Horizon Sports & Experiences has added World Sevens Football as a client for its media advisory and sponsorship services. The global 7-on-7 women’s soccer competition will hold its next event Dec. 5-7, 2025, in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., months after its inaugural May tournament in Portugal where Bayern Munich defeated Manchester United to win the title.
A spokesperson for World Sevens Football said that it is in conversations with a number of top leagues about participating in the upcoming Florida tournament.
World Sevens soccer is played on a field half the size of a traditional soccer pitch, with no offside rule in effect. Teams play two 15-minute halves plus extra time in an event of a tie. Those ties are played to a golden goal, with sudden death penalties if no one scores in the five minutes of added time. The format gives way to a faster pace of play with plenty of scoring. Players and team staffs compete for a $5 million prize pool.
World Sevens co-founder Jennifer Mackesy is part of the ownership group of both the NWSL’s Gotham FC and of Chelsea, and she and her husband Scott invested $100 million over five years into the 7v7 competition. Mackesy’s son Coulter, who plays for the Premier Lacrosse League’s Boston Cannons, has a lacrosse stringing business.
“It’s been my long-held belief that that for any sports property to break through today, you need three things: a smart alignment of star power, an innovative and compelling on-field product, and real, meaningful stakes,” HS&E founder and co-CEO David Levy said in an email. “Since its inception, World Sevens Football has delivered on all three of these pillars.
In May, World Sevens held its first event in Estoril, Portugal, which featured two days of round-robin group play among eight teams followed by a single-day knockout tournament. In addition to the finalists, Manchester City, Paris Saint-Germain, Benfica, AS Roma, Ajax and Rosengård also participated in the three-day event, which was timed to be held the same week of the Women’s Champions League final in Lisbon.
World Sevens is not regulated by FIFA, and its competitions do not compete against domestic league schedules, meaning participating players can maintain club obligations while playing in the tournaments. World Sevens counts retired USWNT stars Tobin Heath and Kelley O’Hara among its player advisors.
Levy said that World Sevens has an entertaining style that captures the fan’s attention on across different platforms. “It’s the type of product that doesn’t just work on the field; it works where today’s sports conversation lives—across digital and social media platforms.”
He also lauded the fact that the players are competing for a sizable prize pool. “When athletes are competing for real rewards, especially monetary ones,” he said, “the level of intensity and competition only increases, and that ultimately makes for a better product a viewing experience for the fans.”
DAZN currently holds global media rights for World Sevens. The platform streamed each game of the Portugal event for free and will do the same for the Fort Lauderdale event in December.
World Sevens isn’t the only product of its kind that’s going out to market. Back in July, U.S. Soccer agreed to sell commercial rights for The Soccer Tournament, a different 7v7 competition that has garnered the attention of Premier League and LaLiga fans on both sides of the Atlantic. TST borrows from The Basketball Tournament, offering a $1 million winner-take-all prize to the victors.
TST has yet to sign a media deal for 2026 but has previously aired on ESPN and NBC/Peacock. Rosters are made up of retired pro players and celebrities, with former U.S. national team stars Clint Dempsey and Carli Lloyd having previously competed in TST events.
Additionally, former Manchester United and Barcelona defender Gerard Piqué founded Kings League and sister league Queens League under the 7v7 format, though those Spain-based leagues include internet streamers on the pitch alongside former professional soccer players. Queens League recently launched an offshoot league, Queens League Americas, featuring several teams from South America, Mexico and the U.S.
(This story has been updated in the first and sixth paragraphs to correct that the first tournament took place in May, not April.)
