"American 7s Football League Is the Future of Football," Says UFC Co-Founder David Isaacs

Photo by Dave Adamson on Unsplash

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Roughly 100 million people watch the Super Bowl every year, the average value of an NFL franchise is nearly $3.5 billion, and the NFL generates more than $15 billion per year in revenue. The NFL is the most successful American sports league in history. It’s America’s Game and beloved by its legions of fans. However, as the increasing prominence of the NBA, the UFC and esports demonstrate, different sports’ relative popularity isn’t a constant especially with the rise of new technologies and distribution outlets.

Touting itself as “America’s Game” has come with its share of problems for the National Football League but now there’s a new football format that is turning heads, going viral online and engaging younger fans.

The American 7s Football League, or A7FL for short, is a rising take on football that starts with no helmets or pads, making for great close up highlights, and looks like a professional version of the backyard football that many kids have been playing for decades including smaller squads, no kicking or punting.

What Is The A7FL Story?

Reflecting on the league’s creation, Co-Founder and President Ryan DePaul had this to say: “We didn’t have a stadium. We didn’t have a field. We didn’t have jerseys. [We were] just a bunch of guys who love the game of football.”

Now, A7FL’s full-contact, action-packed games have developed quite a fanbase. Having inked numerous high profile distribution deals, American 7s has amassed over 750,000 social media followers, generates over 120 million video views annually and is now preparing for its 8th spring season.

With the A7FL’s rise from Craigslist-sponsored pickup games to a true sports league with 9 divisions and 36 teams nationwide, it faced down the significant headwinds that come with going up against such a successful incumbent. In this case, the mighty National Football League. 

In fact, since the NFL-AFL merger way back in the 1960s, every upstart football league has failed. The company feels that these failures resulted from the leagues’ inability to provide a truly unique product as well as their “top down” (high overhead) business models. The founders believe that the innovative changes they’ve made to the game create, for the first time, a superior and unique game experience designed for today’s audience and their viewing habits.

Metrics on the quality and quantity of A7FL’s viewership seem to reflect this notion. For example, A7FL claims that 76% of their fans lie within the 18-to-34 age bracket, which is twice as many that the NFL has within that highly desired range. A7FL’s younger fanbase can be seen as evidence of the creation of a novel, exciting experience that appeals to the new generation as well as the old. One thing is for sure: when someone tunes into an A7FL game or watches its highlights on social media, they know immediately that they are not watching any other professional football league.

The Business Model

A7FL’s business model reflects those of established sports leagues, combining rights licensing, sponsorships, merchandise and ticket sales, as well as selling new divisions (the league has a unique design with multiple teams per market) and expanding into new revenue streams such as betting and NFTs. In 2021, the league’s long term philosophy of building from the ground up began to pay significant dividends as the league sold 5 new divisions (adding Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Cincinnati, Boston and Washington, DC to existing divisions in New Jersey, Baltimore, San Diego and Orlando), revenues grew 1000% and its investment campaign topped $600,000.

The league’s increasing prize money pool provides a telling example of the A7FL’s growth. The league first offered prize money, a total of $2,500, in 2020. By 2021, the pool had increased eight-fold to $20,000 and attracted new players - many with outstanding college and high school football credentials -  to the A7FL. For 2022, total prize money now exceeds $50,000, a record amount, as the league seeks to encourage even more top players to join (note: the league already has a number of former NFL players).

To expand its viewership, A7FL has secured key partnerships with distributors including Amazon AMZN’s Twitch, Meta Platforms Inc. FB’s Facebook Watch and, new in 2021, Triller-owned FITE TV as well as Fubo Sports Network FUBO.  In the third quarter of 2021, A7FL’s videos featured by digital partner WAVE.tv delivered more than 32 million video views, and ESPN’s SportsCenter shared a highlight that went viral with 20 million views and 30,000 comments.

During 2021, the league premiered a new programming package with two Sunday afternoon Games of the Week on Triller-owned FITE TV with a unique pay-per-view model, with the day’s early game serving as pure promotion via Meta Platforms Inc. FB’s Facebook Watch. Then the league launched a Monday Night Football package with Fubo Sports Network FUBO, sandwiched between the Pro Fighters League and the Terrell Owens talkshow “Getcha Popcorn Ready.”

And then there are the highlights. In addition to daily posts to the league’s own 750,000 strong social media following, digital partner WAVE.tv also posts A7FL videos across its network accounting for a total of 32 million video views in Q3 of 2021 alone. With expansion to 36 teams for the 2022 season, 18 live games per week will generate more sensational highlights for social media and lead to even more programming options and outlets for the league to consider.

And there’s still room left to grow; the league intends to have 128 teams across the country within the next five years. With former college player Ryan DePaul and successful entrepreneur Sener Korkusz at the helm of A7FL, UFC co-founder and A7FL chairman David Isaacs believes that A7FL is “the Future of Football.” 

Visit the company’s Start Engine page to learn more. 

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This post contains sponsored advertising content. This content is for informational purposes only and not intended to be investing advice.