Whether you love him or despise him, seven-time Super Bowl champion Tom Brady shows no signs of slowing down in his latest role as quarterback for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, where he’s under contract through the 2022 season.
But the American football legend who is widely considered the “greatest of all time” can’t play the game forever, and Brady has been quietly building a new empire off the field at Religion of Sports (RoS), the Emmy-award-winning sports media company he co-founded in 2017 with filmmaker and chief creative officer Gotham Chopra and fellow NFL Hall of Fame member Michael Strahan.
Religion of Sports was founded on the premise that “sports are religion” and they “provide meaning, purpose, and significance to their participants – from athletes to spectators, coaches to broadcasters, to family, friends and fans. If sports are the faith, these are the faithful.”
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The organization consists of a diverse, forward-thinking collective of filmmakers and podcasters, writers and designers who believe in the power of storytelling to show why sports matter so deeply to communities around the world.
Last month RoS announced plans to launch Religion of Sports Brazil in partnership with Adventures, a high-tech content branding agency with offices in Rio and São Paulo. This partnership will help RoS “expand into new markets and bring its unique storytelling approach to audiences around the world,” said Sergio Floris, partner and managing director of original content at Adventures.
Our partnership is focused on creating premium, original content connected to the Brazilian sports market, which is largely unexplored, and yet is a culturally relevant part of our daily lives and habits. We want to build the Religion of Sports name in Brazil in order to leverage the power of the established brand in the U.S. and raise the potential of the Brazilian market
Sergio Floris, partner and managing director of original content at Adventures.
Adventures is already a leading developer of LatAm-focused digital content strategies for several other global brands in the region including Americanas, Domino’s, Disney, John Deere, Resso, Stone, TikTok and Tinder. Its Adventure Studios division, launched earlier this year, develops custom content for multiple platforms, from TikTok videos to reality shows.
The agency’s first projects for RoS will tap into Brazil’s diverse and engaging soccer culture, and it has plans to release the first Brazilian-themed content in 2022. Several recently launched social media accounts provide a window into the kinds of content fans can expect; the full list can be accessed by visiting @religionofsportsbr.
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“We [want] to bring prominence to other sports besides soccer and broaden our view on sports issues, going beyond what is featured in the news. Through entertainment, we can portray important stories and themes from a valuable perspective to connect the public not only to great athletes, but also brands and creators,” Floris added.
Some of the top Brazilian athletes already represented by Adventures include two-time world surfing champion Gabriel Medina; football star and reigning UCL champion Thiago Silva; six-time X Games champion skateboarder Leticia Bufoni; World Cup-winning cross-country mountain biker Henrique Avancini; and 12-year old skateboarding phenom Gui Khury, the youngest skateboarder in history to win gold at the X Games.
“Religion of Sports is thrilled to expand globally, and we’ve found Adventures to have a unique combination of local expertise, trust with athletes and brands, a team that is seasoned but entrepreneurial, and a common resonance with our brand and point of view. That combination makes this exciting and a powerful area for growth,” said Ameeth Sankaran, RoS CEO.
When asked about further expansion beyond Brazil Sankaran said, “We are starting with Brazil, but of course have aspirations to expand at the right time. Brazil itself is a large market but also a changing market and [we believe] that our stories, creators, and athletes have a lot they can be involved with to shape and influence culture.”
Currently, there are no fees or subscriptions needed to access Religion of Sports’ original content. The entire library of videos, articles, podcasts, and other content is available for free on the web and across multiple social media networks. Its primary source of revenue comes from selling or licensing content to other content networks and on behalf of brands, explained Sankaran.
“In the U.S., this comes to life with great partners like Showtime, ESPN, Facebook Watch, and Netflix, among others. We envision a similar model in Brazil, working with both networks and a broad set of brands Adventures has great relationships with,” he said.
