The lifestyle media company Betches struck a strategic content partnership with the National Football League on Monday, the second such tie-up the NFL has penned in recent months as it looks to expand its core audience.
Betches will gain access to key moments and tentpole events throughout the NFL calendar, including the Pro Bowl, Super Bowl, and Combine. Betches will also have permission to use NFL marks, logos, and intellectual property.
“This is not necessarily about reaching the female sports enthusiast who is watching every game,” said Randi Windt, its senior vice president of revenue partnerships. “This is about growing the audience and expanding consumption by creating relatable content that appeals to the casual fan.”
Betches plans to use these opportunities to create new content and franchises across the Betches Media portfolio, including its recently launched sports franchise, Betches Sports.
The tie-up is not a paid partnership, but Betches can take the newly created NFL content to market and pitch advertisers on it. The NFL gets a split of the resulting revenue, but both parties declined to share further financial specifics.
The partnership comes as part of a broader bid from the league to expand its audience. In October, it inked a similar arrangement with Remezcla Media Group, a portfolio of multicultural editorial titles.
According to vice president of business development and strategic investments Brent Lawton, the goal in both instances is to engage new and expanding demographic groups more deeply. The partnership with RMG aims to expand the league’s appeal to Hispanic audiences and geographic regions like Latin and South America.
Building Betches Sports
Betches launched Betches Sports in September, part of a wave of new franchises that emerged to capitalize on the surging popularity of women’s sports.
The initiative, which is just a few months old, has little data to reflect its early traction.
The franchise is actively experimenting and analyzing audience behavior to figure out what kind of sports content is most relevant to its audience, according to Jake Fitzgibbon, the general manager of LadBible Group U.S. From September to October, Betches Sports saw a 75% growth in engagement rate, according to Fitzgibbon.
Since launch, Betches Sports has stood up several related franchises, including the podcast Locker Room Talk, a Q&A video series called What’s Your Number, and the Betchdel Test—a play on the media rubric the Bechdel Test. It also creates regular editorial, video, and social content that explores the intersection of sports and pop culture.
Through its partnership with the NFL, Betches will have a presence at major moments during the football season. It plans to use that access to create new video series, social content, and editorial, although the publisher declined to provide specific examples of new formats.
The tie-up officially runs from December through May, after which time the two parties will assess whether to re-up the partnership.
From a commercial perspective, the deal allows Betches to leverage the brand appeal of the NFL when pitching advertising clients, according to Fitzgibbon. The league has such a broad base that it offers Betches a point of entry for introducing its brand to non-endemic clients.
“It’s an exciting opportunity for the NFL’s partners to reach our audience,” Fitzgibbon said. “The partnership brings together all women and the biggest sports brand in the world.”
The partnership is a significant achievement for the four-month-old Betches Sports, which speaks to the connection the publisher has built with its audience of millennial and Gen-Z women, according to Windt.
“The deal is a reflection of our expertise and authority with this demo,” Windt said. “Our relatability comes from Betches being your best friend on the internet.”
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