Sponsors aren’t spending at the Women’s World Cup

The current FIFA Women’s World Cup has more teams than ever before, is better attended than ever before, has more TV viewers than ever before, has more sponsors than ever before, but sponsorship revenue remains a fraction of the men’s event.

Sponsorship revenue will be just $300m, according to data from analytical firm Omdia, cited by Bloomberg. That’s a mere 18% of the $1.7bn generated by the 2022 men’s tournament in Qatar. 

What’s happening 

The success of last year’s UEFA Women’s Euros confirmed a huge level of interest in the sport at this level, and there were widespread expectations that this year’s World Cup would cement brand interest. 

The likes of Unilever, Budweiser and McDonald’s are on board, but they’re not spending at anything like the levels of the men’s game. And it seems that brands not usually associated with the sport have passed up an opportunity to reach an engaged audience with significant spending power ($8.9bn worldwide). 

Valuing women’s sport 

• Investing now, at a time when the sport is growing in popularity, could bring long-term benefits to brands as they help the future of the game.
• Observers complain that women’s football remains undervalued, with brands and organisations expecting players to do things for free.
• Many top female players not only have significant social media followings but they often have higher engagement rates than male players. 
• FIFA can be more proactive in raising the profile of the women’s game between quadrennial competitions rather than making last-minute attempts to squeeze more money out of the sale of broadcast rights.

Context

• There are 32 participating teams (24 in 2019)
• There are 20 sponsors (12 in 2019)
• Total attendees are expected to number 1.5 million (1.2 million in 2019)
• Total TV viewership is expected to exceed 2 billion (1.12 billion in 2019)

Sourced from Bloomberg, Euromonitor, SportsPro

[Image: FIFA]