In spring 2024, few sports stars shone brighter than Caitlin Clark. The Iowa women’s basketball player broke the NCAA all-time scoring record with 3,951 career points, and Iowa’s national championship game against South Carolina earned more viewers than the men’s championship for the first time in history. After signing with the Indiana Fever as the first pick the WNBA draft, Clark went on to sign a $28 million sponsorship contract with Nike – the largest-ever contract for any women’s basketball player.

The enthusiasm around Clark has been both a catalyst and microcosm of the recent spike in interest in women’s sports. In addition to women’s basketball, sports fans are growing more attentive to soccer, hockey, tennis, and other women’s sports. In August 2023, the University of Nebraska’s women’s volleyball team broke the all-time women’s sporting event attendance record with 91,683 spectators.

Consumers’ all-time-high attentiveness to and engagement with women’s sports has big implications for marketers. This growing market of fans has already proved to reward the brands who advertise with and support women’s teams. and how they can most effectively use advertising spend surrounding sporting events. Below, we’ll analyze where viewership is increasing most, which audiences are most engaged, and how brands can best utilize opportunities in women’s sports marketing.

The Value of Women’s Sports for Businesses

Sports fans have been giving more of their attention to women’s sports in the last 12 months than ever before. Up-and-coming women’s professional leagues, including the National Women’s Soccer League, Ladies’ PGA, and Professional Women’s Hockey League, have seen steady growth in attendance. In the NWSL, average attendance is up 48% year-over-year, and total viewership is up 21% year-over-year. When the league’s $4.5 million media rights contract with CBS expires after the 2024 season, the rate for those media rights is expected to increase significantly to account for the larger audience.

The audience for women’s sports is not only growing, but it’s also becoming highly engaged. In July 2023, ads that ran during the women’s Wimbledon tournament saw 53 percent more consumer engagement than other television ads, according to EDO, a television measurement company. EDO notes that consumer engagement is the most predictive marker of future sales.

While men’s sports have been an advertising cash cow for brands for years, women’s sports are a comparatively untapped market. For brands who can get in early, there’s huge opportunity for rapid growth in awareness and sales.

One reason investing in advertising with women’s sports is so beneficial for businesses is because there is less attention to win consumers’ attention. Compared to men’s sports, fans of women’s sports are 54 percent more aware of their team’s sponsors and 45 percent more likely to consider or complete a purchase from a sponsor, according to The Collective at Wasserman + RBC, a sports marketing agency.

Fans of women’s sports are also more likely to reward the brands who sponsor their teams with increased engagement and sales. Rolex is an official sponsor of the major tennis tournament for both men and women, yet the brand reports that fans of women’s sports are 9x more likely to engage with Rolex products than the general US sports audience, according to the Sports Innovation Lab. Those metrics fit with finding from the Sports Innovation Lab, whose recent study found that the customer acquisition and retention rates of women’s sports fans were nearly double that of the general sports fan community.

Innovative marketers are already taking note of the engaged audience for women’s sports and adjusting their marketing budgets accordingly. Ally Bank, one of the largest banks in the US, has pledged to dedicate at least 50 percent of their sports advertising budget to women’s sports by 2027 to take advantage of the lower costs and higher engagement associated with women’s leagues.

The market for women’s sports is only expected to grow in the coming years. Deloitte predicts women’s elite sports will generate more than $1 billion in matchday, broadcast, and commercial revenue in 2024, a 300% increase over 2021, presenting more advertising and brand partnership opportunities for companies who recognize the growing business value of women’s sports.

Upcoming Marketing Opportunities in Women’s Sports

One way brands can reach women’s sports audiences is through traditional media, such as television and radio. Networks are increasingly adding women’s sports to their coverage lineup to meet the growing demand from fans. According to The Collective at Wasserman, women’s sports will represent 20% of all sports media coverage by 2025, presenting more opportunities to advertise during women’s games.

Brands can also connect with women’s sports fans by partnering with individual leagues or athletes, as Ally has done successfully in recent years. They sponsor the Atlantic Coast Conference, National Women’s Soccer League, and more than a dozen female athletes, including many up-and-coming stars like Sophia Smith and Deja Kelly. According to Ally’s head of sports and entertainment marketing, they’ve seen impressive results from investing in women’s sports. Their analytics show women’s sports viewers are 6x more likely to convert, and it costs the brand 90% less to convert them. Women’s sports fans are also 2.7x more likely to engage with Ally than general sports fans, proving that these fans will be loyal to brands that invest in their favorite leagues and teams.

This year, there are several major women’s sports events we expect brands to take advantage of. During the Olympics, basketball stars like Clark and Angel Reese are expected to dominate, and the US Women’s National Team will look to make a big comeback on the soccer field following their early exit during the 2023 World Cup. 2023 also saw US tennis phenom Coco Gauff draw record viewership during her US Open win. Look for her to continue gaining record audiences during the Olympics and other Grand Slam events – much to the delight of sponsors like Bose and New Balance, who made her the highest-paid female athlete in 2023.

Of course, Clark remains the major athlete to watch in the coming year. Her May 4 WNBA preseason debut with the Indiana Fever drew a sellout crowd, and the Fever have seen record season ticket sales. When other teams are scheduled to play the Fever at their home stadium, ticket prices jump an average of 80 percent, to nearly $175 per ticket. Beyond Clark and the Fever, watch for brands to jump on sponsorships and marketing opportunities with every WNBA franchise, hoping to grab a piece of the skyrocketing audience for women’s basketball.