(Reuters) -The New York Times ( NYT ) handily beat expectations for digital subscriber growth in the second quarter, riding on its bundling strategy and strong growth at sports news website The Athletic in a summer dominated by the Euros and other tournaments.

The UEFA Champions League and the National Basketball Association playoffs boosted readership for The Athletic, driving a 19.4% rise in subscription revenue to $29.3 million and a 30% jump in advertising revenue to $7.1 million.

Total advertising revenue for the New York Times ( NYT ) grew just 1.2% as marketers earmarked their ad dollars for social media platforms like TikTok and Reddit that have much higher viewership.

To attract a wider audience, the publisher of the New York Times ( NYT ) newspaper has been expanding its content distribution over the past few years by bundling podcasts, lifestyle articles and recipes.

NYT added around 300,000 digital-only subscribers in the second quarter, beating expectations of 186,900 according to five analysts polled by Visible Alpha.

It reported subscription revenue of $439.3 million for the second quarter, compared with estimates of $438.9 million, according to LSEG data.

Adjusted profit came in at 45 cents per share, compared with estimates of 40 cents, while its total revenue of $625.1 million was slightly lower than expectations of $625.2 million.

Advertising revenue rose to $119.2 million, while analysts were expecting $120 million.

(Reporting by Zaheer Kachwala in Bengaluru; Editing by Devika Syamnath)