No. 7 · 15 Jan 2024 · 2 min

How are women changing sports?

Women’s sports a new upward trend in 2024.

That’s not a secret. Sports interest continue to grow over 2023 and we expect to see new records in 2024. Every year has its challenges and upsets, but we still see positive impacts in all possible directions.

New technologies
Fan engagement
Investments
Streaming services
Partnerships

But let’s have a look at women who impact the industry in 2023 as never before. Is this just the beginning?

Numbers:

Interest in women’s sports is growing at a meteoric pace. (Nielsen)

Most watched women’s live sports in the US as of March 2023 were Basketball at 50%, Tennis at 45%, and Soccer at 39%.

The Professional Women's Hockey League drew 8,318 fans for Ottawa-Montreal on Tuesday — the largest crowd in women's pro hockey history 🏟️ (Front Office Sports)

Deloitte predicts that in 2024, revenue generated by women’s elite sports will surpass US$1 billion for the first time, with US$1.28 billion in total ⚽️ (Deloitte)

The global population is excited for the Women’s World Cup, rising from 34% before the 2019 Women’s World Cup (Nielsen)

Even in 2021, a total of 381 sponsorship deals were reported, accumulating an estimated value of $USD 136.96m. (Infront)

Source (Statista)

Interest over time

“women's sports” keyword trends continue to be consistent over the last 90 days.

Investments

Recently a ten-time Ironman World Champion Daniela Ryf invested in the Muuvr.

Basketball player Sabrina Ionescu invested earlier in the Buzz streaming platform, which reported about the shutting down of the app in May 2023.

Women join VC funds to have more impact on the sports industry and startups or run their own companies.

Investments have risks. It’s clear, but also we have more women from the sports industry that trying to do business and thinking about their lives and income after the professional sport.

Expectation

Growth will continue in 2024
Create more opportunities for partnerships
Focus on collaborations with creators from the sports industry
Focus on fan engagement and accessibility to live events
Focus on women’s sports promotions

Risks

Growth always hides risks. Isn’t? With growth YoY in a different direction we still have to keep a mind factors that can impact sports overall:

More expectations from athletes.
More competition can lead to more injuries. Focus on recovery and the training process should be key for a good athlete's performance.
Quality of grass and playgrounds
Mental health issues
Bullying in social media

First thoughts just because if someone invests more money, more attention comes to this.

Final words

We’ll hear even more about women’s sport in 2024.

New viewership records
New partnerships records
New revenue records
Net attendance record
…and much more?

The topic we should follow in the current year and learn its impact on the sports industry.