Hey folks! Welcome back for Edition #74 of The SEG3 Report. We’re testing out a slightly new format for this weeks edition - with shorter, snappier roundups so you can get the key details and takeaways easier. Let us know at the bottom of this newsletter what you make of it!

Today’s edition spotlights the NFL’s first ever league Fashion partnership with Abercrombie & Fitch - and how fashion is becoming one of sports most powerful tools for cultural relevance.

Also covered: the Bundesliga partners with a cocktail of partners in the UK&I, and why including creators as distributors won’t cannibalise Sky, Amazon or BBC’s audience + ATP Tour’s partnership with TikTok, and the playbook for building fandom with the next-generation.

Without further ado:

Contents: Edition #74

• Abercrombie & Fitch become the NFL’s Official Fashion Partner

• Bundesliga split UK & Ireland rights between Sky Sports, BBC, Amazon Prime & creators

• ATP Tour partner with TikTok for global content partnership

Abercrombie & Fitch become the NFL’s Official Fashion Partner

Abercrombie & Fitch have become the NFL’s first-ever Official Fashion Partner in a multi-year deal, expanding from its existing licensed apparel line. The collaboration introduces athlete-led campaigns, player-designed collections, game-day pop-ups, and a new “Style Concierge” service to curate player tunnel looks. Featured stars include Christian McCaffrey, CeeDee Lamb, and Amon-Ra St. Brown, with the goal of bridging NFL culture and everyday fan fashion.

TL;DR:

• Fashion is no longer an accessory to sport, but a key driver of cultural relevance.

• Nostalgia sells – and apparel companies and sports brands alike have lent into this with great success of late (i.e. Chelsea’s recent Total-90 third kit).

• Sports shirts have taken on much more cultural significance, transcending just sports fans to become a fashion statement (i.e. at music festivals).

• Abercrombie & Fitch understand NFL culture given their existing relationship since 2022 - their designs and campaigns should reflect that insight.

Fashion has always been synonymous with sports and pop culture.

Whether it was Beckham, Allen Iverson or Dennis Rodman - their performances on the pitch or court built their stardom, but it was fashion that cemented them as cultural icons – not just sports stars.

And fashions prominence as a key tool for driving relevance is in no way waining; if anything, it’s growing in importance day by day as sports brands look to extend their brand into new parts of culture to attract new audiences.

Just look around, the NFL isn’t alone, with the likes of:

• Arsenal x Adidas Originals
  → Bringing nostalgic designs, and integrating fashion into matchday social posts (although some aren’t so keen).
  

• Venezia FC
  → Pioneers of the ‘high-end’ sports shirt look
  

• Chelsea x Total-90
  → Serving the fan craving the game and aesthetic of yesteryear.
  

• LVMH x Formula 1
  → Blurring luxury with sport by launching limited editions

And of course if you were at (or knew anyone at) festivals this summer, you’ll know that sports shirts have become the go-to. Many of those wearing them unaware of the team, meaning or history - instead repping the shirts for the designs and style.

Which is why the NFL’s extended partnership with Abercrombie & Fitch feels like great timing as the athlete-led campaigns, player-designed collections, curated tunnel fits and game-day activations will give the league a completely new storytelling and marketing channel to talk to audiences that have little to no interest in the playing side of the brand.

Why should you care?

All of the collabs mentioned above are using fashion as a bridge to wider culture, with the premise being:

A) Shirts aren’t just merch anymore, they’re an opportunity to tell stories and be relevant year-round.

B) Fashion pulls in people who’ll wear it, even if they don’t watch it.

So when you combine sports scale with fashions cultural firepower, it can help make your brand far more visible and relevant beyond just matchday.

So, what’s the playbook?

Think beyond just merch → Don’t just make merch, make pieces people actually want in their everyday wardrobe. Given Abercrombie & Fitch have partnered with the NFL since 2022, they should now know the culture, with the designs and campaigns reflecting that.

Lean into nostalgia → Retro kits and throwbacks aren’t just fashionable, they’re steeped in memory and tradition for many, and therefore appeal to multiple generations. That’s a commercial opportunity.

What talent can you king-make? → What are the opportunities to integrate fashion into the conversation? How can you make launches and drops cultural events? The NFL has picked out talent that already prioritise fashion as part of their identity to be the face of the partnership and campaigns. This brings authenticity.

Be where the fans are → Stadiums are the mecca for the traditional shirt-wearer, but festivals, socials and gaming platforms are key battlegrounds too. Be visible. Give different audiences the excuse and opportunity to affiliate themselves with your brand and style.

Closing Thoughts

This is about the NFL and their talent being seen by a broader audience and becoming more culturally relevant.

And it’s a smart move in 2025, because as everything becomes more “entertainment”, what fans wear and talk about might just matter as much as the product they watch.

Bundesliga split UK & Ireland rights between Sky Sports, Amazon Prime, BBC & creators

Bundesliga International unveiled a multi-layered strategy to expand its footprint in the UK and Ireland, partnering with Sky Sports, Amazon Prime, BBC & popular creator shows, The Overlap & That’s Football. The approach is divided across platforms: the BBC will broadcast a weekly highlights show, ensuring free-to-air visibility; Sky Sports retains exclusive live rights, including marquee Saturday fixtures; Amazon Prime have two matches each Sunday on a PPV basis; while a new Friday Night Football slot will be streamed on Bundesliga’s YouTube, and amplified by creators, delivering full matches and watch-alongs on the Friday & across the weekend.

TL;DR:

• It’s not about cannibalising Sky or BBC’s coverage. Creator content (The Overlap, That’s Football) reaches audiences who wouldn’t be watching traditional coverage anyway.

• Media rights remain the foundation of the sports business, but layering in creators + YouTube full matches keeps the Bundesliga front-of-mind for the next generation in the UK&I.

• Younger fans expect interactivity, not just one-way broadcast. Free streams and creator-led storytelling make watching a two-way experience, even if it does add a potential layer of “unknown” to the coverage for Bundesliga.

• In markets where there isn’t the commercial appetite from a broadcaster/distributor for exclusive rights, what is there to lose from combining traditional media (for credibility) with digital + creator ecosystems (to seed future fandom)?

The value of football rights has been built on exclusivity; if you wanted to watch, you needed the broadcaster. That model still underpins the industry, and for good reason: Sky and BBC in this scenario will do a great job to deliver reach, scale and legitimacy to traditional audiences for Bundesliga.

But audiences — especially younger ones — aren’t growing up with the same habits. They don’t tend to discover football by flicking through channels; instead, they find it in clips, creator streams, or a full match they can watch for free on YouTube with friends.

So with Sky and other broadcasters/streamers not chasing exclusivity in the UK, it has given Bundesliga the chance to pioneer a new distribution model. One that doesn’t tear up the old broadcast model, but layers new distributors (platforms & creators) on top.

At its core, this is about keeping the Bundesliga product visible in the UK market where there isn’t the same high-level of commercial appetite (yet) as there is for the Premier League, but by recognising that fandom is built differently today, the league is giving themselves a good shot at connecting with the next-generation.

Why should you care?

Because this isn’t just a broadcast story - it’s a commercial, culture and strategy story rolled into one (our favourite!):

• Commercial: rights still fund the sport today, but in markets (like the UK for Bundesliga) where there isn’t the appetite for exclusivity, the first step should always be about distribution & visibility. Free matches and creator-led content are a good step to seeding the next generation of paying fans.
  

• Culture: younger audiences don’t just want to watch, they want to interact - streaming, commenting, clipping etc - all contribute to more engagement and more interest in the league.
  

• Strategy: it doesn’t have to be a binary choice between broadcasters and creators. The Bundesliga shows you can design an ecosystem where credibility, accessibility and interactivity can all reinforce each other.

What’s the playbook?

When in a market where your rights are not as sought after as your home market, or you’re fighting an incumbent (like Bundesliga with the Premier League in the UK), the thinking can be more about building tiers of engagement:

• Layer your channels → light-touch partnerships with traditional broadcasters that give scale and credibility, whilst creators drive relevance and two-way conversation.
  

• Make free a funnel → be social-first for highlights & streams to drive fandom, with the objective to push viewers towards an action (i.e. capturing data to get them inside your ecosystem, and then pushing them down the funnel), and activating your commercial partners.
  

• Prioritise interactivity → watch-alongs, comments and live chats are where young fans feel part of the action. If they associate a better experience with your product, there’s a higher chance you’ll retain them (as per Deloitte).

Closing Thoughts

Media rights are still the foundation of the sports business (at least for core markets, like Germany for Bundesliga) - but foundations alone don’t build new fans in challenger markets. By blending broadcast, creator and digital, they’re making sure the most important objective is covered; that German football and their commercial partners are visible. And that’s a distribution blueprint any league or brand can learn from in non-dominant markets.

ATP Tour partner with TikTok for global content partnership

The ATP Tour partnered with TikTok to launch a global content initiative aimed at Gen-Z and Millennial fans. The deal supports player-led TikTok growth, introduces a Tennis Creator Network around ATP Masters 1000 events, and brings creators to the Nitto ATP Finals for behind-the-scenes coverage.

TL;DR:

• Tennis can’t rely on legends anymore - new stars need to be the driver, and if fans (and prospective fans) don’t discover players in their feeds, fandom can’t be built.

• TikTok isn’t just about highlight distribution. A variety of content and formats allows athletes, and the sport, to become more understood and relatable.

• The ATP is reframing tournaments as cultural moments, which embraces the off-court experience as much as high-performance on-court. This broadens the appeal to attend for non-sports fans.

Tennis has always had stars. Federer. Serena & Venus. Djokovic, Nadal etc. But those eras are closing, or closed - and the sport now needs to introduce to the world their new talent like Carlos Alcaraz, Aryna Sabalenka and more.

But in today’s attention economy, athletes need to be more than just great sportspeople to build stardom. Content and accessibility are key contributors to fandom, and that’s why it’s so important that the ATP Tour puts their players in the right positions to engage with the next-generation. And of course, TikTok is a good place to start making tennis part of daily culture again.

Why should you care?

We’re in an era where sport is competing with music, gaming and creators for attention. That means the experience that the ATP provides on and off-site has to feel bigger than the match itself.

TikTok can help to give more depth to the athletes and their stories, the ATP can build more entertainment driven experiences at their events to attract new audiences, and Collect (check out Edition #71 for more) can turns their interaction into something that feels tangible and rewarding.

What’s the playbook?

Think of it as building a fandom funnel:

• Top of funnel (TikTok) → make stars visible, relatable and culturally relevant.

• Middle of funnel (Collect) → turn interactions into data, recognition and rewards.

• Bottom of funnel (the Tour itself) → convert engagement into attendance, loyalty and commercial value.

Closing Thoughts

Partnering with TikTok to make the product more discoverable is essential to reach the next-generation of fans. Combine that with what they’re doing with Collect, and you can see that they’re both part of one strategy, with one ensuring fans find tennis, and the other ensuring they stick around.

In other news this week:

• Roblox partners with Netflix to bring K-Pop Demon Hunters sing-along to The Block: read here.

• Manchester United release fan engagement plan for 25/26 season: read here.

• LEGO, WB Games, DC & TT Games to release LEGO Batman game: read here.

• Barstool Sports to create scripted series ‘Les Mascots’: read here.

• Spin Master Entertainment greenlights first original film: read here.

• United Rugby Championship releases new website & app: read here.

• Gorillaz to be icons in Fortnite Festival Season 10: read here.

• FIFA launches host city tender for FIFAe Festival: read here.

• Washington Commanders partner with BigBear AI: read here.

• Chelsea release Total-90 inspired third kit: read here.

• Mythical Games releases NFL Rivals update ahead of new season: read here.

• Aardman & TikTok partner to offer fans opportunity to be part of Shaun the Sheep film: read here.

• Globant & Unity team up to accelerate uptake of real-time 3D technology for enterprise brands: read here.

• Avalanche on how blockchain can make loyalty marketing programs better: read here.

• Baller League team up with TEAM to support sales efforts: read more.

• Atlas Creative & Overwolf team up with Bush’s Baked Beans for Fortnite Fall Guys collab: read here.

• The Pokemon Company hosts 2025 World Championships: see here.

• Samsung expands mobile cloud gaming platform to Europe: read here.

• Karta & NASCAR launch ‘The Glen’ Rocket Racing map inside Fortnite: read here.

• Coca-Cola become Arsenal’s Official Soft Drink Partner: read here.

• NASCAR drops teaser for upcoming iRacing console game: read here.

• Metamask announce stablecoin: read here.

Working on anything cool, or have a press release you would like us to cover? Send it in for the chance for it to be covered in next week’s edition!

That’s all for now everyone - thanks again for reading the latest edition of The SEG3 Report, and if you found it of interest, please do consider sharing with a friend!