Reddit is making a significant move into the sports marketing arena.
On Monday, the platform unveiled several new partnerships with prominent sports leagues, including the National Football League (NFL), National Basketball Association (NBA), Major League Baseball (MLB), PGA Tour, and National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR).
As a part of these collaborations, Reddit users will have access to video highlights from games and tournaments, player AMAs (ask me anything sessions), behind-the-scenes footage, and other exclusive content shared by the leagues during their seasons and major events.
The social media platform noted that it has over 1,000 active communities focused on sports, with substantial growth in interest within these forums. According to Reddit, the number of screenviews for sports-related threads has risen by 26% in the past year.
The sports marketing industry is anticipated to grow by more than 20%, reaching a valuation exceeding $55 billion by 2030, with fans increasingly turning to platforms like YouTube, Facebook, and X (formerly Twitter) for sports content.
Reddit has been exploring new avenues for revenue generation as it prepares for its public offering. In February, the company secured a $60 million-per-year AI licensing deal with Google. Following a successful initial public offering (IPO), Reddit reported first-quarter revenues that were nearly 50% higher than the previous year. On the announcement of the new sports partnerships, Reddit shares surged nearly 7%.
Key statistics include:
– 1,000: Number of sports-related subreddits
– 20.4 billion: Screenviews on sports-focused Reddit forums over the last year
– 249 million: Monthly engagements (posts, votes, comments) in sports subreddits globally
– $55 billion: Projected worth of the sports marketing sector by 2030
– $243 million: Reddit’s revenue for the first quarter