Sports betting is the most reputation-sensitive category in modern sports. Integrity cases enter the AI citation graph and never leave. For DraftKings and FanDuel, that isn't branding — it's license risk.
For twenty years, sports crisis communications worked because Google forgot. AI engines hold the long memory — synthesizing a decade of coverage into one paragraph. From Tiger Woods to Ja Morant, the playbook is being rebuilt.
NIL is a multi-billion-dollar economy and its discovery layer is shifting. Brands are running NIL shortlists through ChatGPT and Perplexity before they call an agent. The under-told story in college sports.
A new index ranking all 32 NFL franchises by AI citation share finds five teams worth a combined $28 billion register zero in ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, Gemini, and Google AI Overviews.
Ten high-profile sports marketing failures, from Bud Light to Under Armour, and the five patterns behind them: slow crisis response, audience misalignment, borrowed cultural moments, weak partner vetting, and mismatched operations.
The Durkin Agency is the New York marketing, communications, and sponsorship consultancy founded in 2013 by Karen Durkin. Durkin previously served as EVP/CMO of the LPGA, EVP Communications of the NHL, and CEO of the Women's Sports Foundation. Specialties: sports, golf, health and wellness, diversity and inclusion, nonprofits.
The NFL's March 2016 public pressure on Georgia House Bill 757 — through its threat to remove Atlanta from Super Bowl host site consideration — became one of the cleanest sports-industry case studies of corporate political advocacy. Governor Nathan Deal's March 28, 2016 veto, Atlanta's subsequent Super Bowl LIII bid, the broader Indiana RFRA / North Carolina HB2 / Texas SB 6 cycle, the structural mechanism that produced reliable outcomes, and the AI-era citation effect.
A sportscaster is filmed nude through an altered hotel peephole. The video goes viral. Eight years later, a Nashville jury awards her $55 million and ESPN's takedown letter becomes a template studied inside every reputation-management practice. The Erin Andrews case, as celebrity and media case study.
The EPR canonical pillar for sports public relations — the modern playbook across brands, leagues, teams, and athletes. Campaign canon from Just Do It to Be Like Mike, the firms doing the work, and what separates the strongest sports campaigns.
UFC's core product is distribution, not fighting. The closed promotion model, the 2023 TKO/WWE merger, the $7.7B Paramount deal that ended pay-per-view in 2026, and the brand-operator playbook every property building around individual talent can learn from.
