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The GIST: AT&T is assembling an all-star team to support women entrepreneurs. On Friday, the telecom giant launched the third iteration of She’s Connected, a program to support women-owned small businesses, and an accompanying content series starring WNBA and NWSL athlete-slash-entrepreneurs.

The details: She’s Connected will profile basketball players A’ja Wilson and Arike Ogunbowale and soccer athletes Kelley O’Hara and Mallory Swanson. AT&T already provides each athlete with a mobility package to assist in their business endeavors.

• The series will also spotlight the company’s new contest for women small business owners where winners will score $20K, a year of AT&T service, and their own episode of She’s Connected. Eyes on the prize.

The trend: This isn’t the first time women’s sports and entrepreneurship have teamed up. Visa used last year’s Women’s Euro as a chance to spotlight women-owned businesses in the U.K. with an ad campaign that celebrated inclusivity on and off the pitch.

Zooming out: Women own 12M of the 33M U.S. small businesses, so an alliance with women’s sports allows AT&T to combat two gender gaps at once. The move also utilizes an innovative sponsorship structure — combining women’s sports spend with broader inclusivity projects to maximize impact — for others to use as a blueprint. Two birds, one stone.

The GIST: School’s out, but name, image, and likeness (NIL) dealmaking is still in. Emerging fintech company Ibotta struck NIL agreements with four women student-athletes on Thursday in an attempt to boost women’s sports and raise its own profile.

The company: Ibotta allows users to earn cash back at certain stores and save with in-app offers. It has 40M users, and has previously inked sponsorship deals with the NBA’s New Orleans Pelicans and Formula One driver Logan Sargeant.

The details: UConn hooper Paige Bueckers, Michigan track and field athlete Riley Ammenhauser, Arkansas sprinter Britton Wilson, and Florida softball player Skylar Wallace all secured deals with Ibotta. The quartet will develop and create social media content for the brand, including starring in a new series called Fridge Raiders.

• The series involves the athletes going through their parents’ fridges and providing them with a grocery list to show how much money they can save using Ibotta. Shopping spree.

Zooming out: For Ibotta, an NIL campaign is a savvy way to grow its profile — student-athletes are skillfully cultivating engaged audiences on social media, with women athletes taking the cake. A youth-focused initiative may also help Ibotta unlock Gen Z, who are more economically curious than generations before them. The kids are alright.

The GIST: In honor of Pride, The GIST teamed up with MegEmikoArt, a trans activist and artist, to create a “Protect Trans Athletes” line, with 50% of profits being donated to the The GenderCool Project.

The why: Under the guise of “protecting women’s sports,” anti-trans policies and proposals aiming to ban trans youth from sports are developing at all levels of the U.S. government. Relegating trans and intersex youth to the sidelines keeps them from experiencing the many benefits playing sports has to offer to children and teens.

The response: A whole roster of athletes have spoken out against bans on trans athletes, including USWNT stars Becky Sauerbrunn and Megan Rapinoe, as well as WNBA icon and Rapinoe’s fiancé Sue Bird, and former USA softball star Jessica Mendoza.

How you can help: Learn more here and proudly rock a “Protect Trans Athletes” tee or tote.

🚚 The NBA’s Washington Wizards and NHL’s Washington Capitals may move from Washington, D.C. to nearby Virginia, but no word yet on if the WNBA’s Mystics would join them.

🏆 Australian broadcaster Optus Sport is the latest company to sponsor next month’s FIFA Women’s World Cup (WWC).

🏀 LSU hooper Angel Reese inked an NIL deal with PlayStation, appearing in a new Final Fantasy XVI spot alongside gymnast Suni Lee and the WWC–bound Lioness Alessia Russo.

🎾 World No. 1 Iga Świątek booked Porsche as her newest sponsor. Vroom.

🎧 Ally will become the presenting sponsor of GOALS’ podcast The Business Case For Women’s Sports, as well as the brand’s A Day in the Life content series.

⚽ North American soccer body CONCACAF hired Sportfive to manage their digital content strategy for national team competitions, including the first women’s Gold Cup next year.

☕ ICYMI: We dropped our latest edition of Sports Biz Breakfast on Saturday, which recapped the business evolution of the WWC. July can’t come soon enough.