Next time you watch a sports broadcast – pick any sport, it doesn’t matter what – pay attention to who is talking and use the Betchdel test. Are there two women on the broadcast? Are they talking to each other? Are they in the studio or in the dressing room or are they relegated to the sidelines? These are the questions Betchdel says you should be asking yourself when you watch football on Sunday or Monday or Thursday or Friday or Saturday – OK, yes, there is too much football.

Betches, the iconic women’s media brand, began as an anonymous blog called Betches Love This in 2011 and has grown into a huge presence through its Instagram account (9.1 million followers) as well as podcasts and articles. Aleen Dreksler told Slate that the company strives to take women and their interests seriously – whether in politics, celebrity culture, the Bravoverse or, increasingly, sports.

The company recently launched Betches Sports, a cross-platform venture that targets not just women’s sports but women as sports fans. That’s where the Betchdel test comes in, a microcosm of the media criticism that comes with the launch. At a time when traditional media is beginning to recognize the value of women’s sports and female sports fans, Dreksler wants to get it right, she says. Slate spoke with Dreksler about Betches’ new sports division, the company’s evolution and his underlying critique of mainstream sports media.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.

Why did you decide to start a sports vertical now?

It’s been in the back of our minds for a while now because women’s sports have become so popular in the last few years. It’s so great that it captures the zeitgeist. It’s not just in the sports industry, it’s in pop culture now, and people have no choice but to look away, which is really, really amazing.

But it really opened my eyes to the fact that women – not just as athletes, but as spectators – have been ignored for a very long time. There really isn’t a women’s media brand that caters to female fans, not just for women’s sports, but for all sports. And what we’ve really set out to do is redefine the experience for female sports fans. So Betches Sports isn’t really about women’s sports – of course we’ll cover them equally. But it really is about sports for women.

How have you experienced the traditional media’s treatment of women’s sport and female viewers? What leaves a bad taste in your mouth?

It’s not a bitter aftertaste. It’s more that you see there’s a real white spot for audiences and there’s really no place for women to go. Sports media is primarily aimed at men in terms of their branding and their portrayal. Whether they want to make it that way or not, it feels a little bit like a boys’ club. That’s not to say there aren’t a lot of female fans who follow ESPN, who follow all the sports media sites and platforms that there are, but up until now there’s really nothing out there that exists as a place where it’s not so daunting to follow. You don’t have to be a superfan. You can join Betches Sports as a casual fan. You’re here to see what celebrities are at a game, or you’re in multiple fantasy leagues and have 12 parlay bets for the game you’re watching. You can be any kind of fan, but it’s really about a place that’s there for women as fans, and that’s what we’re solving.

How do you strike the right tone when talking to casual gamers who might tune in to the Chiefs game to see Taylor Swift and, say, the die-hard fans who went to Bills games as kids?

Well, first of all, the tone is always going to be entertaining. Sports is entertainment. It’s meant to be fun. It’s about taking a break from your life and your day-to-day and escaping and doing something that you either really, really care about or just want to escape from. What Betches is about is understanding that women are many facets. You can be very interested in the news and be an activist and be political, but you can also be very interested in what’s happening on Bravo. That’s just being a person, and we apply that same ethic to sports. You can watch a game and be very interested in what Taylor Swift is wearing, but also be very interested in what’s going on in the game, who’s winning, and if your fantasy team is winning. So it’s really both.

I know Betches has evolved since you co-founded it in 2011. When did sports come onto your radar and when did you realize it was something you should cover specifically?

I think it’s both a product of the brand’s evolution as it’s grown and a reaction to the world. You can’t ignore women’s sport anymore. It’s incredible what’s happening. I’m a millennial. I started Betches when I was 21 and I’ve grown my company, but we’ve also hired younger demos so we cover a wide range of women from millennials to millennials.

I’m also a first generation American. I didn’t know American football. I had the English Premier League on TV, so I didn’t grow up with American football, but I knew all about Arsenal. I also watched tennis. However, in America, I always felt like American football was a big hurdle. I didn’t know who to cheer for. I didn’t know how to be a fan. As a woman, I felt like you had to act dumb to get attention.

But for Betches, our ethos is to poke fun at ourselves and comment on the world by poking fun at ourselves and our role in it. Looking back now, that was really a symptom of the problem. The reason it felt more male-only as a sports fan is because, as I said, there wasn’t a site that catered to us and allowed us to join without being quizzed about who had the most points in which season. So Betches Sports is designed to lower or open up the barrier for people who are into sports but want to feel like it’s a fun community and it’s not as scary – it’s not as daunting to be a sports fan.

The reason Betches has been so successful over the last 13 years is because we really know our audience. And when you look at the chronology of what’s happened in pop culture and sports media, there are certain things you can’t ignore. For example, Serena Williams’ 2022 US Open final was the most watched tennis match in ESPN history with 4.6 million viewers. Caitlin Clark was all over the headlines. The 2024 NCAA Women’s Basketball Final broke records with nearly 19 million viewers. Bob Iger just acquired Angel City FC for $250 million. All of those things just can’t be ignored, and of course last year’s Super Bowl had the most female viewers in history. So, again, I don’t want to say we’re just doing it because people are talking about it now, but it just feels like it’s time – why not now?

You mentioned that you know your audience, and I’m interested in what you hear from your audience that influences this decision and the way you report.

Whenever we talked about sports on our main account there was a lot of engagement, so we definitely saw interest.

And that’s how we start every brand at Betches. We start talking about it when it feels really relevant, and when we see there’s really a lot of interest, we have to do a little bit of research and then we decide: is this something that makes sense for us? Is there a white spot? And all of those boxes were checked off and there was definitely a need, and we really wanted to respond to it at the right moment.

What have you noticed about the way traditional media has exploited the increased interest in women’s sport? Does it seem opportunistic to you?

Regardless of whether or not glomming has an impact, I think at the end of the day it’s a really, really good thing. Female athletes work so, so hard and are paid so much less than their counterparts. And the media has a very, very big responsibility because media coverage is critical to the future of women’s sport. It increases visibility. I mean, women’s sport received less than 4 percent of media coverage three years ago, and now it’s gone up to 15 percent in 2024. Whether people are opportunistic or not, it really doesn’t matter. It’s great for women’s sport.

For someone to care about the stakes of the game, they have to know the storylines. You have to know what’s going on. And to know that, you have to read about it. You have to hear about it. And it’s the media’s job to share that with you. And the more that happens, the more people care, the more people want to watch and the more the athletes become relevant, the more they become pop culture fans and the more we care about them. And it’s also so inspiring to see female athletes doing their thing in the Olympics. If you think about it, over the last couple of years — I mean, when I was a young girl, I was a huge tennis fan. I loved Martina Hingis. She was so good and it was really inspiring. I play tennis now. I love it. I’m obsessed with Serena Williams. And because of that representation, I felt — obviously, I never thought I would turn pro, but I felt like: It was great that women had a place there, but that’s not the case in other sports.. And since this year you can see how many more female athletes have become famous. It’s not just one or two, but several. There’s Ilona Maher, Simone Biles, Angel Reese. And whether that’s opportunistic or not, the bottom line is that it’s super positive and I’m happy about it.

I think we’re offering something that’s seemed to be a need for some time, and I believe Betches is the right fit for that. We’re an entertainment giant. Sports is a cornerstone of entertainment in the culture and is totally within our purview. And my goal is for Betches Sports to be one of the biggest sports media brands for women in the world. I know that’s a big vision, but I had that same vision for Betches as a brand, and here we are Are.