NFL Global Expansion: DAZN & Game Pass Strategy
- The NFL is broadening its reach globally, partnering with platforms like DAZN to connect with fans worldwide.Through its Global Markets Program (GMP), formerly known as the International Home...
- These teams can establish sponsorships, youth academies, and flag football programs.
- Game Pass has provided the NFL with direct-to-consumer access, offering live games, highlights, and documentaries.
The NFL is aggressively expanding globally, and its partnership with DAZN, specifically through NFL Game Pass, is a key factor. Subscriber growth is surging—up 30% globally, especially in Spain, Japan, and Italy. The primary keyword is NFL Global Expansion, and the strategy leverages data to understand fan engagement. Learn how the league uses Game Pass data to fine-tune its approach,identifying promising markets. The growth is fueled by interactive features like Fan Zone and localized broadcasts. News Directory 3 is following the progress. What’s next for the NFL’s international push?
NFL Game Pass on DAZN Fuels International Growth
Updated June 09, 2025
The NFL is broadening its reach globally, partnering with platforms like DAZN to connect with fans worldwide.Through its Global Markets Program (GMP), formerly known as the International Home Marketing Areas (IHMA) program, all 32 teams now have access to 21 international markets.This initiative allows teams to build partnerships and promote themselves in new territories.
These teams can establish sponsorships, youth academies, and flag football programs. They also gain rights related to the league’s international games, which include seven regular-season matchups in 2025 in cities such as São Paulo, dublin, Madrid, Berlin, and London.
Game Pass has provided the NFL with direct-to-consumer access, offering live games, highlights, and documentaries. This ensures extensive distribution across various markets.
Sameer Pabari said Game Pass is a key data source for the NFL, providing insights into fan engagement.”It’s one of the primary sources of data that we have on our fans in terms of not just knowing who they are,but how they engage with the sport,” Pabari said. “What teams they follow, how much are they enjoying it, what moments matter the moast? That ability to have a direct connection through Game pass is also really strategically important to us.”
DAZN
Ben Berlinski said that within its first year on DAZN, Game pass’s global subscriber base grew by 30%. He anticipates similar growth by the end of the second season, attributing this to features like the Fan Zone interactive chat, multiple-game viewing options, localized coverage of 18 games per week in seven languages, and localized payment methods.
Berlinski also noted that some of Game Pass’s audience growth comes from soccer and boxing fans. In Germany, ads during Bundesliga soccer matches have promoted DAZN’s Game Pass package for NFL broadcasts. During the holidays, DAZN offered a monthly NFL Game Pass for a reduced price to those who bought access to a heavyweight title fight.
“We’re taking a different marketing angle and thinking about how we serve different cohorts of customers, in terms of the avid fans, the casual fans, and then maybe someone who’s never watched NFL before,” Berlinski said. “How do we think about how we speak to them, how we price and package, and then how do we activate on the ground—those are all things that we’ve done around big moments in respective countries, which I think have gone a long way in helping us grow in those markets.”
Following the ball
The 30% global growth of Game Pass includes robust regional growth that DAZN and the NFL are closely monitoring.Spain, Japan, and Italy have seen Game Pass growth exceeding 30%, with two of these markets participating in the league’s Global Markets Program.
Spain will host an NFL regular-season game in Madrid on Nov. 16, marking the first sanctioned NFL event ther as the Barcelona Dragons disbanded in 2003. DAZN’s Spanish-language broadcasts and cross-marketing with La Liga soccer matches have provided a similar strategy to that used in Germany, where a live game in Munich was paired with a fan festival.
In Japan, where the Los Angeles Rams have established a global market, DAZN partnered with American Express to offer cardholders free access to the Super Bowl through Game Pass. in Italy, DAZN leveraged its exclusive access to the Serie A soccer league to promote Game Pass, offering a free “game of the week” during the NFL regular season.
“The free game of the week was definitely a new initiative that we drove this year, where we’ve seen a lot of success,” Berlinski said. “Italy is one of the biggest markets where we’re seeing engagement, primarily as of how many customers come to our platform.”
The NFL is closely observing these developments. Pabari said the league periodically assesses which global markets should be prioritized for international growth.Italy was identified as a strong contender about a year ago based on media engagement. While Italy has not been selected as a global market by any NFL team, its performance on Game Pass, combined with social media engagement and jersey sales, makes it a potential destination for future NFL events.
“people are traveling cross-border in Europe to attend these games, so we can also look at demand for tickets from Italy, and then also just the extent to which we’re able to capture data in our fan database from people who are interested in the NFL from Italy,” Pabari said. “Whilst we aren’t playing any games in Italy right now, although that is on the roadmap, it is a country that we do ultimately wont to take a game to.”