TikTok Ban Would Give NFL Option to Terminate Sponsorship With Company

The National Football League has an option to terminate its sponsorship deal with TikTok should the platform be banned in the U.S., according to someone with direct knowledge of the details.

The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday upheld a law passed in April that would ban TikTok, owned by Chinese-based ByteDance, starting Jan. 19, unless its U.S. operations were sold. Further complicating matters, it’s unclear how president-elect Donald Trump will enforce the action once he takes office the following day.

The lack of clarity has left influencers, companies and TikTok partners—among them sports teams and leagues—preparing for multiple outcomes.

The NFL’s contractual relationship with TikTok started in 2019 and was extended in September 2024, giving the social media platform access to highlights and a presence at the Super Bowl, among other things. The multiyear extension signed four months ago includes language that allows the world’s richest league to terminate the deal if TikTok’s legal status in the U.S., a long-running debate in the U.S. government, ever changed, said the person, who was granted anonymity because the details are private.

A representative for the NFL declined to comment. A representative for TikTok didn’t respond to email seeing comment. The company posted a video Friday of CEO Shou Zi Chew thanking Trump for his “commitment to work with us to find a solution that keeps TikTok available in the U.S.”

The NFL isn’t the only U.S. sports property eagerly watching the next few days to evaluate their own TikTok deals. The NHL’s Washington Capitals have a deal that includes TikTok’s logo on their away uniforms. A rep for the team declined to comment on the status of the partnership should the ban take effect. MLS has a partnership with TikTok and worked with the company to live stream Lionel Messi’s first playoff game with Inter Miami last October. A rep for the league declined immediate comment.

MLB’s New York Yankees, YES Network and MLS club Portland Timbers all had TikTok deals that expired at the end of last year.

Sports leagues such as the NBA and the NFL began posting content to TikTok in the late 2010s, recognizing a need to connect with the platform’s young userbase in an engaging video format. Initially, they posted humorous videos tied to the app’s viral trends, though content strategies developed over time to include more traditional highlights and behind-the-scenes clips.

Sports organizations saw TikTok as a means to drive tune-in to games, while marketing and other monetization opportunities came too.

The NFL has more than 15 million followers on the platform, with multiple individual clips from the first round of the playoffs garnering more than four million views. Some individual teams have grown large follower bases as well. The Kansas City Chiefs have five million followers, for instance. This year, the Texans leveraged the platform as part of their ticket sales strategy. Hours after Friday’s Supreme Court decision, the NFL’s official TikTok account was still posting, uploading a 96-second recap of the Los Angeles Rams and Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ 2022 divisional round game.