Snowboarding was once dismissed as an extreme sport; today, it’s a fixture of the Winter Olympics. Earlier this year, The Hollywood Reporter noted how the WNBA and Formula 1 — long viewed as niche — have grown into both fan favorites and big businesses. And pickleball, once a casual backyard pastime, is now an investor darling.
More leagues and emerging sports are waiting in the wings, eager to take flight. Audiences may remain smaller than those attracted by the NBA, NHL, NFL or MLB, but niche sports, from padel to tag, climbing to Quadball, are gaining passionate new fan bases — and attracting broadcasters eager for fresh and sellable programming.
It was in the 1990s that ESPN, the world’s largest sports network, first began to air niche sports like snowboarding and motocross. By 2004, it was a household joke famously spoofed in Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story, in which a fictional channel called ESPN8 airs dodgeball matches. But 13 years later, in August 2017, the real “ESPN8: The Ocho” came to life: Inspired by the fictional channel, it aired during the college-sports offseason, showcasing quirky, obscure competitions.
And it wasn’t just a stunt. ESPN introduced niche sports as a pragmatic strategy to fill offseason programming gaps and diversify its audience beyond those interested in major leagues. By airing low-cost, high-novelty competitions, the network not only kept viewers engaged but also created new inventory to package and sell to advertisers.
The experiment was so successful that The Ocho became an annual staple. On The Ocho, audiences can reliably tune in to paintball competitions, pillow fighting, kickball, tractor pulling, robot fighting, arm wrestling and the ever-popular T. Rex World Championship Races — in which competitors engage in foot races while wearing inflatable Tyrannosaurus rex costumes. It was on The Ocho that cornhole — the backyard beanbag toss turned organized competition — made its national TV debut, leading to the American Cornhole League’s two-year deal with ESPN, promising 300 hours of ACL events annually across its channels.
But even today, broadcast schedules are still dominated by the major leagues, which means openings for the oddities are still in the margins. Yet, networks need content to fill air time, investors are chasing undervalued assets, and Gen Z and Gen Alpha — raised in a world where every moment is entertainment — are hungry for sports that feel relatable, bite-sized and built for social media. The result: Once-fringe activities are being remade as leagues, offering networks fresh programming and investors new ways to buy into the sports economy.
With social media driving viral awareness, broadcasters see value in securing rights to emerging leagues. In a media market where television and digital reach carry equal weight, these leagues represent new inventory that can be packaged for advertisers and sponsors, as well as a new channel for brands to reach new audiences.
Which niche sports are emerging as a result? Here are 9 to watch.
SLAP FIGHTING
Power Slap has built its business on shock value and spectacle. Launched in 2022 by UFC president Dana White with partners Lorenzo Fertitta and Craig Piligian, the league was sanctioned by the Nevada State Athletic Commission and made its national television debut on TBS, the Warner Bros. Discovery–owned cable network, in 2023.
White’s immense belief in his Power Slap promotion led him to make false claims about its popularity. During a 2023 press conference, the UFC chief argued that his new endeavor’s social media numbers dwarfed those of the NFL, NBA, NHL, F1 and WWE combined.
While his remarks on the social media metrics were hyperbolic — as those leagues combined, on Instagram alone, equal 203 million followers compared to Power Slap’s 7 million — White was perhaps manifesting what he saw in his latest venture at the time. After bringing slap fighting to Las Vegas, White has taken his praises to the mountains, ushering his UFC fan base into the new form of combat.
Although not as massive as White claims (or perhaps not yet), Power Slap has begun attracting the interest of sports fans in the United States thanks to the successful promoter’s use of his established platform to parade the sport. Power Slap, which White claimed had become “a $450 million business in nine months” in 2023, may or may not be on the cusp of his projections, but it sure is
gaining traction 17 events later.
PICKLEBALL
Major League Pickleball has emerged as one of the most attractive bets in sports investment. Founded in 2021 by philanthropist and former finance executive Steve Kuhn, the league professionalized a backyard pastime by turning it into a franchise model with teams across the United States, drawing buy-ins from stars including LeBron James and Tom Brady. In 2023, the league was expected to reach over $100 million in revenue, with individual franchises fetching from $10 million to $15 million a piece.
Major League Pickleball may also be the fastest-rising league with the distinction “Major League” in this day and age. Just four years since its genesis, MLP has been a shiny, new rocketship for big-time investors to strap their hopes of financial growth onto.
Since its founding, MLP has expanded from eight initial clubs to 22 teams across the league. Furthermore, the
biggest names in sports are buying into the organization as part-owners of the participating clubs. Beyond Brady and James, Kevin Durant, Drake and Heidi Klum are among the A-listers with stakes in these teams.
Although the valuation of MLP has not been made public, several indicators prove the league’s financial success amid its popularity. In August 2025, the MLP team Los Angeles Mad Drops was sold for $13 million, weeks after the Palm Beach Royals paid a $16 million expansion fee to join MLP in 2026.
The sport also saw a growth in interest during the COVID-19 pandemic, when outdoor and socially distant sports became more appealing for residents thirsting for activity. Thanks to its portability and easy structure, pickleball became more than a trend and new practitioners jumped on the bandwagon.
PADEL
Not to be mistaken for pickleball, padel is another racket-based sport making noise in the market. Founded in 2023 by former tennis player Marcos Del Pilar and lawyer Keith Stein, and well established in Europe and Latin America, the Pro Padel League was looking to tap into a global market. Now the sport is drawing US investor interest as clubs open in New York, Miami and Los Angeles, with backing from athletes such as Rafael Nadal and Zlatan Ibrahimović — positioning itself as a lifestyle-driven complement to pickleball’s mass-market appeal.
While MLP followed the US-based team structure, PPL took tennis’s model with events painting the globe year-round. The 2025 season has already touched Miami, Spain, Mexico and the Hamptons, leading up to the grand finale in New York City in October 2025.
Like its pickleball counterparts, PPL’s Los Angeles–based team, the LA Beat, sold for significant numbers after David Eisen bought it for a lucrative $10 million, the largest single investment in PPL history.
The league also landed streaming deals with DAZN and FuboTV.
TAG
World Chase Tag, a combination of parkour and the childhood staple, is another league that’s finding success due to its easily consumable, entertaining and social media-clip-friendly nature.
The global league for competitive tag has grabbed the attention of ESPN, NBCSN and Fox Sports since its founding in 2012, gracing each network’s airwaves. The athleticism of the competitors and fast pace of the game became the catalyst for its popularity.
With gyms across nine countries, the league is most popular in Europe but has also established a presence in Brazil, China, Japan and the United States. In addition to having around 5 million social media followers, WCT is audiences. broadcast in 38 countries and growing in live and online.
CORNHOLE
The origin of cornhole — or bag toss — is debated. Some credit Matthias Kuepermann for inventing the game in 14th-century Germany. Others suggest the Native Americans, particularly the Sauk tribe in Illinois, played a similar game by filling animal bladders with beans.
Regardless, centuries later, the game has become a staple in field days and outdoor bars. In 2015, Stacey Moore founded the American Cornhole League and has been its commissioner since. The competitive version of the sport quickly found its way to ESPN3 in 2016, then ESPN2 the following year.
With the lack of mainstream sports during the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic, the ACL saw a significant boost in popularity after airing on ESPN for six consecutive
weeks. This led to the league’s network deal with CBS Sports in 2021.
According to Front Office Sports, the ACL’s players have made a total of roughly $7.7 million in prize money. While the number is not as lucrative for professional athletes, it’s not too shabby considering most of the players have full-time jobs outside the sport.
ULTIMATE FRISBEE
Walter Frederick Morrison created a saucer-shaped toy in 1948 called the Flyin-Saucer, later renaming it the Pluto Platter. After the Wham-O toy company saw a high demand for the product, it eventually led to a structured way to use it for sport.
In 1958, Wham-O changed the name of the toy to pay tribute to New England’s pastime of tossing around pie tins from the Frisbie Pie Company, based out of Connecticut. The sport Ultimate Frisbee dates back to 1968, when the idea was presented by Joel Silver, a successful Hollywood movie producer. All of which, combined, led to the founding of the World Flying Disc Federation in 1984 and the Ultimate Frisbee Association in 2012 in the US.
Apart from domestic popularity, professional frisbee has been a staple on the international stage, with 122 countries registered as members of the WFDF.
Although not an official sport sanctioned by the NCAA, Ultimate has been available to college-based teams thanks to USA Ultimate. Teams represent universities in the United States and are classified by their school’s NCAA affiliation, D1 or D3. The USA Ultimate tournament is also shown on ESPN+.
QUADBALL
The sport played in the famous Harry Potter books and films was brought to life in 2005 at Middlebury College in Vermont and renamed Quadball.
Proving the influence of literature on sports, it has since grown outside the Green Mountain State and gone global with the founding of the International Quadball Association in 2010. The IQA has since welcomed 19 full members and 15 associate members.
On top of being a popular college club competition, the IQA has hosted five Quadball World Cups since 2012, with the United States winning four of those.
KARATE
With combat sports promotions appearing everywhere, Karate Combat is one of the most innovative arenas for hand-to-hand combat. While the discipline has been present for over 1,400 years, the league is the first professional, full-contact promotion for karate.
Founded in 2018, Karate Combat was established by Robert Byrna and planted its headquarters in Dubai. The league maximized hightech, modern presentation to attract fans to watch the long-standing practice.
With nearly 4 million followers on Instagram and Facebook, Karate Combat has become popular among combat sports fans in recent years. As the promotion continues to grow, four of MMA’s biggest stars — Bas Rutten, Georges St-Pierre, Lyoto Machida and Stephen Thompson — are ambassadors. Its events are streamed on the UFC Fight Pass and DAZN.
CLIMBING
Once a niche extreme or idle byproduct of hiking and camping, climbing and bouldering have seen a recent resurgence in popularity around the world. Climbing gyms have experienced significant growth over the last decade, with an average of 32 net new gyms opening annually in the United States and Canada from 2012 and 2022.
In 2024, IndyWeek reported that there were 622 climbing gyms in the United States, a massive boom compared to the 353 in 2014.
The 2024 IFSC Climbing World Cup had 32 hours of TV coverage on ORF and 18 hours on Eurosport. The event was shown in 50 countries, expanding the sport’s global audience.
Although professional rock climbing is not as popular as others, the activity is one that the masses appear to enjoy, as the average annual revenue per climbing gym teases $1 million at $974,337.
DARTS
Another game that folks play with friends, which then turned into a professional competition, is darts. The pub game entered the professional ranks in the 1970s when players fought to monetize the game. That profit was followed by television deals in the United Kingdom, where the sport is most popular.
In 2022, New York City was added to the World Darts Series and has been a staple in the tour since. Every year, US-based fans and spectators from across the pond take over the Hulu Theater at Madison Square Garden to see some of darts’ biggest stars compete on American soil.
Darts’ popularity led to TV deals with Sky Sports and DAZN. As for the players, the sport’s biggest names are earning around six digits. The highest-earning dartsman, Michael van Gerwen, made around £9 million in winnings as the sport continues to grow worldwide.