The NHL is bringing Adobe onto its bench as its official creative, marketing and AI partner ahead of the 2026-27 regular season, with the league aiming to sharpen how it reaches fans across its 32 clubs, digital channels and international markets.
The agreement gives the NHL access to Adobe’s customer-experience, creative and artificial-intelligence tools as the league pursues broader global growth. The NHL says it has more than 200 million fans in 147 countries, and the new technology is intended to tailor content for those audiences whether they are following a game on a phone, checking NHL.com, watching a broadcast or walking into an arena.
David Lehanski, the NHL’s executive vice president of innovation and growth strategy, said the league wants its fan experience to keep pace with the way people now follow sports.
“Our fans’ passion has always been hockey’s greatest strength,” Lehanski said. “Adobe can help us find new ways to tell the stories of our players, clubs and defining moments, while giving fans more chances to take part in the game they care about.”
Personalization across the league
Adobe’s CX Enterprise products will be made available to the league and all 32 clubs. The package combines marketing, creative-production and AI systems designed to organize customer information and deliver more relevant material to individual fans.
Adobe GenStudio will be used to speed up the production and distribution of NHL content. The league expects the platform to help customize material for specific countries, markets and languages across the NHL website, league app, social channels and digital advertising, while keeping the visual and editorial presentation consistent with NHL branding.
The league also plans to use Adobe Experience Platform and Adobe Journey Optimizer to build a more immediate picture of what fans are viewing and what may interest them next. That information could shape the content a fan receives through the web, app, email or inside the building.
A fan digging through statistics online and another attending a game in person could receive different material based on their preferences. The NHL sees the system as a league-wide approach rather than a collection of separate club-by-club personalization projects.
Adobe chief marketing officer and executive vice president of global marketing Lara Balazs said the partnership is built around making the NHL’s connection with its audience more personal while allowing content to be produced at scale.
“The NHL already has an exceptional bond with its fans,” Balazs said. “These tools can help the league create relevant content across the places fans spend their time, improve operational efficiency and give people more room to create on their own.”
Fans in the creative seat
The longer-range portion of the partnership could put NHL-themed creation tools directly in fans’ hands. Adobe Express, using generative AI capabilities from Adobe Firefly, may offer league templates and image-generation tools that allow supporters to make and share their own player, club and hockey content on social platforms.
The NHL said those tools could be customized to individual users, giving fans another outlet for showing their attachment to the sport and its players.
After the horn
The partnership is expected to be visible around the league’s biggest calendar windows, including the Stanley Cup Playoffs, NHL Global Series, North American events and domestic and international broadcasts. The central goal is not changing what happens between the boards, but building more ways for fans to engage before puck drop, during the action and after the final horn.
