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The GIST: The W Series is hitting the brakes. After prematurely ending its 2022 season due to financial woes and failing to stage a single race in 2023, the women’s racing championship went into administration late last week after it couldn’t land new funding.

The details: Over the last few months, W Series leaders were in discussions to score additional funding or outright sell the championship, but no deals came to fruition. The W Series will now go through the U.K.’s administration process, which allows companies to financially restructure and temporarily avoid creditor enforcement rules.

• Evelyn Partners LLP, the W Series’ administrators, said it will explore all options to reboot the championship and has invited potential investors to indicate interest ASAP.

The context: Last October, the W Series canceled its final three races of the 2022 season as it couldn’t afford to stage them. The championship posted net liabilities of around $8.3M in 2021 and owed money to its contractors, but CEO Catherine Bond Muir also said the W Series didn’t receive funds it was owed by partners. Yikes.

The landscape: If the W Series fully disappears, who will pick up the slack for women drivers? While 2022 champ Jamie Chadwick competes in the Indy NXT Series, all signs likely point towards Formula One’s F1 Academy. The feeder series for women aged 16 to 25 launched this year and could develop Formula One’s first woman driver in decades.

• F1 Academy’s success may establish a future where men and women compete alongside each other in Formula One, an idea already supported by a prospective expansion team owner. Start your engines.

The GIST: Truist Financial is banking on women’s sports. Yesterday, the bank holding company called on audible on its partnership with Wake Forest University’s football team and redirected its support towards the school’s women’s athletics program.

The details: The company will now serve as presenting sponsor of Wake Forest’s women’s sports teams, and will launch a weekly digital series dedicated to them. Truist will also support all Demon Deacon student-athletes with financial literacy education and produce several digital content series.

• The bank was previously the naming sponsor of Wake Forest’s football stadium, which has been called Truist Field since 2007. The school intends to announce a new name for the stadium today. Hut hut hike.

The context: Wake Forest is creatively generating revenue despite the financial uncertainty of conference realignment, and the effort wisely includes boosting the profile of its women’s sports teams. In 2021, the school launched a campaign to celebrate the 50th anniversary of its women’s athletic program, raising $17.7M from donors so far.

Zooming out: From Gatorade’s focus on female athletes and Ally’s reconfiguration of its NWSL deal, brands are finding unique ways to invest in women’s sports. Truist leveraged its longstanding relationship with Wake Forest to enter the women’s sports space and build digital relevance — NCAA women athletes dominate the social media game.

• Truist’s pivot also provides key benefits for Wake Forest. The school scored new money by selling its women’s sports inventory, took one of its hottest sponsorship packages to market, and will cash a shiny new paycheck. Not too shabby.

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.

With less than a month until the FIFA Women’s World Cup (WWC), world soccer’s governing body still doesn’t have a broadcast deal in Japan. The matches will air on FIFA+ without Japanese commentary if no one snaps up the rights, and many fear this will hurt the progress of women’s soccer in the country.

• It could also continue a worrying pattern in Japan. Fans couldn’t watch their team compete at this year’s SheBelieves Cup, another disappointing example of stakeholders stunting the game’s growth since Japan’s 2011 WWC victory.

Yesterday, the LPGA and KPMG (say that five times fast!) launched a public web portal for KPMG’s performance insights program, which provides access to tournament data. The portal adds to women’s golf’s data revolution — the USGA’s ShotLink system will be used at the U.S. Women’s Open for the first time this year. Masterstroke.

French investigators searched the Paris Games HQ yesterday in relation to two ongoing corruption probes. A 2017 investigation is focusing on suspected embezzlement of public funds, while one launched in 2022 is looking into a potential conflict of interest and favoritism between the Games’ organizers and infrastructure body Solideo.

English superclub Chelsea is reportedly close to a front-of-jersey sponsorship deal with crypto betting platform Stake to replace telecom company Three this summer. The news comes after the Premier League rejected Chelsea’s tentative deal with Paramount+ over potential issues with the league’s broadcast partners.

• Despite Stake’s presence in English soccer and Formula One, the partnership isn’t going over well with Chelsea fans — 77% of the Chelsea Supporters’ Trust oppose the contract over gambling concerns. Unfavorable odds.

💰 DraftKings made a $195M all-cash bid to acquire PointsBet’s U.S. operations, a month after Fanatics struck a $150M agreement to buy the setup. Drama.

🏀 The WNBA will allow the Phoenix Mercury’s Brittney Griner to fly charter for the remainder of the season, but is still figuring out specifics for the rest of the team and the league.

⚽ FIFA will continue using a social media protection service for the WWC that utilizes AI to monitor and block abusive messages directed towards players and staff.

👟 Moolah Kicks designed a special edition of the Neovolt Pro shoe in collaboration with Chicago Sky standout and brand ambassador Courtney Williams.

🥇 Pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly renewed its deal with Team USA and struck a new partnership with the LA 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

🇬🇧 Fifty-eight percent of U.K. sports fans say they want more non-live women’s sports content, per a recent study.

We’re always in a women’s sports empire state of mind, and now we want to help send you and a friend to the real concrete jungle with this contest to win an all expenses paid VIP trip for two to the NY Liberty’s July 27th game against the Atlanta Dream, ’fits included. It’s been waiting for you.