GLOBAL SPORTS MARKET US$1.1 TRILLION BY 2025
35% of the world's population participates in sports at least once a month
Signa Sports and Boston Consulting Group predict the global sports market will grow to $1.1 trillion, with the global sports participation segment reaching 3.5 billion people by 2025. Sports is the second most popular global leisure activity after travel.
Accounting for 35.0% of the total in 2020, North America was the largest region in the global sports market, followed by Western Europe and Asia-Pacific. And the fastest-growing regions in the sports market will be South America and the Middle East, with CAGRs of 12.1% and 11.3%, respectively. Eastern Europe and the Asia Pacific are expected to follow at CAGRs of 10.5% and 10.4%, respectively.
*Compound annual growth rate.
WOMEN'S SPORTS GETS ONLY 4% OF MEDIA COVERAGE
In 1Q21, USC News released findings of its 30-year study with Purdue University: TV news, including ESPN's Sports Center, and online media coverage, continue to ignore women's sports.
Women Sports Markert Approaching $1 Billion
THE INVESTMENT GAP IN WOMEN'S SPORTS HINDERED BY OUTDATED DATA
GROWTH POTENTIAL OF WOMEN'S SPORTS
FOCUS ON FLUID CONSUMERS (FANS)
THE INVESTMENT GAP IN WOMEN'S SPORTS HINDERED BY OUTDATED DATA
New data from The Fan Project (TFP) indicates that Women's Sports have the most innovative, committed Fans.
In the recent article, "New Age Entertainment: Boosting Fan Inclusion in the Sports Industry," Sportico notes that "The global sporting industry is headed toward a highly tailored, intimate fan experience, moving from solely TV and physical attendance to more portable smart devices and laptops."
Angela Ruggerio, a Hockey Hall of Famer, Olympic gold medalist, knew there was a significant investment gap between men's and women's professional sports and that little research was available to explain the reasons. She is co-founder-CEO of Sports Innovation Lab, a market research company focusing on how technology influences fan behavior, and has U.S. and global clients, including the NFL, NHL and FIFA.
To get answers, she partnered with 27 industry leaders, including the WNBA, NWSL, LPGA and Women's Sports Foundation. After reviewing consumers' social media archives to analyze social and viewership data, they found that brands missed out on about five years of revenue.
And the simple reason: brands have been relying on outdated metrics—like TV ratings—to guide investment in women's sports. In other words, fans-consumers have been "left to find their own ways to engage in digital communities and e-commerce…."
The results showed that most women's sports fans already exhibited behaviors of a fluid fan—a fan continuously evolving, open to change, and significantly impacted by technology.
Ruggerio said. "Even if you're never going to invest in women's sports, you have to pay attention to what we're doing. Because they're out there, and they're building these communities and monetizing sports in a new and different way."
CONSUMERS OF WOMEN'S SPORTS ARE
- Hungry for more content
- Digitally savvy
- Nearly 50% of fans men.
- Advanced in the way they consume sports and engage with their teams, brands, and other fans
WOMEN'S SOCCER IN THE U.S. HAS THE BIGGEST AUDIENCE
2019 FIFA WOMEN'S WORLD CUP IN FRANCE DREW RECORD GLOBAL VIEWERSHIP
- 993 million TV audience
- 482 million via digital platforms
Final watched live by
- 260 million viewers worldwide and
- 14.3 million in the United States
Final drew 22% more US viewers than the men’s final in 2018