The BackPage Weekly | A New Frontier for Women’s Sport? Key trends driving growth in 2025

By Deirdre Duke and Kathryn Williamson

In celebration of International Women’s Day 2025, we consider some of the developing key trends as the momentum continues to build in the world of professional women’s sport.

1. Development of New Competition Formats

The evolution of innovative structures and formats alongside increased visibility from the new media and broadcast rights deals are key factors attracting new fans and driving commercial revenue across women’s sport.

Last week, the Women’s Professional Leagues (WPLL), the newly formed company which took over responsibility for running the Women’s Super League (WSL) and Women’s Championship (WC) from the FA last August, announced that it is considering temporarily abolishing relegation between the two divisions. A vote of the WPLL shareholders, which include the 23 clubs in the WSL and WC, will take place at the end of the current season. A two-thirds majority vote would be required for the change to be adopted. The current proposals would not see a change introduced until the 2026-27 season at the earliest, where relegation from the WSL would be halted for a number of seasons. Promotion from the WC would remain so that one club would be promoted to the WSL each season. There would also be no relegation from the WC. The change would grow the current 12-team WSL and 11-team WC (following Reading’s withdrawal for the 2024/25 season) to 16 teams over the next four years. Relegation could be reinstated for the 2030/31 season, although this is not guaranteed.

The change aims to encourage investment into women’s clubs by allowing newly promoted teams a greater chance of remaining in the top leagues and encouraging existing clubs to invest more. However, some have raised concerns that removing relegation could stunt or reduce investment, and it removes the sense of jeopardy which makes up the essence of sport. The WSL and WC currently differ from National Women’s Soccer League’s (NWSL) in the US and the Liga MX in Mexico which are both closed leagues. The current English format seeks to promote grassroots football and preserve the pyramid structure. While the US-style closed, franchise league model has been hugely successful in increasing franchise values, the US does not have a robust lower division structure on the women’s side, so there are fewer concerns regarding ensuring other clubs and communities have a chance at the top levels of the sport.

In cricket, the Hundred is the new format that was launched in 2021 and is the only league in the world that has a 100-ball cricket format. The Hundred has held both men’s and women’s matches back-to-back on the same day since 2023, with one ticket giving access to both games at the same venue, therefore boosting the visibility of the women’s game. The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) recently oversaw the sales of stakes in the eight Hundred franchises, with the teams achieving a collective value of more than £975m. The Women’s Impact Report was released by the Professional Cricketers’ Association (PCA) last week and showed that in 2024, 320,000 people watched The Hundred women's games live, up from 267,000 in the first year of the competition.

In basketball, the new 3x3 women’s professional basketball league ‘Unrivaled’ was founded in 2024. It allows Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) players to play domestically and bypass complications from the WNBA's prioritisation rule for players who choose to play overseas in the WNBA offseason. ‘Unrivaled’ consists of 6 teams and provides an opportunity for 36 of the top WNBA players to remain in the United States for an eight-week season. ‘Unrivaled’'s financial structure prioritises direct investment in players, with reported six-figure contracts and a revenue-sharing model giving players opportunities for greater earnings that could replace international contracts. The league therefore couples a player-first model with an exciting style of play. After a Series A round in 2024, the league was able to secure funding of $28 million and has already attracted strong commercial interest for its first season and have sold their, media rights to TNT Sports in the US.

2. Growth in Sponsorship

Women’s sport is also attracting increasing levels of sponsorship, by providing brands the platform to engage with a broader, more diverse audience while cultivating a positive brand image. Sponsorship deals in the NWSL and WNBA are increasing 20% year on year. Global brands including Gatorade, Visa and Nike continue to invest heavily in both leagues, with global podcaster Alex Cooper's Unwell Hydration last week partnering with the NWSL as Official Hydration Partner.

This side of the Atlantic, women’s football remains the biggest vehicle for companies to join the rapidly growing market of women’s sport. Manchester City Women recently announced a global partnership with Revolut while Unilever (who own brands including Hellmann's and Dove) were announced as the official sponsors of the UEFA Women’s EURO 2025.

The diversity of brands investing into women’s sport is growing as companies recognise the breadth of the untapped market of the female sports fan. Charlotte Tilbury recently became the official partner of the F1 Academy, while Sephora signed a multi-year partnership with ‘Unrivaled’ with Samsung and Under Armour also backing the new format.

The rise of global sporting icons such as Caitlin Clark and Ilona Maher have highlighted the power and reach of the female athletes and their brand. The “Caitlin Clark Effect” has been credited with driving 26.5% of the WNBA's commercial activity for the 2024 season, including attendance, merchandise sales and television. The growing visibility, fan engagement and diversity of audience is likely to continue to drive market growth as sponsors seek to associate with the positive brand image surrounding women’s sport while unlocking the untapped market that is the female sports fan.

3. Private Equity Investment

Private equity investment is beginning to form part of the female sports ecosystem and is set to continue to grow throughout 2025. The increase in commercial revenue into the NWSL and WNBA has led to increased club and franchise valuations as private equity investment is beginning to enter the market.

Kynisca Sports International Limited, owned by Michele Kang, was the first dedicated multi-team global organization dedicated to women’s football (owner of Olympique Lyon Féminin, Washington Spirit F.C. and the London City Lionesses). Mercury 13, a women’s football consortium who bought F.C. Como Women in the Serie A, are set to invest over $100 million in women’s soccer teams across Europe. Monarch Collective, a $150m fund launched by Kara Nortman, one of the co-founders of NWSL side Angel F.C., has been linked with buying a minority stake in Chelsea Women, who are reportedly valued at approx. $200 million. Most recently, Sixth Street, the private equity giant and majority owner of NWSL superpower Bay F.C. announced they were launching a new multi-club women’s soccer organisation called the “Bay Collective” with further club investment on the horizon in 2025.

With club and franchise valuations continuing to rise, the influx of private equity, venture capital and athlete investment is likely to continue to follow the path of men’s professional sport. In June 2024, Angel City F.C. became the world's most expensive women's sports team following a $250m (£192.3m) takeover. Investors remain bullish on the growth of women’s sport, Clara Wu Tsai, co-owner of the WNBA team the New York Liberty predicted that the team will be worth over $1billion in the next 10 years.

The minimum investment for private equity in the NWSL is 5% of the team’s valuation, in comparison the minimum investment in a Major League Soccer (MLS) team which is $20 million, regardless of the individual team's valuation. The potential ROI in women’s football over the next decade coupled with the lower minimum buy-in for private equity into clubs provides an attractive incentive for funds interested in adding women’s football to their portfolio. Although concerns about the future commercial viability of the women’s game remains, those investors willing to be patient and commit to the growth of the market, will be the ones reaping the rewards over the next two decades.

Investors are also beginning to look beyond the NWSL and WNBA, with significant investment being made into sports such as Volleyball which is tipped to be a marquee sport in the LA 2028 Olympics. Atwater Capital has committed $100million to League One Volleyball, the inaugural women’s professional indoor volleyball league in the US. Closer to home, the recent partial sale by the ECB of The Hundred franchises has seen a huge investment of private equity into the world of cricket, however it remains to be seen what the prospective valuation of one of the women’s teams as a standalone entity would be.

The professionalisation of women’s sport and development of new competition formats, the slow but steady increase in private equity investment and the significant increase in sponsorship are redefining the landscape. The narrative that women’s sport is only a moment is a figment of the past, as the innovation, commercial revenue and investment in women’s sport continues to drive the movement, and shows no sign of slowing down.