One of the biggest stories in tech right now is Meta’s recent release of the consumer-focused agent named Muse. TechCrunch reported last week that Muse has crossed 3.4 million downloads in under three weeks, and it has held the No. 1 spot on the U.S. App Store since September 18.
Muse’s success can have substantial direct impact on the sports industry. This centers on who owns the fan relationship once the fan stops doing their own buying.
What Is Muse and Where Does Muse Intersect With Sports?
Meta says Muse is an agent that “doesn’t just answer questions, it actually does the work”. For example, it can book travel, fill forms, negotiate, and check out on a user’s behalf. Muse launched with a free tier plus $20 and $100 monthly plans and positioned Muse as a mass-market consumer product.
Sports properties and rights holders will likely soon face the same choice when a fan’s agent arrives at the box office: block it or build a front door for it.
Our view is that sports should build the front door on its own terms. An agent that transacts through a team’s systems carries richer zero-party data (budget, schedule, who the fan brings, what they care about) than surveys or sign-up forms can capture.
Agents are only as good as the context they act on, which means the organization that owns a clean, consented record of the fan owns the agent’s best inputs.
Ticketing: A Cleaner Demand Signal
Ticket marketplaces are already moving. StubHub has worked with OpenAI since Operator launched, and SeatGeek, StubHub and Ticketmaster partner with Google’s AI Mode.
Yet, the case for caution in moving to personalized agents in ticketing is real. A ticket “is not just a product. It is an access right,” and faster technology in ticketing can be exploited before protections and verified identity catch up to product development.
Get that right and an agent that knows a fan’s price ceiling, calendar, and seat preferences is the most efficient demand signal a ticketing team has ever had. It can fill a Tuesday game at the right price, move an unsold premium seat to a fan whose profile and budget fit, and renew a membership instead of chasing a one-off sale. PwC already sees ticketing shifting toward membership-driven models built on subscriptions, perks, and transparent pricing because agents are the natural subscription manager.
Media Rights and Partnerships: From Impressions to Action
Fragmented content rights can frustrate fans, and they are exactly what agents are built to solve. Tell an agent to never let a fan miss a team’s fourth quarter and it will find the stream, manage the subscription, and assemble personalized highlights.
Deloitte expects fans to demand location-based promotions, flexible pricing, curated content, and targeted merchandise, powered by AI. Rights holders with a direct relationship win here.
Personalized agents can turn partnership activations more directly into action. A bank partner’s rewards can be redeemed automatically for concessions, a beverage partner’s offer can land at the exact moment a fan’s agent is ordering ahead, and loyalty points can travel beyond the building to partner storefronts.
PwC found that companies focused on customer experience grew revenue at 1.7 times the pace of peers and grew customer lifetime value 2.3 times faster. Loyalty programs finally get used when an agent does the redeeming.
Mixed-Use Districts: The Agent Knows Tuesday
PwC expects at least half of major league teams to operate within mixed-use developments over the next decade. Those districts’ success depends in large part on the 300-plus days without a game.
A personal agent that knows a fan lives twenty minutes away, has two kids, and loves a certain cuisine can book dinner before a concert, a youth clinic on Saturday, or a table at the new restaurant on the plaza. For developers, that consented intent data can inform tenant mix, leasing velocity, and net operating income before a lease is signed, rather than after.
None of this works without trust, and the gap is wide. In an Oppenheimer survey, only 8% of respondents said they would trust Meta with their passwords, and 58% would not share passwords with any AI agent.
Despite substantial early adoption from consumers, corporate response has been more mixed. Amazon blocked Muse from shopping on its site, while Walmart, Sephora and Best Buy struck partnerships with Meta.
Teams hold an advantage most brands never will. Fans have special relationships with their favorite team and are often more willing to show their support by cheering for their teams and signing up for loyalty programs and rewards.
This puts sports properties in a special position when it comes to agents. The winners will scale autonomy to increase revenues and improve the fan experience while maintaining security and trust. An agent can reroute a fan to a shorter line, the best place to watch content, or the right promotion. At the same time, fans should be able to see, override, and delete what an agent does.
Bottom Line
Muse has brought personal agents more into the lives of mainstream consumers and sports fans. Personal agents will reward the sports organizations that own their fan data, make it trustworthy, and open governed doors for agents to transact.
Those teams will sell tickets more efficiently, price media on addressability, turn sponsors into service providers, and give their districts a reason to be busy on a Tuesday. The ones that wait will find the fan relationship changing without their direct input.