Clips, Context, and Creator Access: How Jomboy is Building the Next Generation of Baseball Fans
Forget the three-hour game. For a growing slice of sports fans, fandom now begins with a 90-second clip on TikTok, a breakdown video on YouTube, or a podcast snippet shared between friends. That shift is the business model Brett Joss is betting on.
Joss, who runs sponsorship sales at Jomboy Media, argues that creator-led companies are’t just commenting on sports culture anymore – now they are actively manufacturing new fans. Short-form clips provide the hook; creators supply the context; and together, he contends, they do what a primetime broadcast increasingly cannot: convert a casual scroller into a committed follower.
“Creators are creating new sports fans,” said Joss, vp and head of sponsorship sales at Jomboy Media, in a video interview with Beet.TV at the IAB Podcast Upfront. ” We look at clips and highlights as an entry point on social. Creators are who give context surrounding those clips, and ultimately those two together are what create new fans.”
One ecosystem, many entry points
Jomboy Media built its name on baseball content – most famously founder Jimmy O’Brien’s lip-read “breakdowns” of on-field arguments – but the company has since expanded into a broader multi-sport, multi-platform operation. Joss described the podcast as one of several doors into a larger world.
“Long-form podcasts and listens on Spotify and views on YouTube are still very important,” he said. “But we look at podcasts as just one entry point into the Jomboy ecosystem. It’s no more or less important than what we’re doing on Instagram, TikTok, Twitter and whatnot. It’s just another entry point into our world.”
U.S. podcast advertising revenue reached $2.86 billion in 2025, up nearly 18% year over year, according to the IAB/PwC Internet Advertising Revenue Report – but the category is increasingly video-native, blurring the line between a podcast, a YouTube show, and a social clip series.
Inside the MLB partnership
The most significant structural development for Jomboy in the past year has been its formalization as an MLB official media partner – a relationship that deepened when MLB announced a strategic stake in the company in June 2025, citing more than 93 million social engagements Jomboy generated in 2024.
Joss described the current season as the first full campaign under that arrangement, and characterized the terms of the deal as unusual in one specific respect: the league is largely staying out of the editorial room.
“It’s the first time that a major sports league has invested directly in a creator-led media company like this,” he said. “The combination of the access that our creators are getting from the league, paired with the trust that they’re giving the creators, is really what’s creating the success.”
The access is tangible: full rights to use footage and IP, entry to stadiums and dugouts, and a seat at tentpole events including MLB All-Star. “They’re letting creators give an inside view of what’s happening in the sport, but then they’re letting us do our thing,” Joss said. “There’s no creative oversight. They’re trusting our creators to tell the story on their terms. And that’s really creating a nice on-ramp for new fans to discover baseball.”
From one-off tests to full-season fabric
On the brand side, Joss said the sponsorship model is shifting away from the experimental single-placement buy and toward something that more closely resembles a traditional league or team partnership.
That evolution is visible in Jomboy’s recent deals: in March 2026, Fanatics Betting and Gaming signed a multi-platform arrangement naming Fanatics Sportsbook as the exclusive sportsbook partner across shows including Talkin’ Yanks and Talkin’ Giants, with Fanatics Prediction Markets tied to Talkin’ Baseball and The Warehouse Games for the full 2026 baseball season.
“We’re seeing it evolve away from a more transactional one-off or one-spot podcast test and more towards full-season sponsorships that actually resemble much more what a league or an official team might offer,” Joss said. “The brands that we’re working with are really becoming part of the fabric of the Jomboy Media world. It’s leading to better results for our clients and, honestly, happier partnerships from the creator side as well.”
IAB projects U.S. creator-economy ad spend will reach $37 billion in 2025, growing 26% year over year and more than four times faster than the total media industry – with 48% of ad buyers now calling creator media a “must buy,” behind only social and paid search.
Forget the three-hour game. For a growing slice of sports fans, fandom now begins with a 90-second clip on TikTok, a breakdown video on YouTube, or a podcast snippet shared between friends. That shift is the business model Brett Joss is betting on.
Joss, who runs sponsorship sales at Jomboy Media, argues that creator-led companies are’t just commenting on sports culture anymore – now they are actively manufacturing new fans. Short-form clips provide the hook; creators supply the context; and together, he contends, they do what a primetime broadcast increasingly cannot: convert a casual scroller into a committed follower.
“Creators are creating new sports fans,” said Joss, vp and head of sponsorship sales at Jomboy Media, in a video interview with Beet.TV at the IAB Podcast Upfront. ” We look at clips and highlights as an entry point on social. Creators are who give context surrounding those clips, and ultimately those two together are what create new fans.”
One ecosystem, many entry points
Jomboy Media built its name on baseball content – most famously founder Jimmy O’Brien’s lip-read “breakdowns” of on-field arguments – but the company has since expanded into a broader multi-sport, multi-platform operation. Joss described the podcast as one of several doors into a larger world.
“Long-form podcasts and listens on Spotify and views on YouTube are still very important,” he said. “But we look at podcasts as just one entry point into the Jomboy ecosystem. It’s no more or less important than what we’re doing on Instagram, TikTok, Twitter and whatnot. It’s just another entry point into our world.”
U.S. podcast advertising revenue reached $2.86 billion in 2025, up nearly 18% year over year, according to the IAB/PwC Internet Advertising Revenue Report – but the category is increasingly video-native, blurring the line between a podcast, a YouTube show, and a social clip series.
Inside the MLB partnership
The most significant structural development for Jomboy in the past year has been its formalization as an MLB official media partner – a relationship that deepened when MLB announced a strategic stake in the company in June 2025, citing more than 93 million social engagements Jomboy generated in 2024.
Joss described the current season as the first full campaign under that arrangement, and characterized the terms of the deal as unusual in one specific respect: the league is largely staying out of the editorial room.
“It’s the first time that a major sports league has invested directly in a creator-led media company like this,” he said. “The combination of the access that our creators are getting from the league, paired with the trust that they’re giving the creators, is really what’s creating the success.”
The access is tangible: full rights to use footage and IP, entry to stadiums and dugouts, and a seat at tentpole events including MLB All-Star. “They’re letting creators give an inside view of what’s happening in the sport, but then they’re letting us do our thing,” Joss said. “There’s no creative oversight. They’re trusting our creators to tell the story on their terms. And that’s really creating a nice on-ramp for new fans to discover baseball.”
From one-off tests to full-season fabric
On the brand side, Joss said the sponsorship model is shifting away from the experimental single-placement buy and toward something that more closely resembles a traditional league or team partnership.
That evolution is visible in Jomboy’s recent deals: in March 2026, Fanatics Betting and Gaming signed a multi-platform arrangement naming Fanatics Sportsbook as the exclusive sportsbook partner across shows including Talkin’ Yanks and Talkin’ Giants, with Fanatics Prediction Markets tied to Talkin’ Baseball and The Warehouse Games for the full 2026 baseball season.
“We’re seeing it evolve away from a more transactional one-off or one-spot podcast test and more towards full-season sponsorships that actually resemble much more what a league or an official team might offer,” Joss said. “The brands that we’re working with are really becoming part of the fabric of the Jomboy Media world. It’s leading to better results for our clients and, honestly, happier partnerships from the creator side as well.”
IAB projects U.S. creator-economy ad spend will reach $37 billion in 2025, growing 26% year over year and more than four times faster than the total media industry – with 48% of ad buyers now calling creator media a “must buy,” behind only social and paid search.
