Women’s Sports Unwrapped
Breaking Down Women’s Athletics Using Sports Innovation Lab’s Data Portal and Fan Project Research
In case you forgot, Sports Innovation Lab came out with The Fan Project last year, a report that proves women’s sports is a thriving, untapped market. Since the report’s release, women’s sports have seen landmark growth so we thought it is important to highlight some major wins from the last year.
Recent stats that prove the future is female:
Barcelona broke the women’s crowd record in March 2022 with a Champions League win over Real Madrid. There were 91,553 fans in attendance at Camp Nou, nearly selling out Europe’s largest stadium.
This year’s Women’s basketball NCAA National Championship was the most-watched women’s title game since 2004 with 4.85 million viewers. Even though the game competed directly with the Grammys, the game’s audience peaked at 5.91 million viewers.
The 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup generated record viewership with 993 million viewers watching on TV and another 482 million watching via digital platforms.
The 2022 Winter Games in Beijing were the most gender-balanced Winter Olympics to date.
ESPN sold out of advertising space for this year’s Women’s March Madness Tournament.
Of the top 10 most mentioned athletes on social media, 60% are women.
In 2020, France’s Olympique Lyonnais Groupe paid $3.15 million to acquire an 89.5% stake in the NWSL’s Seattle-based team, the OL Reign.
The Writing Has Been on the Wall
From SIL’s Fan Project research we know that…
Fans of Women’s Sports (FoWS) reward the sponsors who invest in them
Nike's sponsorship of the WNBA and NWSL caused Fans of Women's Sports to boost their cumulative yearly spend on Nike products by 23%.
DoorDash, which became a WNBA sponsor in 2020, has benefited from the loyalty of Fans of Women's Sports as well. Since their sponsorship began, the average spend per fan has increased by more than $280.
Fans of Women’s Sports also spend more than the average fan
Fans of Women's Sports spend more on average than general sports fans on things such as hotels, music/streaming, personal finance, and ride-share apps.
Following the USWNT fourth FIFA World Cup win in 2019, Nike saw a 500% increase in jersey sales.
There was an 185% yearly increase in shopping behavior around WNBA merchandise between the 2019 and 2020.
Increased technology integration, accessibility, and media coverage, leads to exponential growth
In 2020, the NWSL made their content both interactive and accessible through partnerships with CBS Sports and Twitch. This increase in technological savviness and media coverage resulted in a 476% increase in yearly viewership and more than 60 million minutes viewed on Twitch.
This is unique to Fans of Women's Sports (FoWS), as almost every men's league saw double digit declines in viewership.
More than 50% of the women's sports fans we analyzed engaged in some form of digital co-watching behavior.
There is still work to be done, but it is clear that women’s sports is exponentially taking off and the time to invest is now.
