Dick’s and Just Women’s Sports Create Largest Women’s College Basketball Bracket Prize

Dick’s Sporting Goods and multimedia platform Just Women’s Sports are ready to let basketball fans know that the madness is here this March. The two companies partnered for the 2022 Just Women’s Sports x Dick's Bracket Challenge with a $150,000 first place prize, the largest winning reward ever in a women’s college basketball challenge. Second through eleventh place finishers will take home $250 Dick’s gift cards. “At Dick’s we’re really excited about bringing more attention to women’s sports in general, so we’ve been having conversations with Just Women’s Sports for quite some time,” Melissa Christian, Dick’s Sporting Goods vp of global brand and category marketing, told Adweek. “How do we bring brackets, which are such a huge part of the culture of March basketball, to the women’s game and elevate it?” This is the first year that the NCAA will allow women’s tournament to use the March Madness branding, following record viewership in 2021. The tournament was previously called the NCAA Division I Women’s Basketball Tournament. CBS, Turner Sports Sell Out March Madness Ad Inventory With Record Revenue Dick’s has a history of supporting women’s college basketball, and was one of the brands that sought to address the inequities between male and female athletes during March Madness—but the NCAA said its help was not needed. Fans can register their brackets beginning today, and begin filling out their selections once tournament teams have been named on March 13. 'The timing is now' When Haley Rosen, founder and CEO of JWS, launched the company in 2020, creating a bracket challenge for the college game was an objective from the start. “March Madness is such a massive thing on the men’s side that we’ve never really taken to the women’s side,” Rosen said. “We actually tried to partner with some companies to make this happen, but they didn’t have women’s brackets, they didn’t have the resources, all kinds of typical stuff that holds back the space.” “We’ve grown to a point where we can support an initiative like this, and women’s sports is on the rise,” Rosen added. “Everything is up, viewership is up, attendance is up—the timing is now. Partnering with Dick’s Sporting Goods and having this awesome prize, we need this for the space, we need all this momentum and excitement and exciting prizes. We need this type of game around the game.” The 2021 championship game between Stanford and Arizona was the most-viewed NCAA women’s basketball championship game since 2014, averaging 4.1 million viewers, up 9% from the 2019 title game. Last year’s Final Four weekend was also the sport’s most-watched since 2012, averaging 2.85 million viewers. That momentum has only continued into 2022 with a February matchup between Tennessee and South Carolina averaging 876,000 viewers, the most-viewed regular season women’s college basketball game since 2017. “We love the opportunity not just to be a sponsor, but to actually drive hype, and change in behavior and really get people excited about the women’s game. This is just another way to really live out our values and not just put money against something," said Christian. "As we think about it from a Dick’s Sporting Goods perspective how we can leverage our brand and our resources to grow women's sports, it's thinking about those engaging ways that create value for the athletes themselves and for the fans who are supporting them.” To market the bracket, JWS will be using all its media channels as well as partnering with athletes and hosting a live event activation. “This is a full court press and we’re really excited to make this big,” said Rosen. Dick’s is also planning to leverage all of its channels at its disposal, tapping into its customer base, email base and leveraging its social channels to promote the bracket. “We've been advocating for so long to get more product offerings specifically designed for female ballplayers,” said Christian. “I'm really proud of our product expansion and what we've been able to work with our vendor partners to bring to market.”