Sports Digital Marketing Tips from Our Team of Specialists

Digital marketing in sport has been reshaped dramatically in recent years, and the evidence speaks for itself. Digital live sports audiences are projected to grow 8.3% YoY in 2025, while total live sports viewership rose just 0.6% and streaming ads during major live sporting events drove meaningful impact, performing 66% better than cable and broadcast placements.

That shift means clubs, leagues and sports brands can no longer rely solely on broadcast reach. Instead, when done right, a modern sports digital marketing agency can build deep fan relationships, drive engagement, and open up new revenue streams.

Because the landscape is changing so quickly – see the 2025 sports viewership stats from MNTN – we thought it would be useful to gather fresh insights directly from our in-house specialists. Each of them works closely with sports organisations, event promoters, or global entertainment brands, so they know exactly what works, what doesn’t, and what is about to become essential.

This article is a collection of digital marketing tips for sports brands, rooted in real experience, and delivered straight from the people doing the work every day. We’re saying it like it is, so be prepared for honest, practical and sometimes delightfully blunt recommendation. The principles, however, are solid: build community first, communicate with personality, use data wisely, personalise when possible, and adopt a global mindset that aligns with how fans behave today.

TL;DR:

• Sports fans now consume more content digitally than on TV, so smart digital marketing is essential.
• Community comes before conversion.
• Real time data matters more than ever.
• Short form video is now the front door to the fan experience.
• Segmentation and personalisation are key to long-term loyalty.
• Successful sports brands think globally and long-term, not just match to match.
• And yes, every one of our specialists has a strong opinion on all of this.
  

“First, create a community, then the conversions follow.”

– Stefano Roberti, Digital Marketing Exec (me!)

I have a dream. No, wait. That wasn’t what I was going to say. I have just a simple but powerful belief: If people don’t genuinely care about the brand, team or athlete you’re promoting, no amount of clever targeting or paid ads will compensate. Community is the foundation of everything.

In sport, especially, emotion is the currency. Fans don’t just want information. They want stories. They want belonging. They want to feel part of something bigger than themselves.

Building community requires content that offers value long before you ask for anything in return. Think behind-the-scenes footage, historical anecdotes, playful commentary, localised messaging, and anything that humanises the brand instead of simply promoting it.

This community-first mindset underpinned our campaign for the inaugural UFC Paris. By rolling out content well before the fight-night announcement – educational MMA clips, localised creatives and fan-oriented storytelling – we built interest and engagement, so that when tickets did go on sale, we already had a fanbase primed to act.

It is the digital equivalent of warming up the crowd before the match. If you jump straight to ticket sales, you may get clicks, but you won’t get loyalty. When you invest in community, however, conversions become a natural side effect. Fans share more, participate more and respond more positively to campaigns because they are no longer outsiders. They are part of the inner circle.

This is why I always emphasise emotional intelligence over aggressive selling. “Build the relationship first,” I always say, “The rest gets much easier.”

Yes, I just quoted myself.

“Treat every campaign as a live organism. Monitor fast, adapt faster.”

– Claire Daly, Digital Marketing Executive

Claire approaches digital marketing with the mindset of a scientist. Nothing is fixed, everything is testable, and the most successful campaigns evolve constantly.

Sports audiences behave in unpredictable ways. A big win creates excitement. A tough loss creates frustration. A last-minute announcement can drive huge surges in interest. Athletes go viral on Monday and invisible on Friday.

This volatility is not a problem. It is an opportunity, but only if you are agile.

Claire’s recommendation is to monitor campaign data in real time and act quickly. That means continuously testing new creatives, headlines, formats, calls to action, and even new audience segments. If something performs well, scale it rapidly. If it struggles, replace it immediately instead of waiting for the weekly report.

This was central to our campaign for UFC London. We combined paid social and search advertising with near real-time creative variation and early lead gen calls to action. The result? Millions reached, thousands signed up for pre-sale codes, and the event sold out within 27 minutes!

Sport moves fast and fans move with it. A rigid strategy is often a failing strategy. A flexible one almost always wins. If you treat your digital marketing as something living and breathing, you allow it to grow alongside the audience rather than lag behind them.

“Short form video isn’t optional any more. It is the front door to fan engagement.”

– Ruben Annaratone, Digital Marketing Manager

According to Ruben, the days when fans would patiently scroll through text updates or long press releases are gone. Today’s sports audience wants immediacy, personality and visual energy. Short form video is the most effective way to deliver that.

It is not hard to understand why. Video is emotional. It is immersive. It captures intensity in a way no written post can. And above all, it matches the way fans naturally engage with sports in 2025.

Quick highlights. Player reactions. Behind the scenes clips. Micro-stories. Training snippets. Humorous moments. Anything that lets the fan experience a slice of authenticity.

For many fans, this content is the entry point. It is how they discover new teams, uncover new stories, fall in love with new athletes, and deepen relationships with old ones. Short form video often outperforms traditional formats by a wide margin, and the platforms that prioritise video continue to dominate sporting conversations online.

Ruben’s advice is simple. If you want to capture attention, start with video. If you want to keep it, make the video meaningful, emotional and human.

“Know your fans. Segment them. Speak to them as individuals, not a crowd.”

– Jérôme Bergerou, International Director

Jerome has spent years observing how fans behave across regions and cultures, and he is convinced that personalisation is one of the most underused tools in digital marketing across the board.

Sports fans are not a monolith. They have different levels of passion, different interests, different motivations and different engagement habits. Treating them all the same leads to generic messaging that rarely resonates deeply.

Jerome argues that segmentation changes everything. When you segment fans correctly, by behaviour, geography, passion, purchase history or engagement pattern, you can tailor your communication in ways that feel precise and meaningful.

Key to the success of our digital strategy for FanPrint was ad personalisation at scale. Accurately targeting a wide range of sports fans with different loyalties would have been near impossible in the past. Even now, it’s complicated to achieve without the right tools and data. But once we cracked that, the results were outstanding!

Early access offers can go to your most loyal supporters. Newcomers can receive introductory content that brings them up to speed. International fans can receive localised content in their language. Superfans can get exclusive behind the scenes insights. Casual fans can get highlight-driven campaigns.

This personal approach makes fans feel valued rather than targeted. It also increases conversions because the messaging aligns with the person reading it instead of being broadcast into a crowd. Jerome’s mantra is simple. Speak to people, not audiences.

“Think big picture. Sport is global, digital is global, and long-term value matters far more than short-term spikes.”

– Farhad Divecha, Group CEO

As Group CEO, Farhad brings a broader, more strategic perspective. His view is that sports digital marketing should not simply chase short-term peaks of excitement. It should build lasting brand equity.

Success in sport is not measured in a single campaign, a single season or even a single superstar. True value is created by building a long term ecosystem of fans who feel a connection to the brand, trust its identity, and want to remain involved as the story evolves.

Digital makes this possible faster and to a wider audience. A local club can speak to global audiences with the same ease as a major league. A niche sport can build a worldwide community. Athletes can develop their own personal brands independent of their teams. Fans can engage directly rather than passively consuming.

Farhad suggests thinking beyond transactional marketing and focusing on long-term trajectories. Build global reach. Tell compelling stories. Create experiences that go beyond the match. Nurture the relationship so it survives victories and defeats alike.

In other words, build something that lasts.

Conclusion

Sports digital marketing isn’t a single tactic, campaign or platform. It is a mindset. One that requires patience, flexibility, empathy, creativity, and strategy built for the long haul.

If you take nothing else from our specialists’ advice, consider this:

• Build community before you sell. The emotional connection you create is often more valuable than a single conversion.
• Think of every campaign as a living thing. Test, measure, iterate. Learn fast. Adjust faster.
• Use video and immersive formats. Give fans short, human, real glimpses, that’s often what sparks their passion.
• Segment intelligently. Speak to fans as individuals, not a crowd. Tailor content. Localise offers. Make them feel seen.
• Take the long view. Build global, sustainable brand value. Invest in relationships that outlast a single event.
• In doing so, you transform marketing from a cost, a campaign, a budget line, a gamble, into an investment: in fans, in community, in loyalty.

Our team has seen this work: whether launching a brand in a new market (as with UFC Paris), or driving rapid sell-outs (like UFC London). If you’d like to explore how we can help you build your own fan-first strategy using our full range of sports digital marketing services, and strategies grounded in data, creativity and real expertise, get in touch.

Because sports, at its heart, is about connection. And in a digital world, connection means everything!