Wondery launches “Sports Wars” in the “Business Wars” mold

Wondery has announced the launch of Sports Wars, a podcast modeled on the company’s successful Business Wars franchise. Sports Wars tells stories of epic rivalries at the team and individual levels. Two episodes have dropped to kick off  the first series: “Favre vs. Rodgers,” which documents the quarterback rivalry of Brett Favre and Aaron Rodgers in the Green Bay Packers.

The new show sticks to the established Business Wars formula. One voice performs the entire script of each episode — that voice belongs to Dan Rubenstein from Sports Illustrated and SB Nation. Each “war” will be told through a series of episodes; the number of episodes will vary by series, if t  Sports program follows that flexible format established in the Business show.

The program’s tone and format will be familiar to Business Wars listeners, but the sports show will probably attract a new audience to some extent. In Business Wars, the brands which are staged against each other (e.g. Coke vs. Pepsi, McDonald’s vs. Burger King) are known by nearly everyone, creating a wide addressable listening market.  The sports show is starting off with a narrower focus of two football personalities competing for a job and stardom.

Business Wars was nominated for Best Business & Entrepreneurship Podcast in the iHeartRadio Podcast Awards in January.