While still lagging significantly behind that of men’s sports, women’s sports is experiencing a significant uptick on several parameters, from viewerships, sponsorships and broadcast deals.
In October this year, Fifa’s chief business officer, Romy Gai publicly called on broadcasters to put forward rights offers reflective of the growing value of the women’s game. He was criticising broadcasters attitudes towards the tenders for the Women’s World Cup which takes place in Australia and New Zealand in July and August 2023.
His remarks come at a time when interest in women’s sports seems to be growing. Around the same time, EA Sports, publisher of the popular FIFA video game, announced it would invest USD11 million in women’s football and unveiled a multi-year partnership with UEFA Women’s Champions League (UWCL), which would see the UWCL included into FIFA 2023. The title would include clubs such as Juventus Women, Real Madrid Femenino, and Chelsea Women.
UEFA recently announced the launch of the UEFA Women’s Nation’s League in 2023, which will link into the qualification to Women’s Euro and World Cup.
Viewership is increasing; the National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) final on 29 October was the first such game to be aired CBS’s primetime slot, drawing a record 915,000 viewers. The number marks a year-on-year increase of 71 percent, a record as well. In addition, it was the most streamed NWSL game with a double-digit growth compared to last year’s final.
In England, a new deal between Sky and Snapchat will see the Women’s Soccer League (WSL) highlights included into the highlight reel shared on the social media platform.
It is not only women’s football that is gaining ground. The International Cricket Council recently published a schedule for international women’s cricket over the next three years, making it the first future tours programme ever created for the women’s game. Traditionally only published for men’s cricket, the women’s programme sets out bilateral tours between 10 teams, amounting to 300 matches in the period covering May this year to April 2025 period, an increase on the previous three years.
The recent increase in interest for women’s sports has also caught the attention of brands. Women’s sports sponsorships increased 20 percent in 2022, according to a new report by SponsorUnited. The report analysed partnerships for collegiate and professional sports across teams and individual athletes and found that finance brands - already the most active sponsorship category for women’s sports - increased their sponsorship activity by 30 percent year-on-year in 2022. The other categories in the top three biggest spenders were apparel and accessories followed by media.
Closer to home, in June 2023 Bangkok will be host for a leg of the Women’s Volleyball Nations League.
“It is great to finally see more activity in the women’s sports categories,” said Paul Poole, Founder, Managing Director and Chairman of The Sponsorship Experts. “I am expecting this positive development to continue in the coming years.”
Paul Poole (South East Asia) Co., Ltd. is an independent marketing consultancy based in Bangkok, Thailand specialising in commercial sponsorship and partnership marketing, working with both rights holders and brands - acting as a catalyst by bringing them together and maximising the relationship.
We have packaged, sold and managed sponsorship and partnership opportunities for a wide range of rights holders and worked with many of the world’s leading brands to source and engage the right sponsorships and partnerships for them to maximise.
