Brands and media reap the benefits as women’s sports dominates

Women’s sports are officially undergoing a renaissance. Deloitte predicts that revenue from women’s elite sports will surpass $1 billion in 2024. This prediction may soon become reality as more sports fans crave women’s sports content. This year, viewership for the women’s NCAA basketball tournament surpassed the men’s tournament, and two newcomers, Kaitlyn Clark and Angel Reese, have risen to stardom by taking on the WNBA. Women’s basketball isn’t the only sport in the spotlight. This month, Disney will release a miniseries about tennis icon Serena Williams (sponsored by Morgan Stanley), and the 2024 Paris Olympics will see a 50/50 split between men and women for the first time in Olympic history.

Progress in women’s sports is nothing new. Last summer was packed with amazing women’s sporting events that captured the world’s attention, from Wimbledon to the Women’s World Cup, X Games, and the second Tour de France. Unfortunately, the inequity of women’s sports compared to men’s sports is also nothing new. The numbers show how women’s sports can be hugely profitable if properly invested in with the buy-in of brands, media, and broadcasters, but women still have to fight to justify their status. For example, even though viewership of the 2024 NCAA women’s tournament surpassed the men’s tournament, the women’s tournament only brought in $6.5 million in television rights compared to $873 million for the men’s tournament. In other words, bias against women leads to objectively bad business decisions.

Watching the Women’s Vertical competition at last week’s X Games and seeing the level of talent and rapid improvement among female skateboarders, it’s amazing to think that the competition didn’t even exist until last year. In fact, Vertical Best Trick, one of the most exciting competitions at X Games, has been a longtime staple for the men, but it wasn’t added to the women’s competition until 2000. this yearThose who happened to watch the show witnessed incredible athletes perform mind-blowing feats, moving raw emotion, and captivating drama, including when phenom Alisa True fought to become the first woman to land a competitive 900 and when 9-year-old Mia Kretzer made history as the youngest X Games gold medalist ever. All the ingredients are there to make the sport worth watching, and it’s clear that it should be successful from a business perspective. So why did it take so long for women to get involved in what is supposed to be the holy grail of skateboarding?

This year’s X Games finally added women’s BMX park, with Hannah Roberts, who will represent the United States at the Olympics later this month, winning a gold medal. This is a big step forward for women in the sport, but the X Games still doesn’t have a women’s BMX street event. Seven Different BMX medal events. The numbers alone can be hard to fathom, but according to Bloom BMX, women’s BMX Instagram Reels from the X Games have had over 3 million views (more than three times the views of men’s park combined).

A recent study by Parity and SurveyMonkey found that 73% of people surveyed watch women’s sports (only 8% less than men’s sports), and 64% believe there is insufficient coverage of women’s sports. The study further found that 53% of respondents globally believe brands don’t invest enough in women’s sports compared to men’s sports. This lack of investment is a huge loss for brands that turn a blind eye to women’s sports, especially considering that 88% of people surveyed believe professional female athletes are influential role models and female sports fans are 2.8 times more likely to purchase products endorsed by female athletes.

It’s not just coverage of women’s sports that’s lacking: A survey conducted by Klarna and the Sports Innovation Lab found that 79% of respondents said they would like to buy more women’s sports equipment. if There was more choice. The data revealed that 60% of people surveyed intended to buy women’s sports equipment but didn’t because it simply wasn’t in stock, and there was only 1 women’s sports item for every 9 men’s sports items. The demand is there, and not serving it is simply bad business.

The numbers prove time and time again that there is a demand for women’s sports, so why don’t more brands invest and profit from it? What will it take for sponsors to act in their own interest? American tennis great Billie Jean King told The Cut: “Men have more money. But why do men have more money? It’s because all the money is in media rights. We need more attention. That’s starting to happen now for the first time in my life. I’ve been waiting my whole life for what’s happening now – billionaires investing in women’s sports.” King is also the founder of the Women’s Sports Foundation, one of the first organizations to increase funding for women’s sports. Sports is a business, and like any business, it needs investment to make a profit. Just as female-led companies need more investment to succeed, more accelerators, venture capital funds and even private investors are key to the success of women’s sports.

American companies are also starting to realize what they are missing out on by not collaborating more with female athletes and women’s sports teams. AT&T and Amazon Prime Video have signed sponsorship deals to cash in on the viewership of the WNBA and NWSL, paving the way for more brands to partner with female athletes and sports teams. Sports leagues are also working to ensure that athletes and teams can benefit from the popularity of women’s sports. The WNBA has been busy securing partnerships with brands including Glossier, Skims, and most recently, over-the-counter birth control company Opill.

It’s clear that sports fans want more, whether it’s more coverage for their favorite teams or more options for women’s sports merchandise. But women’s athletes, teams, and leagues have had to fight hard to get coverage and brand deals, despite being just as popular, and in some cases even more so, than their men’s counterparts. The numbers don’t lie: women’s sports are creating incredible business opportunities. And progress in women’s sports is happening at a breakneck speed. If you hesitate, you could miss out on the opportunity to make it big.