PFL
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How PFL Brings the Inside-the-Cage Experience to Global Fans
Summary
The Professional Fighters League (PFL) is a mixed martial arts (MMA) league launched in 2018, operating and broadcasting in more than 190 countries. The PFL is unlike other MMA organizations because it operates like a traditional sports league, featuring a regular season, playoffs, and championship format, where fighters earn points to advance based on their performance. This structure gives fans a clear, stakes-driven journey each season.
Since 2022, the PFL has used WSC Sports to grow rapidly, expanding and establishing new audiences in emerging markets where fans were previously underserved. Thanks to this partnership, fans can now experience real-time short and long form video content, on multiple platforms including social media and the PFL app, 365 days a year.
KEY RESULTS
- 1.8 B video views
- 35% increase in video views YoY
- 10K+ videos published
- 4 M new social media followers
These results are based on PFL activity using the WSC Sports platform in 2025 across more than 30 events around the world.
The Challenge
Building Global Awareness
Established in 2018, the PFL faced the immediate task of increasing awareness of its burgeoning league, both in the US and internationally. It was essential that fans understood the distinction between this new type of MMA organization versus traditional models, and to make the PFL format easily understandable to help attract new non-MMA fans.
Reaching Fans, Wherever They Are
MMA is a sport that’s approximately 30 years old, and its popularity is growing at twice the rate of other leagues. The PFL recognized that millions of MMA fans existed worldwide, yet they were largely underserved. There were few local events, few local stars, and fight content was either hard to find or access was limited. The PFL needed a way to reach existing fans wherever they were and create new ones in the process.
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The Solution
The PFL realized that they couldn’t achieve their goals or adequately address the outlined challenges by relying solely on their in-house capabilities, so they sought out the right tech partners to assist them. First teaming up with WSC Sports in 2022, they now have the technology and strategy to achieve long-term growth and success.
As they’ve grown, the PFL has established new national leagues around the world, with winners advancing to compete in regional and global PFL tournaments. Now operating and broadcasting in 190 countries, the PFL uses WSC Sports to maximize its storytelling capabilities from each event, at speed and scale.
Every moment, from inside and outside the cage, is ingested into the WSC Sports platform as it happens, building an indexed, real-time video library. The PFL utilizes this to create a diverse range of content tailored to different audience groups, based on their location, preferred platform, or viewing habits. This content helps grow and engage MMA fans on PFL-owned and operated channels, including its app and website, as well as social media, and with partners such as DAZN and ESPN.
Takeaways
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Going Global
The PFL has grown to become the world’s first connected mixed martial arts league, with PFL Africa recently joining PFL Europe and PFL MENA, in addition to its Champions Series and World Tournament.
With WSC Sports, the PFL can create content tailored to fans from anywhere in the world and continue its global expansion. In 2025, it has already opened a new edition of its Instagram for Spanish speakers as well as new social media accounts for PFL Africa.
More than four million new followers joined PFL social media in 2025, and with billions of views on PFL content, it shows the sky’s the limit for this 7-year-old organization.
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Year-Round 'Rocky' Stories
Using WSC Sports, the PFL produces a diverse range of emotive content from inside and outside the cage to keep fans engaged throughout the year. In 2025, the PFL is on track to publish more than 12,000 pieces of content.
Through its content, the PFL strives to humanize its fighters, telling their stories, their journeys, and, of course, showcasing their talent in the cage. Using WSC Sports, they’re able to create content from the ref cam, which gives fans a unique opportunity to be closer to the action than ever and helps new fans learn about the sport.
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Knowing Your Audience
The PFL understands the value of knowing your audience. It knows most PFL fans are aged 18-35, so it tailors its content accordingly to suit them. For fans in this age range, it’s all about speed. They want to see fight highlights as close to real-time as possible and in their preferred aspect ratio.
The speed of the WSC Sports platform enables the PFL to reach fans with highlights of every punch, every kick, every submission, in a fight as soon as it happens, and in any ratio, so fans don’t miss a thing.
