Opportunities and gaps in women's sport in 2023
This could be a watershed year for women’s sport.
The FIFA Women’s World Cup looms large over the sporting calendar this summer, while stand out events such as the upcoming Women's Six Nations Championship, the recently concluded T20 World Cup and a Netball World Cup set for late July/early August - the first time the tournament will be hosted in Africa, offer great indicators for the growth of these respective sports.
International Women’s Day is about celebrating the social, economic, cultural, and political achievements of women, so it feels like the ideal moment to cast a light on the growth and trajectory of women’s sport - and the opportunity for brands looking to join the party.
Furthermore, July 31st will see us celebrate one year since the Lionesses claimed England’s first major tournament win since their male counterparts won the World Cup in 1966.
It was hailed as a landmark moment when Leah Williamson lifted the European Championship trophy at Wembley, but has that supercharged the growth of women's sport in the UK?
A growing TV audience for women’s football
In the UK, 2022 was the most watched year for women’s sport, according to a study by the Women’s Sports Trust.
A decade earlier, official BARB ratings showed that 20.1m viewers watched Women’s Sport programming in 2012. In 2022, this figure had almost doubled to 37.6m – boosted by a home Euros tournament, which England won.
The study also found that, not only are more people watching Women’s sport, but they are watching for longer. WST said that more people watched 2+ hours of women’s sport on TV than those who watched 2+ hours of Strictly Come Dancing or I’m a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here .
They also identified that the Women’s Euros was the 4th most watched sports property on TV in 2022. Interestingly, this was above the FA Cup, Wimbledon, Six Nations and F1.
Crucially, 53 per cent of people classified as ‘new viewers’ to women’s sport in 2022, watched women’s sport after the Euros including International Football Friendlies (24 per cent), Women’s Super League (12 per cent) and The Hundred (12 per cent).
Like sampling a product in a supermarket, once fans ‘try’ women’s sport, so many change their perceptions and return for more.
It’s also a common-held misconception that supporters of women’s football teams are women. WSL TV viewers and Euro 2022 TV viewers are predominantly male (63 per cent and 59 per cent respectively).
Receptivity of Women’s World Cup fans
For global brands looking to engage with football fans, the Women’s World Cup offers an opportunity
Decoding, MKTG’s study of more than 24,000 global fans found that those who follow the FIFA Women’s World Cup are more likely to be receptive to sponsor and brand activity around the tournament than those who follow the FIFA Men’s World Cup.
Around one in three (32 per cent) of FWWC fans are classified as ‘Receptive’ (fans that engage most frequently through various channels and react positively to brands who sponsor their favourite sports and entertainment events compared with one in five (21 per cent) for the men’s FWC.
Pushing for parity
Amongst all the positivity, we still have the ugliness of disparity between men’s and women’s sport. In football, Lewes FC remain the only professional or semi-professional club in the world to treat both male and female footballers equally in terms of facilities, budgets and pay – coining themselves as Equity FC.
It appears to be paying off.
Excitingly, Lewes Women, a mid-table WSL2 team, have made it to the quarter finals of the Women’s FA Cup, against top of the table WSL team Manchester Utd. This high profile tie will be great for raising awareness around Lewes FC and their unique proposition.
However, if you take FA Cup prize money for example, there remains an uneven playing field.
The women's FA Cup final runners’ up receives ￡50,000 and the winning club ￡100,000 for the 2022/23 season. In the men's final, the winners pocket ￡2 million and the runners-up ￡1 million.
So despite the best efforts of disruptors such as Lewes FC, underfunding and pay disparity is clearly a major issue for women’s sport, which presents opportunities for brands looking to drive purposeful action via partnership work.
Brands can play a key role in driving through change
A good example of taking an active role is Royal London, the UK’s largest pensions and investment firm, who became the first ever principal partner of the Lions Women’s Programme in 2021.
In 2021, as partners of the British & Irish Lions, the organisation funded a study looking into the feasibility of forming a Lions women’s team, the findings of which have been recently announced.
Ben Calveley, CEO of the British & Irish Lions, said “It is extremely positive that a British & Irish Lions women’s tour is possible in the future,” and now this study has happened, thanks to Royal London’s commitment, a Women’s Lions Tour is now on the cards.
Women’s Rugby is benefitting from a growing profile across the board.
Sport Business point out that the Women’s Rugby World Cup had one paid sponsor in 2017 and five in 2022, so commercial growth is clearly visible.
Federations and rights holders placing women’s and men’s sport on an equal footing can be alluring to sponsors too.
Sports Business also highlighted that The Hundred cricket tournament, has been pitched as a single property with equal rights across the men’s and women’s events, allowing the ECB to evenly split a ￡600,000 prize fund between the men’s and women’s competition – a big step towards their “long-term commitment to making cricket a gender-balanced sport”.
This format has inspired a new generation to play the sport and triggered new active participation from brands such as KP Snacks and Vitality.
New tournament formats have offered the opportunity for governing bodies to offer equality across men’s and women’s tournaments.
New formats, like The Hundred, are attractive to brands that want to be associated with women’s sport because it allows them to communicate positive values and offer an opportunity to get involved with something from the beginning, which presents a higher value opportunity and also communicates a stronger commitment.
The talent opportunity
It doesn’t begin and end with the tournaments or competitions - brands can also work with talent to help further their goals as well as their own, and there is a good narrative to be told around supporting young female talent.
Take for example, Mia Brookes, the 16-year-old who last month, became the youngest snowboard world champion and the first ever woman to land a CAB 1440 double grab trick.
The 2026 Olympics Team GB hopeful has a partnership with Skullcandy signed in October 2022. The headphones brand are now well placed to benefit from her increased profile after identifying a match with their brand proposition and values before she shot to fame with the extraordinary run to claim the women's slopestyle gold at the Snowboard, Freestyle and Freeski World Championships in Georgia.
It's not just Brookes.
Take a look across women’s sport and you will see a host of promising, hard-working young athletes with great personalities, stories to tell and bright futures worth investing in.
Women’s sport is on a trajectory, with opportunities across various aspects from talent to exciting new competitions or teams. Improving visibility remains a key mission, but as rising TV audiences show, we are on the right path.
At MKTG Sports+Entertainment we are proud to work with brilliant partners across a range of women’s sports properties and talent.
New properties and disruptors have the potential to break the mould and help potential sponsors drive fame and cut through the noise, while the opportunity to invest and help define a legacy is significant.
Brands looking to enter women’s sport need to be ready to be active players. To back up their support with actions that help challenge misconceptions, grow visibility, and help achieve parity – be it through pay or prize money.
Don’t look at women’s sport as a bandwagon worth jumping on, instead a considered insights-driven, strategic approach that can help carve out the best commercial opportunities.