Premier Lacrosse League Becomes Content Champions with PhotoShelter & Socialie

A New League with New Media Challenges

Born from the vision of Paul and Mike Rabil in 2018, the Premier Lacrosse League (PLL) burst onto the scene with a mission to trailblaze the future of professional sports. This wasn’t your grandpa’s lacrosse league – the PLL was player and fan focused, digital-first, fast-paced, and built for the social media age. With eight teams crisscrossing the United States, capturing the electrifying action and getting it to fans, players, and partners was no easy feat. Managing and distributing its rapidly expanding library of content effectively was critical.

The Challenge: Managing and Distributing Content for a Fast-Growing League

Nick Ieradi, the League Photographer for the PLL, spends his days capturing jaw-dropping goals, bone-jarring checks, and the raw emotion of victory and defeat. In the early days, the PLL needed a content workflow platform to allow them to accomplish their needs of storing, distributing, and sharing their product.

• No central place to store photos and videos. With no organized system, finding the right content was nearly impossible. They needed a reliable platform to store and manage their growing library of media assets.
• Getting content to the right people was difficult. Players, sponsors, and the league media team all needed different types of content, and distributing it efficiently was a major challenge.
• It was impossible to know if their content strategy was working. Without a way to track engagement and measure the impact of their photos and videos, the PLL was operating in the dark.

“PhotoShelter was the league’s first and only digital asset management provider since the launch of the PLL.”

Nick Ieradi, League Photographer, Premier Lacrosse League

The Solution: PhotoShelter and Socialie – The PLL Media Team’s All-Star Lineup

With PhotoShelter and Socialie joining the team, the PLL went from playing catch-up to calling the shots. Their content workflow became as smooth as a perfectly executed fast break.

• Simple centralized storage. The PLL now uses PhotoShelter as their central platform to store, organize, and access all photos and videos. Content can be easily categorized by game, location, and other relevant details.
• Socialie makes content distribution easy. PhotoShelter and Socialie together to automatically share content with players and partners. This saves time and ensures everyone gets the content they need. 
• AI streamlines their processes. PhotoShelter’s AI tools automatically tag players and sponsors in photos and videos, eliminating manual work and ensuring accuracy. This also helps the PLL prove the value of its content to sponsors and automate the distribution of assets to the right athletes.
• Insightful performance tracking. With robust analytics capabilities, the PLL gained valuable insights into content engagement across various platforms. Understanding how their content is used and shared helps demonstrate its value and how it contributes to brand growth.

“I was hearing really great things from a few friends that work in the content spaces, especially in sports at a professional level. Multiple friends said that Socialie was at the top of their lists, and I heard nothing but good things. So I started looking into it, and I personally thought that it could expand what we were trying to do as a league – with the amount of content that we’re creating and the amount of people that we’re distributing it to.”

Nick Ieradi, League Photographer, Premier Lacrosse League

A Winning Playbook for Content Success

The Premier Lacrosse League isn’t just changing the game on the field – they’re redefining how sports leagues connect with fans in the digital age.  By partnering with PhotoShelter and Socialie, they’ve built a content powerhouse that’s as dynamic and innovative as the sport itself.  With a streamlined workflow, automated distribution, and data-driven insights, the PLL is scoring major points online, proving that when it comes to content, they’re always ahead of the game.

“Socialie is a distribution outlet that allows you to create routing rules to seamlessly send content that you’re creating to either players or brands, partners, sponsors, or anybody you want. It allows you to get them content in a timely manner. They have an app that works really well – and you don’t even need the app to receive footage. You can get everything sent through a web browser, through email or text notifications, Facebook or WhatsApp notifications. They really do it all and help us work really seamlessly.”

Nick Ieradi, League Photographer, Premier Lacrosse League

Next up, the top four PLL teams from the 2024 season will compete at the 2025 Lexus Championship Series at The St. James outside Washington, D.C. February 11-17. This year’s Championship Series will feature the debut of the Women’s Lacrosse League (WLL) launched late last year by the PLL. The Olympic Sixes tournament will help set the stage for bringing lacrosse to the Los Angeles 2028 Summer Games. The PLL’s New York Atlas, Maryland Whipsnakes, Boston Cannons (winners of the 2024 PLL Championship Series) and the Utah Archers (2023 and 2024 PLL Champions) will compete for the third PLL Championship Series title. The WLL’s four teams, the Boston Guard, New York Charging, Maryland Charm, and California Palms will compete for the inaugural WLL Championship Series trophy.

To learn more about the PLL, WLL, and purchase tickets to the Championship Series, visit www.premierlacrosseleague.com/championship-series.