Social media service Bluesky has added millions of users looking for an alternative to X in recent months, but don’t expect NFL teams to join the shift anytime soon. The NFL and its franchises only have official presences on platforms with league partnership agreements, a league source told Sportico, and no such deal with Bluesky is currently in the works.
While Bluesky now has more than 29 million users, that still pales in comparison to the likes of Threads and X, which each have more than 10 times as many active accounts. Instagram and YouTube have nearly 100 times as many active users.
Last week, Kraft Sports + Entertainment VP of content Fred Kirsch said on a New England Patriots podcast that the team briefly created a Bluesky presence before the league stepped in. “Right now we’re not allowed to” have an active team account there, he said. “Whenever the league gives us the green light, we’ll get back on Bluesky.”
The NFL has signed valuable deals with TikTok, X, YouTube and other platforms in recent years. In addition to helping the league further engage active fanbases, such deals can include license fees, ad dollar splits, and/or marketing promises. Each platform agreement comes with guaranteed minimum revenue figures, the league source said. In 2023, Axios reported that the NFL’s partnership with what was then Twitter was worth more than $1 million over its multiyear term.
Last week the NFL announced a new tie-up with Warner Bros. Discovery, giving that company the ability to distribute highlights and recaps on its apps and social channels as well as the rights to record content itself at NFL events.
The NBA operates similarly, with a set of “approved” platforms, according to a source familiar with the rules. Both sources were granted anonymity to discuss private details. Unlike the NFL, however, the NBA appears comfortable with its teams experimenting on Bluesky for the time being.
The NFL declined to comment. A Bluesky representative did not respond to an email seeking comment.
While the leagues recognize the value their clips have for growing social platforms, they’ve also generally become more flexible over time. Top creators and other individual users now have more freedom to share game content than they did a decade ago without fear of takedown requests.
Even without an official presence on the app, NFL topics were trending across Bluesky Thursday morning as ESPN personalities including Bill Barnwell and Mina Kimes posted breakdowns and other commentary for their followers. Outside of sports, politics remains a common topic of conversation on Bluesky, where Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was the first user to cross 1 million followers. Meanwhile, many users continue encouraging other X users to join them on the newer site.
On Reddit, fan-run r/NFL and r/NBA pages are among numerous communities who have recently banned links to X, as X owner Elon Musk faces criticism over gestures he made that drew comparisons to Nazi salutes during Musk's speech celebrating President Donald Trump’s inauguration Monday.
"We have reached this decision after taking recent events and strong sentiment from our community into account," an r/NBA moderator wrote on Wednesday. "While we try our best to stay neutral and apolitical, we do not believe taking a stance against Nazi symbolism is or should be a political issue. Hate speech and the promotion of it has never been tolerated in our community."
An r/NFL moderator also cited the fact that news sources are moving to other sites as part of their decision. A Bluesky link sat atop the basketball discussion board Thursday afternoon.
(This post has been updated with more information on the NBA policy.)
