Sports

Die-hard sports fans live and breathe their favorite players and events. In fact, one study found we often have the same reaction seeing a popular figure or feeling the team spirit as we do religion! The sports niche is broad but once refined it becomes incredibly lucrative. A singular focus on sport (football, basketball, golf, etc.) can venture into offers and promotions based on teams, players, equipment, collectibles, and more. Each season refreshes the items a sports affiliate lists on their site. It’s a non-stop flow of excitement and updates. And let’s talk about the best part: Making money talking about your favorite pastime. Who wouldn’t love watching (or playing) sports, talking about it, and making a few bucks promoting the stuff die-hard fans are already buying? You’ll love sports affiliate programs.

What You Should Know about the Sports Niche

There are a lot of big-time sports blogs and channels:
  • Yahoo! Sports
  • ESPN
  • CBSSports
  • FoxSports
  • Deadspin
  • SportingNews
A sports affiliate may feel slight intimidation getting into this market because the big sites have teams of content creators and editors. A lot of these sites use automated services, too, for live updates and features. Yet, these portals are generic… they don’t have the same appeal as a fanatic blog. It’s one thing reading sports news – it’s another thing being part of a sports community. This is why platforms like Reddit’s /r/sports, /r/sportsmemes, and /r/theocho do so well. It’s why the same platform has subreddits for every team and type of sport. But Reddit isn’t the only place. Hop on Facebook and Twitter to see the flurry of sports talk during the big games. The sports niche goes every which direction:
  • Games and events
  • Analytics and stats
  • Fantasy leagues
  • Equipment
These further divides into subcategories like the type of sport. For example: A golf blog could detail golf events and news while promoting the highest paying golf offers and promotions for golf equipment. It could also include tutorials, classes, and paid services. The offer selection could break down by gender, age, income, and more. That’s the thing about sports… We’re all introduced to them early on through family activities, school, and community events. Some will go on to be sports stars while most will become viewers. A good chunk of those viewers become die-hards that’ll follow every game, try to go to every event, buy memorabilia, and more. Look at your love for sports and see how you feel part of a larger community of fans. Then, imagine what it’s like having a blog and making money promoting offers through sports affiliate programs!

The Sports Industry: Let’s Look at the Numbers and Stats

We’re involved with sports at an early age because it promotes healthy lifestyles, competition, and teamwork. This joy for the game follows us throughout adulthood after we’ve become too aged to participate in the sport. It’s a great pastime because it’s a social event. Here are the numbers behind the sports industry:
  • 69% of girls and 75% of boys will participate in sports while growing up
  • The global sports industry’s revenue is estimated to be $90.9 billion
  • The global sports merchandising market tops $14.2 billion
  • S. e-commerce sales of sporting goods top $11.68 billion
  • Athletic apparel wholesale in the United States is $35 billion
It’s an industry closely aligning the events with the merch. The game, teams, and players create a presence – the viewers support their favorites by buying merchandise. Regular trades and new additions create a steady flow of new merch for each team. Then, you have the active market – those playing the sports. This market divides several ways whether it’s equipment to play or training to improve. Sports medicine, supplements, and personal training fall within this area, too! Let’s not forget about eSports, either. eSports is one of the fastest, growing segments of the niche. Some eSports events now pull in millions of views worldwide. Prize pools top millions. Merchandise is everywhere. And, the fans are just as die-hard as physical sports!

Why You Should Promote Sports Affiliate Programs and Offers

There’s this neat divide with sports:
  • Physical
  • Gaming
This further breaks down to participants and viewers… …and both have their opportunities for a sports affiliate. Let’s start with physical sports:
  • Types – You’ve got cycling, skateboarding, golf, basketball, cricket, frisbee, soccer, and more, to choose from or can go generic with covering the whole industry
  • Teams – Each team has its own set of fans and merch which gives the sports affiliate a ton of promotions and offers even if they stick to this niche selection
  • Players – Fan blogs for specific players exist to discuss games, stats, merch, collectibles, and more, which draw in massive communities depending on the player’s skill and legacy
That’s just from the viewing side of things. You also have those wanting to participate. This gives you hundreds of products within each sports category whether it’s the main item (ex. A football) to the equipment (ex. Helmets) and onward to training, coaching, events, and more. eSports isn’t too different. You’ve got the same types of fans and big-name events like the:
  • The International
  • Capcom Cup
  • Intel Extreme Masters
eSports divide by their game genres and specific games whether that’s a First-Person Shooters, Fighting, Strategy, and others. The fandom for eSports has the same parallels with those watching traditional sports. In all: The sports niche attracts a different type of target audience. They’re either A) passive viewers that “dabble” in sports, B) die-hards following every game, C) participants loving and playing the games, or D) a mix of those A, B, and C. There are several ways to make money in the sports niche when pairing a blog with the right set of sports affiliate programs and offers. Plus, you get the joy of talking about your favorite games and players.

How to Promote a Sports Blog and Monetize with High Paying Sports Offers and Promotions

The sports niche is one of the easiest to get into because everyone seems to be an armchair announcer. Do you answer ‘yes’ to any of these:
  • Do you love sports?
  • Do you follow a team?
  • Do you play a sport?
  • Do you play in a fantasy league?
A yes to either of those already has you on track to building an excellent site and following. Why? Because personality is the big seller in this niche. People can find stats on every blog but what keeps them coming back is a unique voice, entertainment, and expertise. There’s a lot of ways to take this:
  • Highlights – Using your blog to keep people up to date with team/player news, events, stats, and the latest merch and collectibles.
  • Fandom – Following specific players like a true fanatic and voicing your opinions about their performance, interactions, and plays – a bit like a gossip blog.
  • Training – Giving your community tutorials on how to get into sports and helping them improve their gameplay and teamwork.
  • Entertainment – Having fun with it all like creating memes, playing in a fantasy league, trash talking, podcasting, creating highlight reels, and sharing experiences.
Look at how FanSpeak, TheFootballFaith, TheWrestleTimes, HoldOutSports, and others are making their place in the sports niche. How are they monetizing?
  • Equipment
  • Event tickets
  • Memorabilia
  • Collectibles
  • Coaching
  • Supplements
Along with the usual suspects like ads, sponsorships, and sponsored content. You see a lot of sports bloggers taking to YouTube to do pre and post-game discussions. These content creators often mix promotions and offers with their analysis and opinions whether it’s for their personal merch or pointing people to a fan shop like Fanatics.com, OnlineSports.com, and Nike. How would we structure a sports blog?
  1. Refine the selection by a type of sport or team
  2. Decide if it’s about coverage or participation
  3. Create extensive overviews about the teams or sport
  4. Include tutorials and/or roundups for each topic
  5. Do real-time reporting and coverage of games
  6. Include a bit of gossip and trash talking
  7. Publish daily or weekly videos a bit like ESPN
The promotion would follow the usual route of page optimization, social media participation, and video marketing. It would also add in a heavy presence on a sports forum and Reddit sports-specific hubs. The sports affiliate programs and their offers would pair with each piece such as pointing people to a shop page selling jerseys whenever a player is mentioned. Or, deep linking to sports e-commerce stores when offering reviews and comparisons for the essential items to participate. In all: There’s a lot you can do with the sports niche because it comes in layers. Those passively watching love merch and collectibles (cha-ching!). Those participating will buy into equipment and training. Build a personality and you’ll keep people coming back for more.

Winning the Affiliate Game with Sports Affiliate Programs and Offers

Love the sports niche like you love your favorite team. Become a fanatic. It’s likely you can already rattle off player names, memorable games, trades, gossip, and quite a lot of trash talk against your rivals. Monetize that by creating a sports blog! Turn all that discussion, watching, and participation in a nice, little money-maker. We encourage you to look through our sports affiliate programs directory. Pair up with merch, equipment, and training sites to fill the gaps. You know when people say, “I wish I could get paid to watch sports”? Well… this is your chance.
Read MoreRead Less

NBAStore


Learn More

NBAStore Affiliate Program: Overview NBAStore.com is the official online store for the National Basketball Association. There, visitors can find apparel, jerseys, equipment, and accessories for their favorite teams and players. The store carries all major brands from Nike and Adidas to Under Armour and Tissot. Visitors can also find collectibles...

SoccerLoco


Learn More

SoccerLoco Affiliate Program: Overview SoccerLoco is the premier online store featuring soccer footwear, apparel, equipment, and more. Visitors can find deeply discounted merchandise of their favorite clubs, country, and players. Or, get into the game through their extensive soccer equipment catalog. The online store boasts all your favorite brands including...

NFLShop


Learn More

NFLShop Affiliate Program: Overview NFLShop.com is the official online store for the National Football League. There, visitors can browse and buy from the largest product catalog of its kind offering jerseys, collectibles, hats, home & office, and more. The site houses apparel and items for all major NFL teams, offers...

MPG Sport


Learn More

MPG Sport Affiliate Program: Overview MPG provides fashion-infused activewear for women and men whether it’s for the office, workouts, or everyday wear. The sleek, stylish, and premium product catalog is made to add technical advance clothing to customer wardrobes with its flexible wears blending performance and lifestyle. The MPG line...

RoadRunnerSports.com


Learn More

RoadRunnerSports.com Affiliate Program: Overview RoadRunnerSports.com is an online shopping portal providing the best brands in men’s, women’s, and kids running shoes, running apparel, accessories, nutrition, and more. The RRS brand includes a VIP program allowing shoppers to try shoes up to 90 days, get fast, free shipping, and instant savings...

Skirt Sports


Learn More

Skirt Sports Affiliate Program: Overview Skirt Sports is a female-centric athleisure brand and online store offering a wide variety of comfortable workout apparel without sacrificing style. Its best sellers, as you can guess, skirts, combine comfort with practicality while embracing all body types. The brand also offers a line of...

PrimeSport


Learn More

PrimeSport Affiliate Program: Overview Looking to buy tickets to the biggest college and pro sporting events? Look no further than PrimeSport. The PrimeSport website is a gateway for some of the biggest events in sports including the Masters, the Kentucky Derby, the Super Bowl, March Madness, NCAA Final Four, Daytona...

OnlineSports.com


Learn More

OnlineSports.com Affiliate Program: Overview OnlineSports.com is an online store promoting over 150,000 sports products across all sports types. The extent of their coverage includes all your major types and some smaller followings like BMX, Kneeboarding, and Squash. On the site, visitors can purchase official gear from their favorite teams &...

Under Armour


Learn More

Under Armour Affiliate Program: Overview Under Armour are a wildly successful apparel brand offering shoes, tops, bottoms, and accessories for men, women, boys, and girls. This brand’s product lines are built for performance. Key features of the apparel are the compression and temperature regulation through wicking. This simple idea to...

Fanatics


Learn More

Fanatics Affiliate Program: Overview Fanatics is an official partner of the NFL, MLB, NBA, NHL, and NASCAR providing the world’s largest collection of office apparel, jerseys, and fan gear. On Fanatics, customers can find all their favorite sports and team items at great prices and fast shipping. Customers can shop...