The content was the product of the NFL’s newly minted partnership with Betches. Announced in December, the strategic collaboration intends to help the league expand its core audience and build female fandom.
On Tuesday, Betches cofounder and CEO Aleen Dreksler joined the NFL’s Anna DeLucia, senior manager of business development and strategic investments, and Zoe Schubot, senior content manager at the recently-launched Betches Sports at Social Media Week 2025 to discuss the impetus for their partnership and the evolution of women’s sports engagement.
Today, more women than ever identify as sports fans—not just of women’s sports, but of all sports. 72% of women worldwide identify as avid fans of one or more sports, representing a 10% lift over the past three years, according to a 2024 study by Wasserman’s The Collective. This increased interest has been accompanied by a boost in women’s consumption of sports content across media types.
In an effort to capitalize on growing interest among women, the NFL has focused on evolving its marketing and communications tactics in recent months.
“We have seen, in this fragmented social landscape, that we need to work with partners, and creators, and media companies that are speaking to their audiences in ways that resonate,” said the NFL’s DeLucia. “Because, [content that is] just coming from the NFL’s channels—it’s not going to work.”
Betches, which launched its sports media arm Betches Sports last September, has been the “perfect fit” as an NFL partner, DeLucia said, because the company’s pop culture literacy marries seamlessly with sports content on social media, helping to reach target audiences.
Betches’ approach has always been, in Schubot’s words, “mimicking the way that women talk to each other.”
With Betches Sports, the media company has superimposed this approach onto sports content, sharing endless memes and shareable clips that, Shubot said, “lowers that barrier to entry” to engage in sports content.
“It’s easy to share. It’s funny. You can like it. You can interact with it,” she said. “It helps drive this feeling that we’re trying to create among women that there’s no right way to be a sports fan.”
