In 2008, two indoor football leagues (the United Indoor Football League and the Intense Football League) agreed to dissolve their respective organizations and merge to become the new Indoor Football League. Soon after, the young league began receiving inquiries from teams in other leagues across America. The IFL competed with 19 teams in its 2009 inaugural season. That year the Billings Outlaws defeated the River City Rage was crowned the first United Bowl champion.
 
The league has come a long way since that inaugural season. In 2018, the IFL celebrated its tenth anniversary season and had the highest per-game attendance in league history. With common goals of entertaining fans in the IFL communities across America and developing talented and deserving players to play at the next level, the IFL has developed a strong model that has allowed it to outlast its competitors and become America’s longest continually-running indoor football league.
 
Prior to the 2020 season, the IFL agreed to a historic arrangement with the Steve Germain Family which acquired the rights to the League’s national sponsorships, advertising, broadcast rights, licensing, marketing, and communications. This agreement provided, for the first time, a national-level sponsorship and broadcast sales effort for the IFL, while also creating new revenue streams for both the League and the League’s teams.

In 2022, the IFL and XFL announced a monumental player personnel partnership. The partnership provides the framework for transferring players between leagues and the opportunity for players released from XFL teams to be transferred to IFL squads. The two leagues will also work together in scheduling joint tryouts and sharing video and game films.