SBJ Unpacks: NFL sets stage for marquee international games

Tonight in Unpacks: NFL teams had been able to protect some of their home games from the league’s expanding international ambitions, but that’s changing following Tuesday’s decision at the owner meetings, reports SBJ’s Ben Fischer.

Also tonight:

• Raiders add group of high-profile limited partners
• Media apps have gaps when it comes to emerging women’s sports
• OneCourt wins Sports Technology of the Year at SBA: Tech
• Op-ed: Athletes need to stop bullying online, too

Listen to SBJ’s most popular podcast, Morning Buzzcast, where Joe Lemire, Jenn Azara, Ethan Joyce and Rob Schaefer discuss what to expect from Tuesday’s NFL meeting before diving into their takeaways from the Sports Business Awards: Tech from Monday night.

The quality of NFL games chosen for export abroad figures to increase significantly in the wake of a policy change approved by owners Tuesday.

Until now, teams chosen to be the “home” team in international games each season could choose two of their predetermined nine home opponents to protect against being relocated. However, all nine matchups will be fair game going forward.

The policy until now has had the effect of preventing many of the most lucrative and high-profile games from going overseas. For instance, the Cowboys have only played once overseas because they are almost always one of their road opponents’ most valuable home games for ticket sales.

While there have been exceptions, historically, most NFL games overseas have not been top-tier draws. In fact, London has been hosting games since 2007 but didn’t witness a matchup between two teams with a winning record (or two teams in the top 10 of social media followers) until the Giants played the Packers in 2022.

That has been changing as the NFL seeks to make big splashes in new territories and sell some international games as one-off, outsized media rights deals. This step figures to make top-flight games outside the U.S. far more common.

NFL EVP/Club Business, International & League Events Peter O’Reilly said this change was more driven by TV schedules than international growth as such.

“That really is less about international, though that’s a component of it, and more about optimizing the schedule,” said O’Reilly. “Making sure the schedule makers have as much flexibility and opportunity to deliver the best possible schedule in every window for our partners.”

The same resolution also increased the total number of international league-run games to 10 starting in 2027.

The Raiders have added another tranche of high-profile limited partners, with Dell Technology founder Michael Dell, Blackstone Head of Global Private Equity Strategies Joseph Baratta and TKO Group executives Ari Emanuel and Mark Shapiro buying stakes in the team for the first time, under a deal approved by NFL owners today.

The foursome have entered the NFL ownership ranks by buying Raiders stakes previously owned by First Football, a consortium led by Paul Leff, David Abrams and Dan Goldring, which has owned a large minority share of the Raiders since 2007. That group is divesting its entire 25.3% interest in the team, sources said. BDT & MSD represented First Football in the deal.

The other two buyers of First Football’s stake are existing Raiders LP Egon Durban, who has a right of first refusal on control of the team if Mark Davis sells; and real estate developer Michael Meldman. Those men first bought into the team in 2024.

Once this transaction closes, the new buyers will have the following interests, per a document shared with owners and executives:

• Durban 22% (+11%)
• Meldman 12.9% (+5.4%)
• Dell 5.3%
• Baratta 1.7%
• Emanuel 1.4%
• Shapiro 0.6%

Davis remains the largest shareholder and controlling owner. Terms were not disclosed, but CNBC previously reported this deal values the team at $9.9B.

Nick Barfoot took his seat for the Toronto Sceptres home opener to find another fan, there by herself, checking the app he had created. Barfoot, a Toronto-based app developer, has evolved PWHL Fan throughout the league’s three seasons, combining his love of hockey and the pro women’s league with a need for information and community building.

Happy to see her using the app’s features, Barfoot introduced himself and told her he’d created it.

“She proceeded to tell me that she loved the app completely and that she’s told all of her hardcore hockey fan friends about it and spread it organically,” Barfoot said. “It really sums it up who I was trying to reach, so I definitely think that the need is there, and there’s fans even going on their own alone and want and need something to just connect them to the game.”

Barfoot’s app targets what has emerged as a virtual black hole — if fans of emerging women’s sports leagues want to find a score, check stats or follow their favorite players, they’ll be hard pressed to do that on any popular sports apps.

Sports Business Journal reviewed the score offerings available on the nine most popular apps, as ranked by Sensor Tower. From ESPN in first to The Athletic in ninth, they represent more than 18.6 million downloads in 2025.

With few exceptions, those apps don’t include scores for U.S. pro women’s sports leagues that have launched since 2024. In its third season, the PWHL is included in theScore and The Athletic, while Gainbridge Super League scores can be found on the ESPN app and Unrivaled’s results are in Bleacher Report’s.

For five leagues — League One Volleyball, Major League Volleyball, Athletes Unlimited Softball League, Women’s Lacrosse League and Women’s Elite Rugby — no popular sports app includes their scores.

The data vacuum comes as those leagues try to establish a foothold and build a fan base, often in spite of a lack of media coverage and unequal treatment to men’s sports leagues.

For those working for women’s sports properties, calling out the omission comes with a business risk, and many spoke to SBJ on the condition of anonymity. Many of them work with or could be negotiating rights with some of the media companies.

“It’s all the things that intrinsically happen in men’s sports that don’t in women’s,” said an executive at one emerging league. “We don’t want our fans to have to work harder than other fans. They should be able to check scores, see a start time.”

Few media companies would speak about the omission. Only ESPN made anyone available for an interview, while Yahoo Sports provided written information. Representatives from Bleacher Report, Fox Sports, Apple Sports, CBS Sports, theScore, The Athletic and Real-Sports either declined to participate or did not arrange an interview in response to SBJ’s inquiries.

“We’re not necessarily satisfied. I just want to make sure that everyone knows it’s not because we don’t want those things, we don’t want these leagues in there,” said Nicole Pelaez-Dandrea, vice president of audience engagement at ESPN. “Quite frankly, once we can get it developed, it actually unlocks the best features that we can offer. Whether it’s push notifications, following a player, it deepens the level of personalization. … There’s so many different ways that the data itself unlocks so much more that we can do that we absolutely have a passion to make sure that we get to all of it.

“This is a mix of men’s and women’s leagues right now that we are combing through where we feel like we have gaps, and we do see them as gaps at the moment.”

Barriers to entry

Why those gaps exist varies across the apps, but largely boils down to technical hurdles and prioritization.

First, leagues must be able to get the data out, usually striking deals with companies like Sportradar or Genius Sports, among others. Once those companies are assured of the accuracy and speed of the data input, the media companies can then buy the data for use in their apps.

A Yahoo Sports spokesperson cited lack of data as contributing to those sports not being covered in its app, noting that they come through third-party providers.

While at least one of the emerging leagues does not have those agreements, several do.

“I think that they will get there,” said Antonio Mora, Sportradar’s senior director, rights and strategic partnerships. “AI is changing the game a little bit to how fast they might get there and how that might be displayed, but I’m confident that those leagues will get there, they’re just too early in the stage.”

Some media companies might have access to that data through their broadcast agreements, though that is not a guarantor of inclusion. At least four leagues — LOVB and WLL with ESPN, MLV with CBS Sports and AUSL with both — have media deals with companies that do not include their scores in phone apps.

Pelaez-Dandrea said ESPN has worked to build systems, including manually entering data for some NCAA sports. ESPN considers several factors, Pelaez-Dandrea said, including advancing the business, having access to data and global interest.

It faces additional complexity in building the infrastructure on its end because ESPN doesn’t just use the data for its website and app, but also needs to make it usable for broadcast. The company can mitigate that complexity by simplifying the data on a first go before creating a more robust offering later on.

“We really, really, really want to have the best breadth that we can and have the depth in the right places, but we’re pulled in a lot of directions.”

—  Nicole Pelaez-Dandrea, VP of audience engagement, ESPN

Pelaez-Dandrea said ESPN has been discussing how to prioritize leagues as recently as this month, with the PWHL and the volleyball leagues in the discussion with men’s sports, including minor league baseball and Division II and III football.

“It’s hard to try to be everything for everybody. And I think an entity in a media company like ESPN, we serve fans. There’s a level of expectation,” she said. “We really, really, really want to have the best breadth that we can and have the depth in the right places, but we’re pulled in a lot of directions.

“It’s sort of the prioritization right now. I have been trying to work with technology to figure out how we can parallel path some development to help get through some of these leagues in a more rapid fashion.”

Discoverability loss

While some fans have started turning to AI or smart devices for a quick score update, apps remain one of the most relied-upon sources. Finding a foothold in those apps is a focus for several emerging leagues that are hoping for discoverability that can help them as they continue to build their businesses and fan bases.

Their omission leaves them out of the type of sports consumption that is standard and omnipresent, certainly for men’s leagues but also for more established women’s sports leagues, like the WNBA, NWSL, WTA or LPGA, which are almost universally included.

“Perception is reality. The absence of it or lack of coverage around it to me communicates a lack of seriousness,” said Laura Correnti, founder and CEO of Deep Blue Sports + Entertainment.

“It communicates priorities, and I think women’s sports fans and the broader women’s sports ecosystem and industry is accustomed to having to work harder to be a fan and engage with. Now, luckily, those things are evolving and changing in real time.”

For many women’s leagues, that inclusion can serve as a stamp of validation for the league and bring in new fans. An NBA fan, for the most part, cannot stumble upon an Unrivaled score. An NHL fan, largely, will not get introduced to the PWHL in these apps.

“Having the box scores up there and having access, it continues to drive the point that women belong in sports and continuing to push back on the men’s-only domain,” said an executive at one emerging league.

The leagues are not sitting idly by, instead pushing updates on their own websites, apps and social media. Those are efforts they would make regardless, but they put greater emphasis on the basics of getting news and results out.

“We’ve tried to make something compelling on our website,” said one league source. “An outsized volume of the hits on our website are for live scores.”

Others are filling the hole left by major media companies. Barfoot’s app is one of two created by PWHL fans, with PWHL (Unofficial). Yet another app, Now Playing, publishes a comprehensive daily schedule of which women’s sports are happening and where to watch them.

“It’s definitely an app where fans are coming back game after game after game, and season after season,” Barfoot said. “And now with the playoffs, just more engagement than ever.”

In addition to their efforts, representatives from women’s sports leagues said they will continue to work with data providers and media companies to make scores and information widely available on those apps.

“Going into Season 3, that is a massive priority of ours because volleyball is a massive sport as the most-played youth sport for girls in the country,” said Raquel Braun, chief media officer at LOVB. “We should absolutely have our scores easy to find, just like other women’s sports, just like other men’s sports.”

If nothing else, the media companies could increase incremental — and likely, to some degree, additive — users who might otherwise not download their apps. Several of the leagues are expanding, bringing new fans into women’s sports specifically and sports generally.

In only its third season, the PWHL averaged more than 9,300 fans per game — behind only the WNBA and NWSL for league team sports — and leveraged the success of the Milan Cortina Olympics, where it had 61 players compete and 39 play in the gold-medal game that saw the United States top Canada.

It has momentum and interest behind it, including expansion that will keep Barfoot busy this offseason. He’s happy to contribute to the sport he loves.

But for those working in women’s sports leagues, if a fan can do it, so too should the media companies that cover other sports so thoroughly.

“I wish it were happening faster. It should be happening faster,” said Stan Kasten, PWHL advisory board member and president and CEO of the Los Angeles Dodgers.

“We want all the exposure that we could get, that these women athletes deserve,” he said. “It’s just that at some point, right’s right.”

Rachel Axon can be reached at raxon@sportsbusinessjournal.com.

NEW YORK -- OneCourt earned two victories at SBA: Tech on Monday evening, winning Fan Experience Technology of the Year before claiming the night’s ultimate award, Sports Technology of the Year.

“I leave you guys with one thing, which is where would we all be without sports?” said OneCourt COO Antyush Bollini to the crowd during the Sports Technology of the Year acceptance speech. “It’s a huge part of all of our lives. And there’s so many people who can’t access it in the same way as us. So let’s keep doing this.”

Founded in 2021 by a quartet of Univ. of Washington students, OneCourt has steadily pushed its way into many professional sports and raised awareness about accessibility in the process. The startup’s mission has focused on including a blind and low-vision community that’s been easily overlooked in an industry that produces must-see moments.

OneCourt first connected with sports fans in venues. Its thicker, tablet-sized device can take game-tracking data and turn it into haptics. The vibrations, paired with a surface featuring the field of play’s outline, become a low-latency play-by-play experience.

For device users, OneCourt fosters game days where they can finally cheer along with sighted members of their fan base instead of asking what’s going on.

Within the past year alone, OneCourt wrapped up its NBA Launchpad experience, deployed around the FIFA Club World Cup (in Mercedes-Benz Stadium and Lumen Field), the NBA (with double-digit partnerships and an All-Star Weekend appearance), and the NFL (four pilots with teams and a Super Bowl activation).

OneCourt is now attempting to join fans in their home as well with a first-generation at-home unit that should be available at the end of the year.

The company joins the three other Sports Technology of the Year winners:

• 2025 - Lap of Legends, an Anheuser-Busch InBev sponsorship activation that pitted a Formula 1 driver against six virtual racers.
• 2024 - Evolv Express, the security-scanning unit developed by Evolv.
• 2023 - The semi-automated offsides technology was developed by a contingent of FIFA, Hawk-Eye, Kinexon, and Adidas for the 2022 FIFA Men’s World Cup.

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Serving as Exhibit A that Nielsen Big Data is not a panacea for sports is NASCAR Cup Series coverage this season. Both sides are working through issues related to NASCAR’s data sets, and with that, NASCAR will be returning to the old panel vs. panel comparisons — and likely for the rest of the season.

The move came after a deep dive into the data, particularly around select demographics and metered markets.

It’s a decision that shifts narratives around Fox’s just-wrapped season of races. With Big Data vs. panel last year, Fox and FS1, averaging 3.3 million viewers, were down 1% for their points races (even after an 11% jump for the Daytona 500). But panel-to-panel, NASCAR would be up 1% for Fox Sports, which would have averaged 3.4 million viewers.

“We’re going to move to just to make it as apples-to-apples as possible for the balance of the year,” said Brian Herbst, NASCAR’s EVP and chief media and revenue officer. “It’s more stable. ... We are in active conversations with Nielsen on future methodology changes, particularly what’s rolling out end of August, beginning of September, with impact data, which we think will more accurately reflect kind of the audience measurement of our sport.”

Looking down a level, the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series on the CW is up 6% to date (1.3 million average viewers), while the Craftsman Truck Series is up 19% on Fox/FS1 (667,000 viewers) as it has taken advantage of better weather this season.

Online bullying of athletes is a growing problem that receives a lot of attention. But athletes themselves, not to mention team leadership, broadcasters, officials, and cheerleaders, have also been known to post offensive content on social media, putting their reputations and commercial prospects — and those of their employers — at risk. No one is immune, from high school athletes to the biggest pro stars, and while some infractions can blow over quickly, others can lead to severe consequences.

European football has been dealing with a number of serious issues in this area. In 2024, for example, English ex-footballer and manager Joey Barton, in a post on X, compared female commentators working on men’s football games to serial killers and a broadcaster who pushed back on that post, Jeremy Vine, as a pedophile. Vine took Barton to the Liverpool Crown Court on 12 counts of sending “a grossly offensive electronic communication with intent to cause distress or anxiety.” In December 2025, the court found Barton guilty of six counts and not guilty of another six, handing down a sentence of six months in custody (suspended for 18 months) and 200 hours of community service. He also had to pay prosecution fees and received two-year restraining orders against each victim.

Some sports entities and clubs have been proactive about putting plans in place to prevent situations such as these. Given the frequency and potential seriousness of such events, all sports organizations should have a three-part plan to guide athletes and others in their social media usage.

Part I: Prevention

Sports organizations’ contracts with athletes and other employees typically include clauses outlining behaviors that are or are not permissible. These clauses can be vague and open-ended, such as a basic statement that players cannot do anything to bring their club into disrepute. Sponsors and investors can also include morality clauses in their contracts, which can cover social media, adding another financial layer to any misbehavior.

Some teams and governing bodies are starting to include clauses specifically related to social media. In early 2025, Barcelona Football Club added terms to its player contracts calling for controls over their social media use and barring posting during matches, training, and official events. Players are allowed to post after matches, giving them time to reflect.

Part II: Guidance

It is important to back up contractual clauses with a social media policy that sets out the specific rules of play for social media usage. The majority of pro teams, leagues and governing bodies now have some sort of social media policy their players must follow. These policies define what constitutes gross misconduct — for example, posts that contain slurs against particular ethnic populations or the LGBTQ+ community — and note that the restrictions extend to players’ private social media as well as official team accounts.

One wrinkle that could cause confusion down the road is that both governing bodies and individual teams can have social media policies, and they may not be in alignment.

A growing number of organizations, such as the Irish Rugby Football Union, among others, offer regular training workshops to underscore how athletes should behave on a daily basis to comply with the policies. Many clubs do not put training programs in place until they’ve already been burned by athlete behavior, and some programs are better than others. It’s best to be proactive by setting up a program before you need it, and to ensure that it is comprehensive, clear, and memorable.

Part III: Accountability

Violations will happen, so organizations need to give thought to what is deemed serious enough to trigger an investigation and what appropriate punishments might be, should the allegation be upheld. Many clubs deal with infractions by using their overall disciplinary policy, with or without specific mentions of social media. Remedies can include fines, training, match suspensions, or firings, depending on the magnitude of the transgression.

In December 2025, the NFL fined Los Angeles Rams wide receiver Puka Nacua $25,000 for a livestream in which he not only criticized the officiating in a game but made an antisemitic gesture, while former NBA referee Eric Lewis was forced to retire in 2023 after the league opened an investigation into his potential violations of the leaguewide social media policy on a burner X account with which he was involved. Two years later, he was reinstated as an official in the G League, after acknowledging his mistakes and completing required social media training.

The Goal: To avoid court

Having a matter go to court often leads to the worst outcomes in terms of publicity, reputation, and punishment. Judgments can also vary widely depending on the nature of the case and laws of the jurisdiction.

In spring 2025, Algerian footballer Youcef Atal, with OGC Nice at the time, was sentenced to an eight-month suspended sentence and fined €45,000 (about $52,000) by the French Court of Appeals for sharing a video that showed a Palestinian preacher reciting an anti-Jewish prayer. He was also barred from French football’s Ligue 1.

Conversely, in 2021, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of a high school cheerleader in Pennsylvania who made vulgar comments on Snapchat criticizing her school district and was suspended. In Mahanoy Area School District v. B.L., the court found that the school district’s punishment violated the First Amendment.

Social media rules are not meant to prevent athletes from using social media, which drives awareness for their own and their team’s brands and helps maintain a positive relationship with fans. But it is critical to take steps upfront to prevent negative behavior. Such actions not only harm the player but also the club and the governing body, “both’” reputationally and commercially.

Emma Richmond is a lawyer at Whitney Moore in Dublin, Ireland, a member of the Meritas global legal network of independent law firms, and is part of the Meritas Sports Law Group of international lawyers working together to serve the legal needs of governing bodies, clubs, teams, athletes, and companies in the sports industry.

• The PGA Tour’s plan for major change around the 2028 season is coming into focus, with plans presented two weeks ago to players that includes 23 elevated tournaments: 16 regular season PGA Tour events, three FedExCup Playoff events and then four majors, reports SBJ’s Josh Carpenter.
• Carpenter also notes that Chad Mumm, the creator of Netflix’s “Full Swing,” says he hopes the golf series will return for a fifth season in 2027.
• MLS clubs’ activation plans for this summer’s World Cup are taking shape, as 20 of the league’s 30 teams have announced plans to hold Soccer Celebration events in their home markets, reports SBJ’s Alex Silverman.
• Dave Flemming, the longtime lead radio play-by-play voice on KNBR for the S.F. Giants as well as a college basketball and football and MLB and golf commentator for ESPN, joined NBC Sports as a play-by-play voice for MLB Sunday Leadoff games on Peacock and NBCSN, writes SBJ’s Richard Deitsch.
• World Team Tennis, the co-ed, team-based U.S. tennis league that Billie Jean King co-founded in 1974, is relaunching this winter under new ownership and with a fresh format that organizers say is geared toward modernizing the storied property, notes SBJ’s Rob Schaefer.
• RFK Racing went the extra nautical mile for its sponsor BuildSubmarines.com, engineering a trade with another NASCAR team to ensure it is aligned with a submarine squadron at next month’s San Diego military base race, writes SBJ’s Adam Stern.