Women’s sports are experiencing new heights in the worlds of football and basketball. UEFA has brought marketing agency Two Circles on board to find new sponsorship and revenue opportunities and the Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) is expected to earn up to $2.2bn in its next broadcast rights deal.

On the latest episode of iGaming Daily, supported by Optimove, the Insider Sport team, Callum Williams, Ted Orme-Claye and Kieran O’Connor look into the sponsorship opportunities that could be available to European and US betting operators off the back of this growth in women’s sports.

In the past, women’s football teams in the English pyramid have been closely tied to their male counterparts however, due to the rise of women’s football, teams are starting to separate into their own departments and sponsorship deals.  

In February, Kieran interviewed Queenie Porter, Managing Director at Wow Hydrate, about the topic and he recalls how Porter explained that women’s sports have the opportunity to “choose sponsorships and pick ones that suit them”.

He added: “She talked a lot about the different sponsorships that they can attract. A lot of them are travel-related and health and self-care-related. Also, things that are more family related, like Alton Towers or theme parks.”

Despite men’s football continuously coming under scrutiny for the number of betting sponsors in the game, very few women’s football teams have similar sponsorship deals with betting operators. 

On why this is the case, Ted said: “I hope I’m not being stereotypical, but I think we can all agree that betting is by and large more of a male activity. If you go into your average betting shop the customer base will be overwhelmingly male and I’d imagine the demographics are similar for online as well.

“As a result, it’s not surprising that operators would target more the men’s side of the game. Also, but women’s football, I think, is often branded as and comes across as a bit more of a family-orientated game.”

Although sports betting marketing may be limited in the domestic game, next year’s UEFA European Women’s Championship may offer a greater opportunity for operators to gain exposure as bigger tournaments bring in a different demographic of more casual football fans.

Approximately 365m people watched Euro 2022 and over 50m tuned in to see the England Lionesses beat Germany in the final at Wembley.

“When you talk about these big tournaments like the women’s Euros, they do generate a different demographic from the week-in week-out games,” explained Kieran. “You’ve got a lot of male viewers who will be interested in betting on the sports. So I think that does open up a lot of opportunities for operators to take advantage of the different demographics.”

Ted added that operators are likely to focus marketing on the national pride generated by fans following their country and try to capitalise on this during the tournament. This is something that was used by operators in the recently concluded men’s European Championship.

After a short break, the show heads across the Atlantic to delve into the WNBA following reports that the league is close to securing a new 11-year broadcast rights deal with up to $2.2bn.

The WNBA has experienced record viewership and attendance this season off the back of the rise of rookie stars like Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese, whose rivalry has spilt over from the college game into the professional arena. 

Unlike the WSL, the WNBA has embraced sports betting sponsorship and has already partnered with DraftKings and FanDuel, the two biggest sportsbooks in the US.

On the differences in attitude, Kieran said: “The gambling sector in America is quite new compared to England. So they’re all competing to become the best sportsbook or the most well-known. They’ve seen WNBA’s growth and decided this is something we want to be a part of. It’s a really good opportunity for them to get eyes on it from a lot of different demographics.”

Ted added that the growth of the WNBA is a “big marketing opportunity” for operators through partnerships with the league and teams as well as through the offering markets such as prop bets on starts like Caitlin Clark, which offers further promotional opportunities.