The Undervalued Goldmine: Why Sponsorship in Women’s Sport Delivers Outsized Returns
Sponsorship in women’s sports has reached an inflection point. For years, brands treated it as a side project—good optics, smaller budgets, and limited expectations. That dynamic has shifted. As of 2025, women’s football and women’s sports more broadly are not just delivering on sponsorship investment but, in many cases, outperforming the men’s game in terms of return on investment.
The headline is simple: sponsors in women’s sports are getting more value, more growth, and more engagement for their money. While men’s football still commands the biggest deals and the largest global reach, the ROI metrics in women’s sport tell a different and more compelling story.
Across the board, sponsorship investment in women’s sports is growing nearly 50 percent faster than in men’s leagues. In football alone, elite women’s competitions are now generating over half a billion dollars annually, with total women’s sport sponsorship revenues exceeding USD 1.2 billion. This is still dwarfed by men’s football, where a single Premier League kit deal can fetch upwards of £100 million per year. But the difference is that women’s football is in a growth phase where every sponsorship deal is undervalued compared to its potential. That gap is where brands are finding outsized returns.
The numbers back it up. Eighty-six percent of brands sponsoring women’s sport report that their campaigns met or exceeded ROI expectations. In the United States, the WNBA’s “Changemaker” partnerships produced an average ROI of 286 percent. One partnership turned a USD 5 million investment into USD 18 million in measurable returns. That kind of efficiency is almost unheard of in men’s professional sport, where the sheer cost of entry makes it difficult to achieve anything close to that multiple.
Why is this happening? Part of the answer is undervaluation. Media rights for women’s football, for example, have been consistently priced below their actual reach. Nielsen found that WSL broadcast deals were delivering 2.5 times more value than what networks paid for them. That means sponsors buying into women’s football are already receiving bonus exposure, often without realizing it.
Another part of the answer is engagement. Women’s sport is consistently described by fans as authentic, approachable, and community-driven. These aren’t empty words—they translate into brand loyalty and deeper consumer alignment. Sponsors in women’s football are not just renting eyeballs for 90 minutes; they are associating with values that resonate strongly with younger demographics and socially conscious consumers. That alignment gives women’s football a different type of commercial gravity. It’s not just about visibility, it’s about meaning.
By contrast, men’s football sponsorship is mature. It guarantees massive exposure, global audiences, and a scale unmatched by any other sport. But it also comes at a premium, with diminishing returns. Sponsorship in the men’s game is often about brand awareness and visibility, while sponsorship in the women’s game is about both awareness and resonance. That dual effect—reach plus values-driven impact—is where women’s sport is proving its edge.
This logic extends directly to player endorsements. When a sponsor backs a male footballer, the deal is usually about scale—millions of followers, shirt sales, and global recognition. The audience is massive, but so is the cost, and in many cases the return is flat because the market is saturated with similar endorsements. With women’s footballers, the calculus changes. The audience might be smaller, but the connection is deeper. Fans perceive these players as relatable and genuine, and that perception translates into higher engagement and stronger conversion for brands. A women’s footballer with 500,000 followers can sometimes deliver more value than a male player with five million because the audience is more invested, not just more numerous.
There’s also a structural reality that makes endorsements even more critical in women’s sport. Female athletes typically earn 60 to 70 percent of their total income from sponsorships and endorsements, not from playing their sport. Salaries, even at the top levels of women’s football, are still modest compared to the men’s game. That makes commercial partnerships not just supplemental, but essential to sustaining careers. For sponsors, this dynamic translates into athletes who are more committed to partnerships, more willing to activate campaigns, and more aligned with the brands that support them.
From a brand perspective, that makes women’s players a better investment. Endorsements are cheaper, yet deliver a higher multiple in loyalty and consumer trust. And because the women’s game is still in its growth phase, the upside is even greater. An endorsement signed today is likely to become more valuable over the next three to five years as visibility, media coverage, and international competitions expand the audience base.
The strategic lesson is clear. For brands willing to invest intelligently, women’s football and women’s sport more broadly represent an undervalued asset class. The growth trajectory is steep, the audiences are passionate, and the commercial returns are already outperforming expectations. In sponsorship, that is a rare combination: undervalued inventory delivering superior ROI.
The question for sponsors is no longer “should we invest in women’s sport?” It’s “how quickly can we position ourselves before the market corrects its value?”