WNBA, English Women’s Super League Highlight Women’s Sports Increasing Value

BY ADAM GROSSMAN

The WNBA’s recently announced a new partnership with Wilson to become the new official basketball provider starting with the league’s 25th season this year while Sky Sports has secured a “multimillion” three-year agreement to broadcast English Women’s Super League games. These successes highlight the continued and growing importance of women’s sports to the industry as demonstrated by significant investments by large companies. 

In 2019, companies including Barclays, Budweiser, and AT&T announced new sponsorship relationships across a variety of women’s sports. The WNBA also announced a new multi-year agreement in 2019 with CBS Sports significantly increasing the number of league games that would be broadcast annually after a 31% increase in ratings in the 2018 season.

The relatively recent influx of sponsorship dollars into women’s sports is a significant reversal of historical trends. A 2018 Statista report found that women’s sports receive only 0.4% of total sports sponsorships. More specifically, sports sponsorships are a $106.8 billion global market and only $427 million was spent on women’s sports. The lack of investment was in part due to the lack of exposure. In 2014 only 3.2% of “broadcast time” was dedicated to women’s athletics. 

There have been two factors driving the increasing interest in women’s sports partnerships. The first reason is that investments in women’s sports at both the youth and professional levels are paying dividends especially since the passage of Title IX. Over 3.3 million girls are now participating in youth sports in the U.S., which is an all-time high.

This increase in youth participation has come in large part because of the successes of female athletes at the highest levels including professional sports leagues, the Olympics, and the Women’s World Cup. For example, the 2019 Women’s World Cup final was viewed live by a record-setting over 260 million viewers across all platforms worldwide.

More specifically, girls now have role models that demonstrate the achievement in their sports both on and off the field. Not only can women compete professionally but they can also become brand ambassadors for global companies. As former WNBA superstar Sheryl Swoopes said, “When I was 16, I didn’t have that dream because I had no idea that [it] was even possible.”

Companies with significant consumer revenue streams including Barclays, Budweiser, and AT&T represent a larger push by businesses to more aggressively target female consumers to fuel growth. According to a report in 2017 by the Women’s Foodservice Forum, McKinsey & Co. and LeanIn.org, women make 85% of all consumer purchasing decisions. A 2013 report by Ernst & Young stated women would have an effect “at least as significant as that of China and India” on the global economy over the next ten years.

It is not a coincidence that Nike, Barclays, Budweiser, and AT&T are some of the earlier movers in increasing their women’s sports investment. A key element in the Block Six Analytics Corporate Asset Valuation Model (CAV) is examining the fit of partnership activations to a company’s ROI and ROO goals.

These companies have already made multimillion dollar commitments in sports partnerships because of their belief that these investments will help them generate revenue and better engage with new or existing customers. In fact, Budweiser has publicly moved to a performance-based model when evaluating sponsorships to measure performance in a manner which is similar to the way that the B6A CAV does (Budweiser is not a B6A client). 

These companies likely see the unique opportunity that exists in women’s sports. Women’s sports partnerships have historically been underinvested, are relatively inexpensive compared to many men’s sports investments, and can help these companies reach female consumers.

More specifically, many companies are looking to more aggressively target female customers at the same time that women’s sports popularity is achieving record numbers. This dynamic demonstrates why these recent deals should lead to the continued growth in investments in women’s sports partnerships.