(Bloomberg) -- The NFL wants to create millions of fans like Renan Ribeiro.
The 38-year-old grew up in soccer-obsessed Brazil knowing almost nothing about American football. He learned a little about the sport from movies such as Ace Ventura: Pet Detective, in which Jim Carrey tries to solve the kidnapping of the Miami Dolphins mascot. Years later, he caught the end of a Super Bowl on TV and was hooked.
In Brazil, soccer is “inserted into your life, whether you like it or not,” said Ribeiro, an artist in São Paulo, who now often watches three NFL games on Sundays. “I don't really have a conception of whether I really like soccer, or if it's simply a culture imposed on me. American football was a choice.”
The NFL aims to win over a lot more of Ribeiro’s fellow Brazilians when its first regular season game in South America takes place on Friday night, as the Philadelphia Eagles face the Green Bay Packers in São Paulo. The matchup is part of a push to make American football a global sport, and the league sees Brazil — home to more than 200 million people and the world’s eighth-largest economy — as a key market.
About a decade ago, the NFL ramped up investment in the country and now says it has 36 million fans in Brazil, which according to surveys by an independent research firm placed it second behind Mexico for international NFL fandoms.
“This can be a turning point,” said Bruno Koerich, chief executive officer of Destra Licenciamento de Marcas, the Brazilian firm responsible for NFL licensing in the country. The game can create a stronger relationship between fans and the brand, he said. “This expands the business opportunity.”
The game, which is the second matchup of the season following Thursday night’s opener, has also been dragged into politics. Some Republican politicians in the US have called on the NFL to cancel the game after a supreme court judge banned X in Brazil last week because owner Elon Musk defied orders to appoint a legal representative in the country. The billionaire has been quarreling with the top court for months over content regulations.The NFL is America’s most popular and lucrative pro sport by far. Media and tech companies continue to bid up media rights. The league generated about $12 billion in revenue in 2022, according to the latest available figures.
But the NFL wants more, knowing that being so dependent on the US might eventually cap its growth.
The NBA already has big fanbases overseas, and Major League Baseball has large followings in East Asia, South America and the Caribbean. Both leagues also benefit from having players from around the world, a way to attract international fans that the NFL lacks.
Despite all the NFL’s success in the US, its early moves to build an international fanbase were sporadic and mostly missed the mark. In the 1980s, the league began holding exhibition games on foreign soil on a regular basis. Then for more than a decade, it backed a small league with teams in Europe. The entity mostly struggled to take root, and the NFL pulled the plug in 2007.
Since then, the NFL has changed its strategy and pushed for a more consistent presence and bigger stakes in foreign markets. One big hurdle to winning over international fans is that American football is barely played outside the US. The sport also has lots of quirky rules that can make it hard to learn.
“90% of the Brazilian population doesn't understand the rules. How many yards need to be run? When do you need to kick the ball? What's a touchdown?” said Nicolas Caballero, who coordinates the MBA program in sports management and marketing at the Trevisan Business School in São Paulo. “But a very passionate segment exists among those who play the game and those who watch it.”
In response, the league began investing in flag football overseas through its NFL Flag program, aiming to teach players the game and covert them into fans. The initiative debuted in Brazil last year. The sport, which is now played in more than 100 countries by an estimated 20 million people, will make its Olympic debut at the 2028 Summer Games in Los Angeles.
A few years ago, the NFL also started a global markets program, which allows clubs to focus on building fanbases in foreign markets. Teams now have rights in 19 countries, spanning Nigeria to Ireland and South Korea. The New England Patriots and the Dolphins have rights to Brazil. Since getting access to Brazil two years ago, Miami has held watch parties, hosted coaching clinics and used former players to engage fans.
To boost interest, the NFL in 2007 began to play regular season games outside the US. The league said it’s held three dozen matchups in London, four in Mexico City and three across Germany. Teams are now required to play an international game every four years. There are five such matchups this season and might be as many as eight in 2025. It’s also selling more TV rights to increase games being shown in foreign markets.
The arrival of an NFL game in Brazil was years in the making. The league hired marketing agency Effect Sport last decade to build awareness for the sport and league, with events including starting an NFL-sponsored Super Bowl watch party event.
Effect Sport has also promoted the BFA, a professional American football league started last decade that now has roughly three dozen squads. Many of the most popular soccer clubs also own American football teams.
"We've seen the passion build down there,” said Peter O'Reilly, the NFL’s executive vice president of club business, major events and international. The league recently named a general manager for Brazil and plans to open an office in the country. For international games, “Brazil was a natural next location, given the size of the fanbase.”
Organizers are treating the game like one of Brazil's biggest sporting events of the year. Brazilian pop star Anitta will play the halftime show. Tickets to the 49,000 seat Arena Corinthians sold out in less than two hours and are now going on StubHub for between 1,100 and 9,300 reis ($195-$1,647).
Meanwhile, NFL jerseys have popped up in airports and store windows. Brazilian social-media influencers are flooding their feeds with content, including explaining the game’s rules. And a giant mural of Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts and the Packers Jordan Love is up on the side of a building in downtown São Paulo.
“I'm in ecstasy,” said Ribeiro, who is attending Friday’s game. He considers himself a Pittsburgh Steelers fan because the team has a working-class history like Corinthians, his favorite Brazilian football club. “I've always wanted to see a game, but I'm not in position to the go to US, let alone pay for a game there.”
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