We deliver! Get curated industry news straight to your inbox. Subscribe to Adweek newsletters.
At the 2025 NFL draft on April 24, the lifestyle-focused digital media company Betches quizzed draftees about niche cosmetics and fashion terminology, asking them to define ‘skorts’ and ‘dermaplaning’—and assured them they were right, even when they answered incorrectly. The stunt, shared across social platforms by both Betches and the NFL, was an adaptation of a popular video format making its rounds on TikTok and Reels this spring.
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.”
With a social-centric, mobile-first approach, the company is also catering to younger audiences, who’ve fully embraced what Betches CEO Aleen Dreksler called “the second screen experience.” She noted that while many young female sports fans may be streaming a game from their TVs, they’re likely to be scrolling their social feeds at the same time.
“You’re watching real-life commentary [online and] seeing people’s opinions—who you care about—talking about what you are watching,” Dreksler said. “That shapes that perception and shapes the experience.”
With the help of Betches Sports, the NFL feels that it’s able to effectively extend its reach and connect with younger, more female-leaning audiences on social media.
In February, the league partnered with Betches Sports to produce an in-depth episode of the company’s Locker Room Talk podcast in which Schubot and sports content creator Kait Maniscalco broke down, in funny, approachable terms, exactly how the NFL Scouting Combine works. It was an effective push—a video clip of the podcast shared on Instagram garnered over 4,100 likes.
Speaking about Betches’ push into sports content more broadly, Dreksler said: “We focused on creating a fan experience where women [do] not feel like outsiders.”
