Women in Sports Marketing Partnerships Report 2023-24

The influence and impact of women athletes and leagues is reaching unprecedented heights in the world of sports. Our latest report delves into this transformative era, revealing the progress and achievements in women's sports over the past year in both North America and on the global stage.

• Three specific leagues—LPGA, WTA, and WNBA—contributed significantly to the 5,500+ deals that were activated over the past year
• The WTA and LPGA are the first two women’s professional sports leagues to each surpass 1,000 sponsorship deals
• The number of sponsorships in women's professional sports has experienced remarkable growth, climbing more than 22% YoY

Methodology:

This report, jointly authored by SponsorUnited's SponsorUnited's Marketing, Research & Insights, and Analytics departments, presents an extensive analysis of over 800 brands, 9,500 sponsorship deals, and 1,000 athletes involving the 19 women's sports leagues, it's teams, athletes, and the brands across all of these. The report includes trends and insights from a holistic view but a majority of the report is split into two sections: North America and Global. The data was obtained from SponsorUnited's proprietary platform and covers the period from January 1st, 2022 to February 1st, 2024.

Social media data was obtained from branded or sponsored posts across all of the 19 leagues, the accounts of all their respective teams and brands across Instagram, TikTok, X, and Facebook, from January 1st, 2023 to February 1st, 2024. Female athlete endorsements are monitored based on the number of times they actively promote or advertise a brand via campaigns and activations within the past 12 months.

The following leagues were not included in any year-over-year analysis due to scouting capabilities in 2022:

World Netball, Women's Liga MX (Mexico), RFL Women's Super League (UK), ANZ Premiership (New Zealand), NRLW - National Rugby League Women's Premiership (Australia), WPL - Women's Premier League (India), Women's Cricket (UK), PWR - Premiership Women's Rugby (UK), and Suncorp Super Netball (Australia)

About SponsorUnited:

Launched in 2018, SponsorUnited is the leading global sports and entertainment intelligence platform, delivering actionable data and insights to build stronger marketing partnerships. We provide unrivaled knowledge across the sponsorship and media landscape so our clients can make impactful decisions that drive business.

With over 340,000 brands, 1.6 million deals, and 11.4 million data points across sports, entertainment, media, and talent, our SaaS database enables brands, rights holders, and agencies to partner more effectively. By delivering real-time trends, on-demand research, and the most comprehensive data available, we connect the entire sponsorship ecosystem and are rewriting the partnership playbook.

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