals with Unrivaled, including Sephora, State Farm, Wilson, Ally Financial and Samsung. Most recently, Unrivaled named Sprite as its presenting partner for the 1-on-1 tournament and Bodyarmor as its official sports drink.

“It’s tremendously impressive, both in terms of the number of sponsors, the quality of the sponsors and the fact that these are nontraditional sports sponsors,” Berke said.

TNT Sports’ crew of announcers and studio hosts for Unrivaled coverage includes Basketball Hall of Famer Lisa Leslie and two-time WNBA MVP Candace Parker.

Last year’s WNBA Finals, in which the New York Liberty defeated the Minnesota Lynx in five games, was the league’s most-viewed championship series in 25 years, according to ESPN.

The WNBA is expanding the Finals from a best-of-five format to a best-of-seven series starting next year. It is also debuting a 13th franchise, the Golden State Valkyries, next season and will add teams in Toronto and Portland, Oregon, in 2026.

Both the WNBA and its players are poised to cash in on the momentum.

The league can reevaluate its current 11-year, $2.2 billion media rights deal after 2028, CNBC previously reported, and the WNBA players union opted out of its current collective bargaining agreement in October. A new agreement, which would take effect after next season, could provide players with higher wages and more benefits, and the growing spotlight on WNBA athletes gives them greater leverage at the negotiating table.

Unrivaled will have a big impact on the business of women’s basketball, Collier told CNBC.

“We’re already seeing it expand the landscape. Overseas contracts are going up, other domestic league contracts are going up,” Collier said. “We’re trying to expand what the normal thinking around the business of women’s sports is, and you’re definitely going to see us push for those same things in the CBA.”

— CNBC’s Lillian Rizzo, Jake Piazza and Alex Sherman contributed to this report.

Christmas came right on time for Netflix, as the streamer set records for the most streamed NFL games ever in the U.S., according to Nielsen.

Nearly 65 million people across the U.S. tuned in to the two NFL matchups on Christmas Day, which Netflix held exclusive rights to show. The Baltimore Ravens’ victory over the Houston Texans averaged 24.3 million viewers, while the Kansas City Chiefs’ win against the Pittsburgh Steelers averaged 24.1 million, according to Nielsen.

The U.S. audience for the Ravens versus Texans game peaked during Beyoncé’s halftime show, with more than 27 million viewers tuning in to watch the star-studded performance.

“Bringing our members this record-breaking day of two NFL games was the best Christmas gift we could have delivered,” Netflix Chief Content Officer Bela Bajaria said in a press release. “We’re thankful for our partnership with the NFL, all of our wonderful on-air talent, and let’s please not forget the electrifying Beyoncé and the brilliant Mariah Carey.”

Wednesday’s games were the first in a three-year deal between the NFL and Netflix to show Christmas matchups exclusively on the streaming giant.

The NFL wasn’t the only sports league to feel the Christmas cheer. The NBA — which typically dominates the Christmas sports schedule — set a record for its most-watched Christmas Day in five years, averaging 5.25 million viewers per game in the U.S. across five games throughout the day, according to Nielsen.

The Los Angeles Lakers’ victory over the Golden State Warriors was the most watched NBA regular season and Christmas Day game in five years, averaging 7.76 million viewers and peaking with 8.32 million viewers. The first game of the day, the New York Knicks’ win over the San Antonio Spurs, averaged 4.91 million viewers, making it the most watched Christmas Day opener in 13 years.

All in all, viewership was up 84% across the five games compared with Christmas in 2023. The games were broadcast on Disney’s cable and streaming platforms ABC, ESPN, ESPN2, Disney+ and ESPN+.

The strong ratings were a welcome sign for the NBA, which is struggling with lower viewership this year.

Flau’jae Johnson has a lot going on at the moment.

The 21-year-old star basketball player, rapper, student and aspiring businesswoman has just inked her latest deal with the new women’s 3-on-3 basketball league Unrivaled.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but Johnson will receive an equity stake in the league.

“I wanted to be involved in something that is pushing the women’s game forward,” Johnson told CNBC.

Unrivaled, which kicks off its inaugural season in January, looks to offer female athletes another option to play basketball in the U.S. during the WNBA offseason. In addition to giving players equity in the league, Unrivaled aims to offer the highest average salary in women’s pro sports league history. In October, the Unrivaled signed a broadcast deal with TNT Sports.

“When I heard about the money, that was big for me. … These women are getting paid what they deserve,” Johnson said.

NCAA rules prevent Johnson, a junior at Louisiana State University, from committing to play in the league until she turns professional. Unrivaled signed a similar deal with University of Connecticut star Paige Bueckers in August.

In addition to being a league owner, Johnson will collaborate with Unrivaled on content throughout the season, and the league plans to support her music.

Off the court, she’s not only marketable as an athlete but as a rapper. Johnson signed with Jay-Z’s Roc Nation in 2021 and released a song with Lil Wayne in June.

She also has more than 3.5 million followers across her Instagram, TikTok and Twitter accounts.

Brands have taken notice. Johnson has signed deals with companies from Meta, to Puma, Powerade, the Athlete’s Foot and Amazon.

On Tuesday, she made the Forbes “30 Under 30” list, which estimated her net worth at $7 million.

She’s also ranked No.1 by On3 as having the highest name, image and likeness, or NIL, valuation of college women’s basketball players.

Johnson said her mother currently handles her finances and she doesn’t really splurge on anything, but she spends a lot of money at Chipotle.

“I’m trying to get that Chipotle deal so I don’t spend all my money on bowls,” she joked.

Despite all her sports and extracurriculars, Johnson said she still takes time to learn about business whether it’s by meeting with CEOs, watching YouTube videos or studying, noting she’s reading “Investing 101” by Michele Cagan at the moment.

While the top rookie salary in the WNBA is $76,535, Johnson said she hasn’t decided yet when she’s going to enter the WNBA draft but she isn’t worried about her brand diminishing.

“NIL is big but it’s really just a gateway to the pros,” she said. “The opportunities that I get from college are still going to roll over and it’s not like my followers are going to disappear.”

When asked who she looks up to as a role model, Johnson says she looks to the King: LeBron James.

“He’s the ultimate businessman,” she said.

“The way that he leverages his business opportunities, the way he carries himself, and he’s done so many things [like building a school] to help other people,” she added.

With so many different balls in the air, Johnson said it takes discipline, consistency and time management to fit everything in.

“I don’t like sitting in the house watching Netflix. … I like getting stuff done,” she said.

Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy’s new golf league, TGL, is getting some fresh star power representing the Big Apple.

Cohen Private Ventures, the family office of Steve Cohen, announced on Thursday that Eli Manning, Derek Jeter, CC Sabathia, Michael Strahan, John McEnroe and Jimmy Fallon are joining the New York Golf Club’s investor group as limited partners. It is the latest round of big names to join the golf upstart that kicks off Jan. 7 in tandem with the start of the 2025 FedEx Cup season.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Cohen, who also owns Major League Baseball’s New York Mets, acquired the rights to the New York Golf team last September. The team will be represented in its inaugural season by Rickie Fowler, Xander Schauffele, Matt Fitzpatrick and Cameron Young.

“New York has the greatest fans in the world, and we have built a team that will make New Yorkers proud. We believe this fresh, innovative take on the sport will appeal to traditional and new golf fans alike,” Cohen told CNBC in a statement.

Former New York Giants Super Bowl-winning quarterback Manning says he knows firsthand the excitement New Yorkers have for sports.

“There [have] been a lot of exciting trends in golf with participation growing on and off the course,” Manning said in a statement to CNBC.

TGL is the new primetime, high-tech golf league launched by Woods, McIlroy and former Golf Channel executive Mike McCarley. The league will operate in partnership with the PGA Tour, which is an investor, and will run complementary to the Tour schedule. ESPN landed the broadcast rights to the league last October.

TGL will feature Tour players split into six teams, competing in two-hour, head-to-head matches in a newly designed facility in Palm Beach, Florida.

The league was expected to launch in 2024, but the dome being built to house competition collapsed after a power outage.

Other big-name investors in TMRW Sports, the parent company of TGL, include National Basketball Association legends Stephen Curry, Shaquille O’Neal and Kevin Durant; MLB superstars Shohei Ohtani and Mike Trout; National Football League quarterback Josh Allen; tennis legend Serena Williams; and Formula 1 driver Lewis Hamilton.

Former New York Yankees star Jeter told CNBC he was drawn to the investment opportunity because it combines his passion for golf and his love of New York.

“I’m looking forward to seeing NYGC added to New York’s sports legacy,” said Jeter.

Warner Bros. Discovery agreed to end its quest to own a package of live National Basketball Association games in the U.S. for the 2025-26 season and beyond, settling all of its legal disputes with the league.

Warner Bros. Discovery sued the NBA in July, claiming the league failed to allow the media company to use its so-called matching rights on a package of live games.

The league selected three media partners — Disney, Comcast’s NBCUniversal and Amazon Prime Video — to be its U.S. distributors of live games for 11 years beginning next season. The total value of the deal, including WNBA games, was about $77 billion, CNBC previously reported.

The settlement with Warner Bros. Discovery, announced Monday, as well as a separate agreement between WBD and ESPN, will keep the company in the mix with some NBA content, production partnerships and licensing deals. However, it officially ends Turner Sports’ 40-year relationship with the NBA as a carrier of live games in the U.S. after this season.

Turner Sports has had an NBA package since 1984, with games airing on cable network TNT since 1988. The NBA decided to move away from Warner Bros. Discovery as a media partner for several reasons, including losing faith in the long-term future of cable TV as a method for reaching a younger audience.

Disney and Comcast have broadcast networks to showcase NBA games, and Amazon’s package is exclusively streaming.

The terms of the settlement grant WBD’s TNT Sports free access to highlights for the company’s Bleacher Report digital news site and its social media platform House of Highlights for the next 11 years, according to a person familiar with the details. The deal also allows Warner Bros. Discovery to license, create, and distribute new and existing NBA content across its media assets and includes live game rights in the Nordic countries, Poland and Latin America, excluding Brazil and Mexico.

The agreement also extends a partnership between NBA Digital and TNT Sports for five seasons that allows the NBA to engage Warner Bros. Discovery to provide promotion and “a variety of services, including production, content development and sales operations services,” according to a statement.

The settlement gives Warner Bros. Discovery years of guaranteed revenue from the NBA. The league isn’t paying WBD any additional money for those services beyond the terms of the settlement, according to people familiar with the matter, who asked to speak anonymously because some details of the agreement are private.

Basketball fans will have even more chances to see their favorite stars play in the Women’s National Basketball Association in the 2025 season.

WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert announced that the league will expand its regular season from 40 games to 44 games, and its Finals series from five games to seven games, both beginning next year. The Finals round will be a 2-2-1-1-1 format for home games, with the higher seed hosting first.

The three-game first round of the playoffs will alternate hosts, instead of the higher seed hosting the first two games before switching, like it did this season.

Engelbert said the league has considered the playoff changes since the Covid-19 pandemic, but the surge in its popularity and introduction of charter flights for teams was the final push needed to implement the new playoff format.

“The league’s growth and increased demand for WNBA basketball made this the ideal time to expand the schedule, lengthen the Finals and provide fans more opportunities to see the best players in the world compete at the highest level,” Engelbert said during a Thursday press conference.

The schedule is not the only thing expanding in next year’s season. The Golden State Valkyries will debut in 2025 as the league’s 13th team. Two more expansion teams have been announced, one in Toronto and one in Portland, and there are discussions in the works to lock in a city for the 16th team, Engelbert said Thursday. The Toronto and Portland teams, which are both unnamed, will start play in 2026.

The additions come as the WNBA is rapidly increasing in popularity, which led to the league’s most-recent media rights deal being worth $2.2 billion for 11 seasons, CNBC previously reported. The league’s media contract is negotiated within the National Basketball Association’s deal.

Viewership, attendance and engagement numbers all increased for the 2024 season, and in some cases set new records. The influx of exciting rookies such as Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese, in combination with established stars such as Breanna Stewart and A’ja Wilson, who are the respective 2023 and 2024 MVPs, contributed to the surge.

As the league has grown in popularity, more players have said they experienced racism or online harassment. When Engelbert appeared on CNBC last month, she did not outright condemn either when asked about the issue, sparking criticism. Engelbert later clarified and condemned “hate or racism.”

The WNBA is not the only women’s sports league growing in popularity, and media executives and investors are taking notice. Both RedBird IMI’s Jeff Zucker and Endeavor executive chairman Patrick Whitesell spoke to CNBC about the enticing opportunities across women’s sports.

This year’s Finals are currently underway between the Minnesota Lynx and the New York Liberty. The Lynx are up 1-0 in the best-of-five series after winning in an overtime thriller Thursday night.