Keeping pace with the women's game?

Brace yourselves sports fans, there’s a busy summer ahead. With the UEFA men’s European Championships in Germany, the European Athletics Championships in Rome and the Paris Olympics and Paralympics – not to mention the usual smorgasbord of sporting Major’s and Test Matches - we have three months of elite competition to look forward to. Three months that will no doubt leave a legacy in terms of how the different sports are played, commercialised and enjoyed.??

For one sport, however, autumn is where things get really exciting. As the leaves start to fall, Women’s Football will enter a period of potentially seismic change driven by league expansions, new management structures and new media rights deals which reflect the unparalleled growth the sport has experienced in recent years.

In the US, the NWSL will be entering the business end of a first season under their new, record breaking media rights deal . The deal covers an expanded league with two new franchises added for 2024 and a further two set to be added for 2026 .

Across the pond in Europe, women’s leagues are attracting record audiences , supported by strategic investment from big name clubs and the backing of big name sponsors like Google and Barclaycard, who continue to target the special relationship the women’s game has with its fans.?

In the UK, the 2024/25 WSL season will kick off in September under new management, with the running of the top two tiers of Women’s Football in the UK moving to NewCo. This eponymous, club-owned body has been set up to drive forward the professionalisation and commercialisation of the women’s game in much the same way the Premier League has for the men’s game.?

At an international level, the end of the 24/25 season will see the 14th edition of the UEFA Women’s Euros hosted in Switzerland, thrusting the sport further into public consciousness and giving it another opportunity to capitalise on the increased interest by further growing participation and commercial engagement.

With such an exciting and opportunity-laden road ahead, Women’s Football across Europe needs to ensure it has the digital platforms in place to meet the needs to their different fans and partners. Social media has played a huge part in the growth of the women’s game, but this is “rented space”. The top leagues and federations need to look at their own digital channels and ensure they are keeping pace with the growth of the game, by meeting the needs of their different fan groups and delivering both the unique experience the women’s game engenders and the unique value it can offer to commercial partners.

NWSL recognised this and, ahead of the 2024 season, backed up their new media rights deal with an overhaul of their website and mobile apps to improve their digital fan experience. They also launched a direct-to-consumer streaming service to engage fans outside the US.

The WSL and NewCo need to follow suit. Building a dedicated WSL website – rather than the presence they currently have on the FA website - must surely be a priority for their new owners if they are to properly capture and engage fans online. Likewise, building a WSL app to provide fans with a mobile-first experience needs to be on the agenda – an app that plays a clear role in their digital fan engagement strategy – whether as a streaming platform, a score centre, a fan community or a news hub - rather than purely being a mobile version of their website (a trap that many app-first timers fall into).?

One option to explore for both the NWSL and the WSL could be fantasy games. Games exist for both leagues, but they are owned and operated by third parties meaning all engagement is away from their official platforms. Fantasy is a huge engagement tool for men’s elite football leagues – and indeed for other sporting leagues – especially with international audiences. With the number of women playing fantasy games on the rise , fantasy games could provide the NWSL and WSL with a valuable tool for capturing first party fan data and offering another way for fans to engage with competition around and outside of match days.

Of course, in its quest to greater audiences and greater revenues, Women’s Football doesn’t necessarily need to copy their male counterparts. The relationship between Women’s Football and their different fan groups is more open and inclusive than the entrenched tribalism of the men’s game. Clubs and leagues need to really evaluate the different types of fandom in the women’s game; to look at what social, cultural and commercial interests drive them and build digital products and content to feed the relationships that are largely in their infancy.

If Women’s Football is looking for an example to follow, then they could do a lot worse than taking a lead from the WNBA. Coming off the back of a record breaking year in terms of revenues and audiences , the elite US Women’s Basketball League has put digital transformation at the centre of their growth strategy building a new, better coordinated website and app, where content is delivered for both casual and serious fans. By taking the time to understand the needs of both groups they have been able to engage with a wider audience and create more value for their teams and partners.

Women’s football has a long way to go to catch the WNBA in terms of commercial success – Europe’s top 14 teams collectively generated €55m in 2022/23 , approximately a quarter of the revenue generated by the 12 team basketball league in the same period . But then again, the WNBA is an older property – twice as old in fact – and a lot further along in its commercial journey. If Women’s Football leagues can follow their example, by putting digital transformation at the core of their approach and prioritising the delivery of personalised fan experiences, through their owned digital platforms that reflect the authentic nature of their fandom, then they may well be outpacing the growth of their court-based counterparts in half the time.

TEC says...

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