Perfect partners: Kicking off World Sevens Football’s goals for its first broadcast with media partner DAZN
The first World Sevens Football tournament will take place from 21 to 23 May in Estoril, Portugal at the Estádio António Coimbra da Mota
World Sevens Football – the new grand slam series for professional women footballers – is being brought to global screens by the sporting format’s media partner, DAZN. The first of the three-day competitions in 2025 will see eight clubs come head-to-head in Estoril, Portugal, on 21 to 23 May to compete for a $5 million prize pool.
The matches will be short format and high intensity. Taking place on a field half the size of a typical football pitch with seven players on each side, two 15 minute halves, and extra time for tie-breakers, the production is set to be just as exciting.
SVG Europe spoke to World Sevens Football’s chief commercial officer, Tracey Lesetar-Smith, about the league’s strategy through its broadcast.
World Sevens Football is already doing things differently. For one, it is putting players at the heart of the game with its Player Advisory Council, a group of people tasked with shaping player care and welfare, competition strategy, and the positive long term impact on players and clubs. Names already on the Council include: Anita Asante, former Lioness, now coach and broadcaster; Kelley O’Hara, two-time World Cup Champion, Olympic Gold Medalist, and media personality; and Laura Georges ex-general secretary of the French Football Federation, now a speaker and football pundit.
The first of the World Sevens Football three-day competitions in 2025 will see eight clubs come head-to-head in Estoril, Portugal, on 21 to 23 May
Golden age
On the strategy of the sport, Lesetar-Smith says: “We are living in a moment right now where women’s sports generally is on the precipice of this truly golden age, and how amazing is it for us to be in this business in this moment? It is unprecedented and a thrill and a privilege, frankly.
“There’s a lot of innovation and there is a lot of momentum. From a strategy standpoint, we are taking really what is a fast-paced, exhilarating format, and getting it to as many people as possible; not just hardcore football fans, but really crossover and casual fans that may not have visited before.
“Our goals are to reach as many people as possible, to get them really having a great affection for this particular format. If you think about it, sevens is actually a beloved format; if you played football as a kid, you probably played sevens. And so having these iconic clubs now playing sevens and with the global reach of DAZN, our strategy is completely centred around making it accessible to everyone and showing that this format is exciting and worth the watch.”
In this short form, high energy brand new sport, the aim of the broadcast strategy for World Sevens Football is to reflect the game itself. Says Lesetar-Smith: “Our aim with the broadcast and DAZN has been entirely aligned. It is to ensure that we give the fans at home the best seat in the house and really showcase that high energy.
“One of the things that we’re doing that’s really exciting is we are at a truly ‘roots of football’ stadium, and we are building a stadium within a stadium, ” says Lesetar-Smith, referring to the Estádio António Coimbra da Mota in Portugal where the first tournament will take place. The stadium opened its doors in 1939 and is a multi sports venue, and home to premier football club, G.D. Estoril Praia.
Continues Lesetar-Smith: “So the experience that the fans at home are going to have is that intimate feel of the smaller sevens pitch. I think at home you’re going to really feel the energy.”
She comments on World Sevens Football’s goals with DAZN as the host broadcaster: “The strategy around the broadcast with DAZN is going to be giving it to the world live and for free in front of the paywall, and that’s completely aligned with what we want to do. We want to make it accessible. This is a beloved format that we are taking and attaching incredibly iconic clubs to, so we want to leverage those fan bases and give them access to it, but we also want to make it live and free to those maybe who aren’t familiar with the format or perhaps are more new to European football across the globe or European women’s football across the globe. So our ideas revolve around making it accessible and really creating this truly global brand.”
World Sevens Football is putting players at the heart of the game with its Player Advisory Council
Ubiquitously popular
Growing the fanbase of a brand new sport format is made slightly easier in the case of World Sevens Football as the sport itself is almost ubiquitously popular already, and the shorter, faster games are going to appeal to a content-hungry viewership.
Lesetar-Smith comments: “Like any emerging property, I think what you want to do is use your platform to leverage fans that are the hardcores, so hardcore women’s football fans. We want to make sure that they feel this is speaking to them, that this is something that they are on board with, and that this is something that they want to see. I think that, first and foremost, is what we’re looking at.
“Then really expanding to the football fans outside of that to the larger, casual fans group. If we look at the way that the sports landscape is evolving – into alternate formats that are shorter, tighter, faster – [it’s really about] made for short form content, which is the way that fans are now consuming things. So our entire strategy and format really dovetails nicely into catering to the fact that that’s what the fan is wanting; that’s what the fan is doing now, and that’s how they’re consuming.”
Lesetar-Smith says the goal on growing the fanbase is not focused on a specific age range, but on those hardcore women’s footie fans and making sure they feel catered to. While World Sevens Football will indeed be targeting social media views, that is not strategically designed to hit younger fans.
She explains: “We want to utilise social media. We want to utilise [our content] where the audience is spending most of its time. Would we like the younger demographic? Certainly! But we want to make sure that, first and foremost, women’s football fans feel spoken to. On social media, I think the places where a lot of the fans are spending their time right now are TikTok, Instagram and X, so we are going to be focusing on that by creating short, sharp, fast content that aligns with fan consumption habits, and a lot of that is the younger audience, absolutely.
“But I think the other part of social media strategy and marketing strategy for the brand in general, is we’re looking at it from a content and strategy lens that is broadly utilising the amazing talent that’s participating in this. This isn’t about clubs that nobody has heard of before, personalities on our Player Advisory Council that nobody has heard of before; we’ve gathered a group of clubs and we’ve gathered a group of iconic personalities [on the Council] that I think are going to really help leverage their reach and their credibility in football.”
DAZN is the “perfect partner for us in this endeavour,” Lesetar-Smith states. She goes on: “Our relationship with DAZN is a deep one. They’re not only our broadcast partner, they’re our production partner, they’re our sub-licensing partner, they’re our marketing partner. So leveraging their global reach on this and their already deep commitment to women’s football is really part and parcel of our entire strategy.
“It’s kind of one side of the house cannot do without the other in this moment. This is the perfect partnership for us,” she concludes.
The first World Sevens Football tournament will take place from 21 to 23 May in Estoril, Portugal at the Estádio António Coimbra da Mota