The WNBA is enjoying a banner season with newly minted stars such as Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese while the NWSL saw its TV audience increase by nearly 20% compared to last season, according to CBS.
Advertising dollars followed. During the 2024-25 broadcast year, GroupM – still the largest network in the media industry, at least for now – drove the most consumer spending on women’s sports, which increased by 115% at the end of October (a spokesman declined to share the dollar amount. ).
This is good news for those who hope that increased ad spending means consistent support for women’s basketball, soccer or hockey. But there are still questions about which brands are funding the increased revenue, where it’s going – and whether it’s leading to higher spending on sports in general.
Sports investment is high – but what is it buying?
Sports are “the ultimate television outlet,” said State Farm marketing chief Alyson Griffin. But like other advertising businesses, digital channels are growing more and more sports dollars.
With fewer tentpole events, Dentsu predicts that television revenue will decline by 2.5% in 2025, compared to 1.6% growth in 2024, while digital spending is estimated to increase by 9.2%. .
The year saw many sports releases move to streaming platforms, with some of them available for in-app purchases. That attracted new people to the sport. During the Olympics, NBCU pulled in nearly half a billion dollars in new sponsors for the event; more than 70% of the Summer Games advertisers were new to the Olympics. And according to Amazon, 40% of the brands that buy ads against football coverage on Black Friday were NFL fans.
Sponsorship deals can also account for a large portion of consumer spending. Some brands, such as crypto exchange OKX, even choose to forgo TV or digital currency in favor of an all-support policy.
Given the variety of deal formats (which may include just a jersey patch, but in the case of Best Buy’s TGL sponsorship package, may include ad listings), it’s not easy to compare etc.
Additionally, sports teams and franchises often tie sponsorship deals for their men’s and women’s teams together. Jennifer Haskel, who leads knowledge and insights at Deloitte Sports Business Group, told Digiday that she expects to see a gradual “unbundling” as marketers and rights holders recognize the importance of such partnerships.
The thing is – even though we know that spending on sports went up overall, drawing a clear line between men’s and women’s sports dollars is more difficult.
Are brands spending more money, or are they spending more money?
Advertisers already in the sports industry have been among the biggest supporters of women’s sports. But that doesn’t mean they’ve increased their overall investment in sports.
Insurer State Farm has covered the WNBA — among other sports — for nine years. Although media investment was up during that time, Griffin said this was due to rising advertising costs, rather than an injection of advertising dollars.
“We’ve been here forever, and all of a sudden the ad unit price is a lot different than it used to be,” he said, without providing financial details.
GroupM’s spending spree has included investments from more than 20 clients including Adidas, Danone, Domino’s and Unilever. They were all already active sports promoters, confirmed Marty Blich, chief executive of sports and live investments at GroupM US. Also, it is unclear whether they would increase their sports investments. to achieve a common goal, or spread budgets thinly.
“I don’t know if it’s new… I would say there are more consumers involved now than before,” he said.
Where new investment has emerged, it has come from advertisers who previously did not know sports. The WNBA has attracted several sponsors that previously avoided sports advertising, such as dating app Bumble, hair care brand Mielle, Opill and underwear brand Skims.
In part, that’s because of the low barrier to entry. According to Ampere Analysis, the cost of media rights agreements per game day, per fan, for NBA games in 2024 was 579.4% higher than for WNBA games ($1.97 vs. $0.34).
And there is still an opportunity for retailers to position themselves as early adopters of a particular game. For companies like Skims, the WNBA is a “clean slate…to get off the ground and grow together,” according to Basia Wojcik, vp of sports at The Marketing Arm (TMA).
Media buyers told Digiday that by 2025, they expect to encourage consumers to increase their spending on women’s sports. Surely more opportunities to jump on board will come. Two new teams will join the WNBA in the coming years, while the Women’s Professional Baseball League is slated to debut in 2026.
“Every year will be a culmination of investment in women’s sports over the next five years,” said Blich. “The growth chart in this regard does not seem to stop.”
Anticipating consumer demand for the UEFA Women’s Euro 2025 football tournament, Total Mediaplus head of broadcasting Kieran Mills said: “It’s big enough to attract investment from brands now. It’s at a high level. “
“We love that the interest in women’s sports is increasing and it really emphasizes the need to give a new budget to this effort,” added Nick Valenta, managing director of Mādin’s full-service agency. focus on sports.
According to Gather executive director David Gaspar, marketers should consider women’s sports as a potential future channel.
“It may or may not be right for you as a brand, but you need to have an answer for it,” he said.
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