The Most Sensational Newsletter in Sports?

One piece of sports content that has knocked it out of the park, and three championship-caliber takeaways to make you a better marketer and creator — let’s play ball!

This Week’s Game Plan:

It probably won’t come as much of a surprise to you that I, the author of a sports content newsletter, enjoy reading newsletters about sports content.

So this week I want to highlight one that’s caught my attention recently for how it’s doing things a little differently. That newsletter is The Upshot.

The Upshot is based on an extremely simple premise — it promises a 3 minute journey into all of the juiciest gossip, drama, and controversy from the world of sport. Each week, it delivers a curated list of seven amusing sports stories to its subscribers. It also offers a premium subscription, where for a relatively low price you can receive two extra doses of debauchery every week.

The Upshot is arguably best described by its creators themselves:

If that hasn’t piqued your interest then I don’t know what will.

The stories contained range from the weird to the wonderful, and even to the downright deplorable. The Upshot’s content scratches an itch that many true sports fans mightn’t have even realised they had until it was satisfied. With sports often touted as the ultimate meritocracy — the best team wins with (hopefully) no help from any bias — there shouldn’t be too big of a market for gossip and drama. But despite the search for a deserving champion being the driving force behind all sports, it can get a little…boring.

So much of the sports content that performs well these days is giving us more than just the original product. Fans simply want more. ‘Drive to Survive’ and other similar documentaries have allowed us to see the ins and outs of normally quite secretive sports. The explosion of athlete-led media ventures have grown the concept of the athlete-creator. We tune in for their unique viewpoint and behind the scenes knowledge.

The Upshot is no different. It says it focuses on “the stuff BBC and Sky wouldn’t touch with a bargepole.” That focus is massively important. Everyday the average sports fan's feed is full of the same news, reported over and over again by a litany of huge media outlets and independent creators alike. By giving us something different, The Upshot found a way to stand out amongst a cluttered feed and grow itself into a burgeoning media powerhouse.

At the end of 2021 it was making close to £3,000 in monthly recurring revenue, with a goal of reaching £7,000 by the end of 2022 — I couldn’t find too much more up to date information unfortunately.

But, it’s very likely already flown past that figure, with over 100,000 subscribers now receiving the Upshot weekly. If the other figures match that increase, it would see paying subs at roughly 3,200, with associated MRR at £14,000 (all purely speculative based on previous trends, might I add).

Not half bad for a collection of stories the mainstream media deems unimportant, eh?

Post Game Analysis

1. Sensational or “clickbaity” content can still work, it just has to deliver on its promise

The term “clickbait” has become a contentious one, with the lines between what it is and what it isn’t having been particularly muddied over the past number of years.

The goal of clickbait is to generate clicks, it’s that simple.

But it’s got a negative connotation lately because too many unscrupulous creators lure you in with misleading headlines or thumbnails — I’m looking at you, lifestyle YouTubers — and then make content that has little or nothing to do with these promises.

Good “clickbait” lures you in with the promise of interesting content, but then ultimately delivers it. You could just call it content packaging. That’s what the Upshot does so well. Its headlines are all massively click-worthy, but the stories all deliver on every sordid aspect and more. You emerge from each short dip into the annals of the darker side of sports both satiated and hungering for more.

How could you not want to read on?

This tactic can be utilised in any form of content. Don’t be afraid to embrace content that may be a little out there — providing it fits your brand of course.

Sensationalism purely for the sake of it, particularly when it’s not normally featured across your feed, is likely to put your current following off. But, just because the content you focus on isn’t what’s typically covered in your niche, doesn’t mean it’s not valuable. Just make sure you’re able to grab your audiences attention immediately. Speaking of which…

2. Your opening hook has never been more important

Blame it on television, blame it on those pesky mobile phones, you can even blame it on TikTok if you like (how very millennial of you), but attention spans appear to be getting shorter and shorter (despite a lack of real evidence for this, but let’s not let that derail my tirade against TikTok). Whether they are or they aren’t, what is true is that people are much more decisive with their attention these days. If you don’t captivate or inspire within the first few seconds it’s likely that your content will simply be swiped into oblivion to make way for the next challenger.

There has literally never been more content in the world — and this statement will be true no matter when you’re reading this, there’s always more content being produced. If you want to stand out in a sea of shiny things you have to hone your hooks. As mentioned above, the Upshot has done this, tempting you in with unknown nuggets of scandal about your favourite sporting superstars.

You can apply this to your own content by practicing and honing your ability to write a good hook. Write hooks for everything you produce — each paragraph of that blog post, the intro to your latest video, every single tweet you write. Eventually, you’ll build up a solid repertoire of hooks, and will have some valuable data on what works. Meticulously edit these working hooks into repeatable formats.

Ever wondered why your Twitter or YouTube feeds sometimes feel like everyone is saying things the same way? It’s because they’re modelling their opening propositions off what they know works. Been on content Twitter lately? It’s likely someone has used a hook format championed by Justin Welsh. Dared to open YouTube recently? Tell me how many Mr. Beast clones you see. My bet is you run out of fingers to count.

Now, I’m not telling you to blatantly copy these brilliant creators. Instead, use their ideas as a framework to build out your own hook templates. Aggressively A/B test until you’re sure you have a winning formula, then keep replicating that process until your content simply can’t be ignored.

3. The importance of authenticity in your content

As mentioned above, there’s just so much content available at our grubby little fingertips these days. With such an abundance of choice, it’s never been more important to make sure your content is truly authentic. Authenticity can take many forms. For The Upshot, it manifests itself in two distinct ways.

First, The Upshot is extremely clear in what type of content it makes. It knows it’s out there, it understands it’s not the type of content that will suit everyone — in fact, it’s likely to spark controversy more than anything. But The Upshot owns this and is entirely unapologetic about it. By creating this content and pulling no punches in how it delivers it, The Upshot is able to garner the trust of its audience. It’s not creating these stories out of nowhere, it’s simply reporting on the things that some larger media outlets simply can’t or won’t

The second way The Upshot embraces authenticity is a little more subtle, but it’s shown in how it handles monetisation. In its own words,

Now, this model won’t work for everyone, and I have absolutely no problems with advertisements on a website or a newsletter (hint hint advertisers). But, it’s refreshing to see how The Upshot is handling the integrity of its content. It’s set its stall out very clearly for all of its readers, letting you know exactly what you’re in for when you subscribe, and likely reflecting the values of many sports fans who are tired of scrolling through advertisements disguised as editorials on other sites.

So for you, when developing your own content, think about what truly matters to you. What does your content stand for, and what values would you like your audience to reflect. Once you’ve done this, your content can be truly authentic, and attract an audience that will care deeply about what you create.

I hope you enjoyed this deep dive into the inglorious rise of The Upshot. If you did — or even if you didn’t — let me know in a reply.

If you’re feeling really generous you could also share this with a friend you think might enjoy it so we can grow the Social Setpiece Squad even more.

See you all next week

PB ✌🏼