Tonight in Unpacks: Basketball remains the favorite participation sport in the U.S., while a new smart hoop -- aptly named Huupe -- hopes to tap into that popularity when it rolls out in 2023.

In today's Morning Buzzcast, SBJ's Reginald Walker talks about big names making major investments in growth sports. Also, Dale Jr. expands his media reach and the Big 12 adds to its leadership team.

Basketball extended its now 14-year lead over baseball, soccer, football and ice hockey as the country’s most popular major participatory sport, according to analysis from SBJ's David Broughton of the 2022 State of the Industry Report from the Sports & Fitness Industry Association (SIFA) and Sports Marketing Surveys USA.

The survey, fielded annually since 2008, found a total of 27.1 million people in the U.S. age 6+ played basketball at least once in 2021, 11.5 million more than baseball. Pandemic-related restrictions negatively affected the participation rates of indoor and team sports. Nine- or 18-hole golf and tennis were the most popular individual sports, with 25.1 million and 22.6 million participants, respectively.

SIFA CEO Tom Cove told SBJ, “We’re in a place of transition, but it’s very strong starting with awareness of the benefit and a desire to be physically active. Now the opportunity is how you provide an experience.” Cove discussed the strong return of sports travel and how sports orgs are trying to figure out the “new normal.”

In this week's Forum, SBJ Publisher Abe Madkour reflects on his visit to the LakePoint Sports complex north of Atlanta, a mixed-use development, that serves as a year-round youth sports destination. Owner Rimrock Capital has "ambitious plans to expand the campus, which draws more than 1 million people a year." The complex is "impressive, and given the latest youth sports participation numbers, you can see the potential."

Huupe, slated for release in 2023, is a smart basketball hoop/backboard that combines computer vision and subsets of machine learning to mesmerize its users and investors, including Raptors F Thaddeus Young and former NBAer Trevor Booker, writes SportTechie's Tom Friend.

The product's glass backboard screen that can gamify, stream live broadcasts, FaceTime, track shots, identify shot trajectory, calculate makes and misses, correct shooting mechanics and automate coaching.

Huupe co-founders Paul Anton and Lyth Saeed and CTO Dan Hayes -- all 20-something Milwaukee-area natives -- worked with engineers to cover the screen with the same tempered glass used on NBA backboards.

Performance sock brand Lasso is taking the next step in its sports marketing, bringing on Cowboys RB Ezekiel Elliott as a brand ambassador, writes SBJ’s Preston Bounds.

Founded in 2018 by CEO Partha Unnava, Lasso is employing a two-pronged strategy to get the word out about its product, which mimics (and improves upon) the effects of wearing an ankle brace or tape. One aspect is a grassroots, word-of-mouth strategy focused on what Unnava calls more “community-oriented sports” like pickleball and ultimate frisbee. The other is finding prominent athlete partners like Elliott, who joins a previous football endorser in former NFLer Champ Bailey. Poker player Phil Hellmuth invests in Lasso, as does VaynerSports CEO AJ Vaynerchuk.

Despite Elliott’s deal being more of a traditional endorser relationship, Unnava stressed that such deals are still vital to getting people to actually try on the socks. Unnava: “We sent Zeke some product. He fell in love with it and distributed a bunch of pairs throughout the locker room, then reached back out and said, ‘Hey, this is interesting. Let’s do something.’” Future efforts will include a holiday collection created with input from Elliott, who also will help Lasso connect with other athletes throughout the NFL.

Further marketing activation will likely combine the two aforementioned marketing strategies. For Unnava, that involves “taking an NIL approach at the youth sports level, alongside the professional athlete primary spokesperson” who can “give the product and the brand some cultural cache.”

Unnava admits it is something of an uphill climb to market socks in the performance category, but he leans on the science backing up the brand: “This product, at its core, is actually medical technology. … Being inspired as a kid growing up with Nike Shox, thinking they would help me jump higher, I wanted to make a sock that actually does improve how your body moves.”

Lasso is using both grassroots activation and prominent pro sports endorsers to market its performance socks

MLB will promote responsible gambling through the American Gaming Association and its “Have a Game Plan” public service campaign beginning this postseason, with social media posts, online banner ads and a 30-second PSA that will air in-stadium in states in which sports betting is legal, reports SBJ's Bill King.

The league also will expand a long-standing relationship with the non-profit National Council on Problem Gambling, joining the group’s leadership council along-side the NFL, FanDuel, MGM Resorts, Caesars Entertainment and others.

MLB is the first of the “Big 3” North American leagues to sign on to the AGA’s program, following the NHL, PGA Tour, NASCAR and UFC, a handful of pro teams and all the leading U.S. sportsbooks, including MLB sponsors DraftKings and BetMGM. The league will work with the AGA to develop baseball-themed PSAs during the offseason, similar to the PGA Tour’s “Know when to lay up” and NASCAR’s “Know when to pit” campaigns.

The AGA also will offer turnkey PSAs, consulting and education services to MLB clubs that opt in.

In September 2012, the NFL Referees Association was locked out by the NFL when a “Monday Night Football” game, officiated by replacement officials, changed the direction of the labor talks and made history.

That Monday night, NFLRA President Scott Green and VP Jeff Triplette were sitting at a table at a bar in a Hilton Hotel after spending the day trying to negotiate an end to the lockout that had started that May. Things did not go well for the union. They were with their lawyer, Mike Arnold, and keeping an eye on the Seahawks-Packers game when Triplette stood up as he watched the game on TV.

The broadcast kept replaying Seahawks QB Russell Wilson throwing a pass to receiver Golden Tate and multiple Packers going up for the ball. When they came down, one of the refs doing the job of the guys in the bar signaled touchdown and the other signaled interception. The replacement refs ultimately ruled the play a touchdown.

“It was clearly intercepted,” Triplette said. “We didn’t have to talk. We knew they screwed up, and it was good for us.”

SBJ's Liz Mullen took a look back at what the "Fail Mary" meant in this week's magazine.

NFL Referees Association was locked out by the NFL when a bad call at the end of an “MNF” game changed the direction of the labor talks

In this week's SBJ Marketing newsletter, Terry Lefton looks into:

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