Social Media Specialist - Sports

Job Purpose:

The Social Media Specialist owns day-to-day organic social for Catena's US sports brands, with coverage of other verticals (casino, sweepstakes, prediction markets) as needed.

The job is to build and run a sports-native presence on the channels where bettors actually engage. Content includes data cards, live-game reaction, picks and lineups, legality explainers, and odds visualizations — all with clear affiliate disclosures and a path to email and product.

We are a media and affiliate company, not a sportsbook. We don't run operator ads. We produce sports-native content for a betting-literate audience: lineups, odds, legality, picks, and data storytelling.

This role executes the sports social strategy and is integrated with the broader Marketing team — Content and SEO (content amplification, EEAT), Lifecycle/CRM (email capture, lead nurturing), Multimedia (video production, design), and Legal/Compliance (disclosure, platform policies).

The role leverages AI tools to scale production and measurement, under mandatory human review and Legal compliance gates.

Job duties and responsibilities:

Content & Publishing

- Plan, produce, and publish sports content across strategically selected platforms and based on a set content calendar.

- Create event-driven, data-visualized content: stats cards, infographics, odds snapshots, injury alerts, lineup confirmations, and real-time sports moments.

- Produce short-form video (TikTok, Shorts, Reels) from site data, existing long-form assets, and live events, with tools such as CapCut, Premiere, or equivalent.

- Use AI-assisted workflows for content ideation, draft generation, and scheduling — all output goes through human QA and compliance review before publishing.

- Repurpose and amplify content with the Content, SEO, and Multimedia teams across channels.

- Tag every link with UTM parameters per the internal standard.

Community & Engagement

- Monitor and grow a sports-native audience on X, TikTok, YouTube, Reddit, and Discord.

- Own the Sprout Social Smart Inbox for sports brands: reply to community, surface trends, and identify engagement opportunities around major events.

- Coordinate creator and host content through the Head of Social, Legal, and Multimedia ahead of major sporting events and seasons.

Performance & Optimization

- Track and report weekly on sports KPIs: publishing cadence, engagement rate by platform, email signups from social, inbound traffic, and branded search growth.

- Own objectives for the sports brands and report progress to management.

- Continuously test formats and content series — measure, log learnings, scale winners, and retire what doesn't work.

Strategy Support

- Execute the sports social strategy set by the Head of Social; propose tactical improvements based on performance data and competitive intelligence.

- Work off the editorial calendar and site data rather than inventing topics from scratch.

- Feed insights back into the content machines (prompt repository, knowledge files) to improve automated output quality.

Collaboration

- Work closely with SEO on content distribution, quality outreach, and EEAT signal-building.

- Partner with Lifecycle/CRM (email capture funnels, Pick'Em, offers) to ensure social leads enter the nurture pipeline.

- Collaborate with the Content team on the author social program (LinkedIn visibility for sports journalists).

Compliance & Governance

- Ensure all content complies with gambling regulations (21+, responsible gambling messaging, affiliate disclosure, banned terms), platform policies, and state-level availability by working with Legal and Compliance directly or indirectly.

- Any other duties as assigned by management from time to time.

Qualifications:

Required

- 3+ years of hands-on social media experience in sports betting, DFS, sports media, or sports-adjacent brands (2+ years acceptable with a strong sports betting or media portfolio).

- Genuine US sports fluency: NFL, NBA, and MLB at minimum — understands spreads, props, lines, and DFS, and can write about them without a brief.

- Native or near-native English proficiency with strong, platform-native copywriting, especially on X.

- Short-form video production skills (CapCut, Premiere, or equivalent) — can ship a clip or card during a live game without waiting on design.

- Experience with social media management platforms (Sprout Social, Hootsuite, or equivalent).

- Basic to intermediate analytics (GA4, platform-native insights, UTM tracking).

- Comfort with AI-assisted content workflows under human and Legal review rules.

- Willingness to work US sports hours: Sunday, Monday, and Thursday evenings in NFL season are regular working hours, not exceptions.

Preferred

- Background at a sports betting media brand, DFS platform, sportsbook, or sports affiliate.

- YouTube packaging skills (titles, thumbnails, Shorts strategy).

- Data visualization (Flourish, Datawrapper, Figma, or Canva).

- Reddit and Discord community management experience.

- Familiarity with US iGaming and affiliate compliance (state-by-state legality, responsible gambling, FTC disclosure).

- Bachelor's degree in Marketing, Communications, Journalism, or a related field (or equivalent experience).