It's Time to Talk World Cup
Professional Sports Partners
Re-Imagine Sports Marketing & Challenge the Status Quo
LATEST IN SPORTS
The NFL’s growing dominance on Christmas Day signals a shift in the holiday sports landscape, challenging the NBA’s long-held status as the premiere televised event. The NFL’s Christmas games on Netflix set U.S. streaming records, drawing 65 million viewers between two games. In contrast, the NBA, while celebrating its best holiday ratings in five years and an 84% year-over-year increase, faced stiff competition as the NFL solidified Christmas as a tentpole event.
The regional sports network formerly known as Diamond Sports Group has emerged from Chapter 11 bankruptcy with a rebrand and a significantly reduced debt load. Now, going by Main Street Sports Group, the brand was able to cut its $9 billion deficit to just $200 million. Now operating 16 regional sports networks under the FanDuel Sports Network name, the company retains local broadcast rights for 13 NBA teams, eight NHL teams, and eight MLB teams. CEO David Preschlack described the restructuring as a transformative effort to better serve local sports fans, with plans for linear and streaming TV bolstered by renewed team agreements and new equity holders.
The 2027 and 2031 Women’s World Cups will shift from traditional TV to streaming as Netflix secures exclusive U.S. broadcast rights for both events. The streaming service also plans to amplify coverage with studio shows and exclusive documentaries celebrating the sport’s growth. The landmark deal challenges conventional broadcasters’ dominance, with FIFA President Gianni Infantino calling the partnership a historic milestone for women’s soccer and highlighting Netflix’s role in elevating the game's global appeal.
Getting In on the World Cup Action in Houston
If your team isn’t talking about activating for the World Cup, you should be. This year, brands located in Houston can participate in the city-wide Art of Soccer activation, one of the easiest points of entry into Houston’s World Cup conversation. Read more about Art of Soccer here, and get in touch for more details!
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Activate the World Cup Anywhere
Ahead of the Super Bowl, Verizon has announced they will organize fan fests in all 30 NFL markets. Typically held as one festival in the host city, Verizon’s nationwide celebrations will utilize team venues for free events featuring local food and beverage vendors, live music, interactive games, and appearances from NFL legends. As football fans across the country gear up for the biggest event of the year, we can’t help but draw parallels to another event coming to our shores next year: the 2026 FIFA World Cup.
Verizon’s fan fests serve as a reminder for brands looking to activate around the event—just because your brand isn’t a FIFA or host city partner doesn’t mean there aren’t creative ways to be part of America’s soccer conversation as a whole. In the same vein, just because your brand's target market isn’t hosting actual matches doesn’t mean that the fans you want to reach don’t want to feel connected to the larger event. Things like social media and digital activations are flexible and can be deployed in any area of the country, and as Verizon shows, even live experiences outside of the match footprint are still feasible.
Nielsen studies show that 67% of soccer fans think a brand is more appealing when they participate in sports sponsorship, and 59% would choose a sponsor's product over a competitor. There are soccer fans in every corner of the country to tap into, and any brand activation can be scaled to reach them where they’re already at, even if it’s outside the physical footprint of where the matches are taking place. Reach out to us to learn more and get your brand involved in the world’s most exciting sports celebration.
Client Spotlight
Our client 76? is the Official Retail Gasoline of Bowl Season and the College Football Playoff! Working with the 76? team, we planned, organized, and executed a variety of nationwide activations. These included Gas Cab experiences at select bowl games within the brand’s target markets, a “Fuel Up” promotion that gave fans the chance to win Duke’s Mayo Bowl tickets by fueling up at a 76? station, and engaging social and digital content series.
The partnership also featured an enter-to-win campaign, offering lucky fans an ultimate road trip experience to the National Championship game in Atlanta. We’re thrilled to continue growing this partnership and elevating the 76? brand to greater national prominence through the powerful platform of Bowl Season and the College Football Playoff.