Turning NFL.com into a D2C growth engine
- ClientNFL
- IndustrySports
- ServicesMarketing · Customer Experience
- CapabilitiesBusiness Analysis · Content strategy
How we rebuilt NFL.com for “right now” fans—and DTC growth
By 2024, NFL.com wasn’t keeping pace with how fans actually follow the game—especially on Sundays, when millions arrive with urgency for scores, schedules, injuries, and one simple question: how do I watch right now? Too often, the experience didn’t match that real-time intent, and fans bounced elsewhere to get answers.
We rebuilt NFL.com around game-day urgency, making it clearer in the moments that matter and more trustworthy as a guide from information to decisions. The new experience is designed to respond to what’s happening and what fans need next, so “right now” questions turn into confident next steps. It also creates a stronger, more seamless bridge from fandom to the NFL’s direct-to-consumer priorities without feeling like an interruption.
Key Takeaways
Build a future-proof foundation
new architecture, new code, modern SEO and a unified design system to power every team, page and game.
Design for fan behavior
reorganize the experience around high-intent moments — scores, schedules, standings and game details.
Guide decisions, don’t interrupt
make NFL+ discoverable through contextual, relevant touchpoints woven seamlessly into the experience.
Turn the front door into a trusted growth engine
connect real-time fan intent to commerce with fast, discoverable journeys that scale across the league.
Impact
As direct site traffic declines across the web at large, the rebuilt NFL.com experience is driving stronger engagement, improved discoverability, and meaningful growth for NFL+. It reflects the league’s pulse on evolving fan behavior and its commitment to prioritizing the customer experience to power the future of the game.
Real-time decisioning, built for game day
We transformed NFL.com from a static information hub into a real-time decision engine.
Today the experience responds to where fans are, what’s happening in the game and what they need next.
At its core is Ways to Watch — a universal utility that instantly tells fans exactly how to watch any game, anywhere, based on time, location, rights, team affinity and subscription status. No searching. No guessing. No bouncing.
From utility to strategy
By turning NFL.com into a real-time decision engine anchored by Ways to Watch, we aligned what fans need in the moment with the NFL’s most important business priority.
Guiding principles: that alignment set the stage for a strategy that reframed the experience around clear principles—so the league’s largest digital surface could turn information-seeking into decision-making.
Principles that put Ways to Watch to work
Serve the moment: design around high-intent, real-time needs—scores, schedules, injuries, and “how do I watch right now?”—so fans get answers instantly, without friction.
Turn information into decisions: make NFL.com a trusted guide that helps fans take the next best step in context, replacing dead ends and bouncing with clear, actionable pathways.
Connect fandom to commerce—seamlessly: surface NFL+ where intent is highest and relevance is obvious, weaving discovery into the experience instead of interrupting it.
What We Did
Rebuilt NFL.com to connect fandom and commerce and reinforce trust with fans.
Improved NFL+ acquisition and discovery to better support D2C growth.
Simplified paths to game pages to help increase fan engagement.
Streamlined design-to-development handoff with a new design system to reduce overhead.
Rebuilding NFL.com into a D2C growth engine
Paired with a fully reimagined design system and adaptive component library, the site now surfaces NFL+ precisely where intent is highest — within schedules, scores, previews, recaps and team pages. The result is clarity instead of clutter, positioning the NFL as a fan’s trusted guide. By connecting fandom to commerce in the moments that matter most, NFL.com becomes a stronger front door that supports D2C growth.
Read More
Building the most robust NHL team app today
USTA coaching membership experience launch
Let’s get to work. Start a conversation.
newbiz@codeandtheory.comCode and Theory is a proud member of Stagwell Group. Stagwell is the challenger network built to transform marketing. We deliver scaled creative performance for the world’s most ambitious brands, connecting culture-moving creativity with leading-edge technology to harmonize the art and science of marketing. Led by entrepreneurs, our 13,000+ specialists in 34+ countries are unified under a single purpose: to drive effectiveness and improve business results for their clients. Join us at www.stagwellglobal.com
Decode
Keep up with the culture, one newsletter at a time. Subscribe to DECODE:
Find Us
One World Trade Center,
69th Floor
New York, NY 10007