The 2025 National Football League season kicks off Thursday, Sept. 4, with the defending Super Bowl champions, the Philadelphia Eagles, beginning their journey to repeat as back-to-back champions. Sportsbooks see the Eagles and Super Bowl runner-up Kansas City Chiefs among the top teams to reach the championship once again.
Here's a look at publicly traded stocks that could benefit from the 2025 NFL season.
Media Companies
The NFL means big business for the media rights partners that broadcast weekly games. In the 2024 NFL season, viewership averaged 17.5 million, down 2% year-over-year.
While viewership was down, the NFL still represented 72 of the top 100 most-watched broadcasts in 2024.
Here are the public companies that could benefit from NFL games on TV and streaming.
Comcast Corporation (NASDAQ:CMCSA): Airs "Sunday Night Football" each week on NBC and Peacock. It was the top media company for the NFL last season, with an average of 19.4 million on NBC and 21.6 million for TV and streaming. The company has the rights to Super Bowl LX for February 2026 and is looking to earn $8 million per 30-second TV ad. Comcast has also been trying to package Super Bowl ads with its other sports rights, like the 2026 Winter Olympics, which could maximize its advertising revenue.
Paramount Skydance (NASDAQ:PSKY): Airs NFL games on Sunday on CBS and streams on Paramount+. It had the second-highest average viewership last season with 19.2 million per game.
Fox Corporation (NASDAQ:FOX) (NASDAQ:FOXA): Airs NFL games on Sunday on FOX. Averaged 18.3 million viewers per game last season.
Amazon.com Inc (NASDAQ:AMZN): Has rights to "Thursday Night Football" games. Last season, Amazon averaged 13.2 million viewers per game and was the only NFL partner that experienced a year-over-year gain for average viewership. Amazon will also have a Christmas game this year with the 8:15 p.m. ET broadcast of the Denver Broncos and Kansas City Chiefs on Prime Video.
Netflix Inc (NASDAQ:NFLX): The streaming giant dipped into NFL games with two Christmas games last season that averaged 24 million viewers. Over 65 million people watched at least a portion of one of the two games. Netflix has two Christmas Day games once again in 2025, which, paired with a portion of the final season of "Stranger Things" on the same day, could make for a huge day for the streamer.
Walt Disney Company (NYSE:DIS): Disney's ESPN airs "Monday Night Football" games each week and remains a huge ratings winner with its NFL partnership. In the future, Disney is likely to become even more successful than the NFL, with the media company in the midst of acquiring media assets from the NFL in exchange for a 10% stake in ESPN.
Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG)(NASDAQ:GOOGL): A newer media partner for the NFL, Alphabet's YouTube is the home of NFL Sunday Ticket. YouTube will also stream the second game of the 2025 NFL season, a contest between the Kansas City Chiefs and Los Angeles Chargers in Brazil on Friday, Sept. 5.
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Sports Betting Companies
The American Gaming Association predicts that $30 billion will be wagered on the 2025 NFL season with legal sportsbooks in the U.S., up 8.5% year-over-year.
There are multiple publicly traded online sportsbooks, with two controlling the majority of the market.
DraftKings Inc (NASDAQ:DKNG): One of the most popular sportsbooks in the U.S., offers a pure play way to invest in the growth of NFL betting with legal sportsbooks.
Flutter Entertainment (NYSE:FLUT): The owner of the FanDuel sportsbooks, Flutter is a market leader in many states and likely to see substantial betting volume during the 2025 NFL season.
Robinhood Markets (NASDAQ:HOOD): Along with online sportsbooks, NFL fans and investors will have a new way to bet or "predict" who will win NFL games this season. Robinhood is offering prediction markets for each NFL contest during the 2025 season. While the investing company won't offer markets for player props or spread betting, it will be interesting to see if Robinhood can take market share from existing sportsbooks or bring new people to the sports betting market.
Genius Sports (NYSE:GENI): Media companies and sportsbooks turn to Genius for the data and stats from NFL games. Genius is the exclusive provider of real-time and play-by-play statistics for NFL games. The NFL holds an equity stake in the company.
Public NFL Team
The Green Bay Packers are famous for being a publicly traded sports team, but you won't find shares on the New York Stock Exchange or Nasdaq. Shares, which are held by fans, do not offer dividends or the ability to resell for a profit.
Investors looking to invest in an NFL team will have more options in the future, with private equity companies now able to invest in teams.
Ares Management Corporation (NYSE:ARES) is a 10% owner of the NFL's Miami Dolphins, offering exposure to the team's success to investors. Ares' investment stake includes the Dolphins, Hard Rock Stadium and the Formula 1 Miami Grand Prix race, providing investors exposure to the NFL, Formula 1 and a large stadium.
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