The Next Billion Dollar Industry: Women’s Sports

Women’s professional sports are on pace to pass the $1 billion revenue mark in 2024.

Historically, women's sports have been significantly overshadowed by men’s sports. For decades, women’s sports have received just 4% of total media coverage (now 15% as of 2023), 1% of sponsorship dollars, and have experienced significant inequities in almost every aspect of the game - like pay gaps, exploitation, lackluster facilities, inadequate medical support, and more.

One of the justifications for these shortcomings is that for a long time, women’s sports haven’t been recognized as a business opportunity that is worthy of investment.

Antiquated views about women’s sports as fledgling “causes” or “charities” have kept the industry confined to a restrictive corporate social responsibility box.

Instead of being treated like a viable business, women’s sports have almost exclusively been used as an outlet for accepting small “donations” from brands (without any expectations or promises of returns) or as a performative way to make headlines during Women’s History Month or on International Women’s Day.

On the whole, the sports world has failed to operate the women’s side of the industry like a business; and in doing so, has failed to scale women’s sports to its full potential.??

However, this week, a new report from Deloitte came out that predicts that women’s elite sports will generate $1.28 billion in global revenue in 2024. Which means, for the first time in history, annual global revenue for women’s sport will surpass the $1 billion mark.?

According to Jennifer Haskel, insights lead for Deloitte’s Sports Business Group,

“Over the last few years we have seen exceptional growth in women’s sport across the globe, driving a significant uplift in its commercial value, which in turn has led to growing interest from investors.”

This article is an excerpt of The Next Billion Dollar Industry: Women’s Sports originally published on Parity's blog. Click here for the full-length piece.

Caroline Fitzgerald (she/her) is a contributing writer for PARITY | A Group 1001 Company and the CEO & Founder of GOALS | Women’s Sports - a women's sports marketing consultancy & media platform. Caroline launched GOALS in 2020 after recognizing that there was an opportunity to help women's sports teams sign more sponsorship deals - and help brands see the business value around investing in women's sports. GOALS also produces the leading women's sports business podcast - The Business Case for Women's Sports, which is presented by Ally.