ESPN hires Sportsish founder Lily Shimbashi

ESPN is hiring another social media influencer.

Lily Shimbashi, the founder of Sportsish, is signing a two-year deal to become a content creator for ESPN’s major events, according to Front Office Sports. The move follows the blueprint ESPN established when it hired Katie Feeney in August 2025 and represents the network’s continued push to reach younger and female audiences through creators who built their followings independently.

Shimbashi has been contributing to ESPN since August through the ESPN Creator Network. This deal formalizes that relationship and extends it through 2027. She’ll produce custom Sportsish content across espnW and ESPN’s social platforms while working major tentpole events throughout the year. Her first assignment begins Thursday, when she serves as ESPN’s lead red carpet content creator at the NFL Honors awards show.

ESPN president of content Burke Magnus all but previewed this move last fall. Appearing on the Sports Media with Richard Deitsch podcast in September, Magnus said the network already planned to hire another social media influencer after Feeney’s first two months exceeded expectations.

Shimbashi seems to be that hire.

“Lily understands that fandom doesn’t look the same for everyone, and she has created a space that welcomes people into sports rather than asking them to prove they belong,” ESPN SVP of digital, social, and streaming content Kaitee Daley told FOS. “Her ability to create culture-forward sports content for a female audience makes her a powerful addition to ESPN as we continue expanding how and where audiences connect with sports.”

Daley was also the executive who identified Feeney and brought her to ESPN. Magnus credited her on Deitsch’s podcast, admitting he likely never would have discovered Feeney’s work otherwise. Now, Daley is seemingly doing it again with Shimbashi, who’s built Sportsish — which has the tagline “Not Your Boyfriend’s Sports News” — over the past five years into a platform that reaches female sports fans with content that treats them as the primary audience rather than an afterthought.

Shimbashi told FOS that she developed the business plan for Sportsish after college, realizing there was a gap in mainstream sports media for content that spoke to female fans on their terms. The Worldwide Leader noticed she had an audience the network was trying to reach and decided to partner with her officially.

“I’m really excited to be associated with a company like ESPN,” Shimbashi told FOS on Radio Row Tuesday. “I always grew up wanting to be an ESPN reporter, and then I felt like there was a gap in mainstream sports media. So out of college, I kind of developed this business plan that became Sportsish, which is the company I’ve been building over the last five years. And slowly but surely, ESPN took note that we have an audience of female fans, and it’s a fandom that they’re trying to reach.”

After Super Bowl week, Shimbashi will work ESPN’s other tentpole events, including the NBA Finals, Stanley Cup Final, and the ESPYs. ESPN is already planning for its first Super Bowl telecast on Feb. 14, 2027, from SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles, and Shimbashi will almost certainly be part of that coverage.

Clearly, ESPN understands that traditional sports media is losing ground to creators who speak the language audiences actually use. More than half of Americans say they regularly get news from social media, according to Pew Research surveys. Short-form video on TikTok and YouTube dominates consumption habits, and creators have built massive audiences on platforms where ESPN’s linear programming struggles to break through.

Feeney arrived at ESPN with nearly eight million TikTok followers. She quickly took over SportsCenter on Snapchat, produced daily vertical videos for ESPN’s app, and appeared on Sunday NFL Countdown, Monday Night Countdown, and College GameDay.

Feeney’s hire drew criticism from some traditional ESPN audiences who didn’t understand why the network was bringing in a social media creator. Barstool Sports producer Hank Lockwood had a different take. He said on Pardon My Take in August that ESPN hiring Feeney showed the network had shifted toward Barstool’s blueprint rather than the other way around.

“I’m in my late 50s. And not that I’m an expert on it, but I have an appreciation for what matters to sports audiences — particularly younger sports audiences,” Magnus told Deitsch. “This matters. I don’t care what you say. And when I read articles or criticisms or things about how we’re sort of compromising ourselves by a hire like this, it’s just to me, like, laughable. She is so relevant with an audience that is not insignificant and is very important to the future of our business.”

Awful Announcing later ranked Feeney among the top sports influencers of 2025, noting that ESPN introduced many traditional fans to the idea of a sports social media star simply by hiring her. Feeney became a conduit between ESPN and digital-first fans, bringing them into exclusive moments and expanding how fandom is experienced.

Feeney showed ESPN the model worked. Shimbashi is proof it wasn’t a one-off.