For years, women’s sport has been portrayed in terms of what it lacked: smaller audiences, less media coverage, fewer sponsors, lower revenues. This is an understandable perspective, but a strategically weak one. It applies the metrics of an industry built up over more than a century to a young market, and ends up mistaking a lack of maturity for a lack of potential.
There is a more useful question: what would we see if we looked at women’s sport as if it were a start-up?
We would see a market characterised by latent demand, a supply that remains patchy, unestablished distribution models and an insufficient supply of proprietary data. But we would also see what investors look for in emerging markets: growth, new audiences, assets that are still affordable, and the opportunity to set the standards for a category before they become the norm.
The figures confirm that this phase of growth has already begun. Deloitte estimates that by 2026, global revenue from elite women’s sport will reach at least $3 billion: 25 per cent more than the $2.4 billion forecast for 2025 and 340 per cent more than in 2022.
The geographical distribution of this revenue explains why it is useful to look at the United States, without viewing it as a model to be replicated. North America is expected to account for 54 per cent of the global market, whilst Europe is estimated to account for 14 per cent. This is not a judgement on Europe’s potential, but rather a snapshot of ecosystems at different stages of development.
The breakdown of revenue also reflects a market that is still evolving. Globally, commercial revenue (sponsorship, partnerships, licensing and merchandising) is expected to account for 45 per cent of the total. If we narrow our focus to the fifteen European women’s football clubs with the highest turnover analysed by the Deloitte Football Money League, this share rises to 72 per cent, whilst broadcasting and matchday revenue account for a significantly smaller proportion.
This figure can be interpreted in two ways. On the one hand, it demonstrates the appeal of women’s sport to brands and commercial partners; on the other, it reveals a revenue model that is still not sufficiently diversified, in which distribution, visibility and the live experience need to grow in order to realise their full potential.
It is within this context – that of elite and professional women’s competitions and their economic ecosystem – that the argument of this article unfolds. Women’s sport is no longer a market that needs to be proven: it is a market that needs to be built.
Growth does not yet mean maturity
Three billion dollars is an important milestone, not a final destination.
In the United States, professional leagues, university sport, the entertainment culture and the prominent role of female athletes have created conditions that are difficult to replicate in Europe. The American market can serve as a testing ground and a source of inspiration. However, simply copying its results without recreating the underlying conditions would result in models that are not very sustainable.
Even in the US, however, growth and monetisation do not automatically go hand in hand. McKinsey estimates that women’s sport in the US could generate at least $2.5 billion for rights holders by 2030, compared with $1 billion in 2024. But the study also highlights a wide gap between public attention and economic value, particularly in media rights.
This is a typical dynamic in the start-up sector: the product grows faster than the infrastructure needed to monetise it. The risk is confusing momentum with a business model.
There is demand, but it has not yet become a habit
In Italy, a YouGov survey carried out in collaboration with The Breakaway in April 2026 puts the number of people interested in women’s sport at 18.6 million. Yet only 4 per cent of the population consider it one of their main interests.
This gap does not prove that the market is small. It shows that it is not very active.
There are many steps between expressing an interest and forming a lasting relationship: knowing when matches are played, easily finding live coverage, getting to know the players, identifying with a club’s history, receiving regular updates, attending an event, joining a community, and buying a ticket or a product. If these steps are fragmented, demand remains merely potential.
That is why visibility is not a marketing outcome. It is commercial infrastructure. Without distribution, habits do not form; without habits, data cannot be collected; without data, it is difficult to develop credible proposals for sponsors, the media and investors.
Cultural factors do matter, but they can provide only a very partial explanation. In the early 2000s, it was argued that Italian consumers were not ready to shop online. In 2026, B2C e-commerce in Italy was worth 66.6 billion euros; online shopping accounted for 11.5 per cent of product consumption, and by 2025 there were already 35.2 million online shoppers. Consumer culture was not a fixed given: it changed as supply, infrastructure, trust and habits were established. The same logic applies to women’s sport.
The real limitation, therefore, is not a supposed cultural reluctance on the part of the public, but the lack of a sustained strategic approach. Federations, leagues and private operators have often treated women’s sport as an extension or a side project. Precisely because it is still a fledgling sector, it can instead be developed as a consumer business: starting with the audience, their behaviour and occasions for engagement, and then building distribution, data and revenue.
Copying the male model is the most costly shortcut
When a sport is in its infancy, the first instinct is to replicate what is assumed to already work. In sport, this often means adopting the branding, media formats, commercial structure, calendar and narrative of the men’s version.
Integration can offer valuable assets: brand recognition, infrastructure, expertise, sponsors and access to an existing fan base. But it is not, in itself, a strategy. If women’s sport is positioned solely through the lens of men’s sport, it risks becoming a derivative product and losing those aspects of authenticity that make it appealing to a new audience, one that does not necessarily follow the more mainstream sports.
The audience for women’s sport is not a niche segment of the traditional audience. It is diverse, often younger, more digitally engaged and highly receptive to the stories of female athletes. A 2025 Yonder study found, for example, that more than one in five young British women aged between 18 and 34 who follow women’s football did not come to the sport via men’s football. For this audience, women’s sport is the gateway to sport, not a secondary alternative.
This opens up one of the most exciting opportunities: designing a fan experience that is tailored to the way people discover and engage with sport today. Short- and long-form content, female athletes as content creators and entrepreneurs, local communities, membership schemes, events, hybrid experiences, new editorial products and a direct, data-driven relationship.
An Italian case study illustrates what it means to translate this approach into infrastructure, distribution and a direct relationship with the public. In 2025, the Women’s Volleyball League (Lega Volley Femminile) established Spike Media, a new company owned 60 per cent by the League and 40 per cent by the investment fund NJF Holdings, to move from simply selling rights to the direct management of media, marketing and events. From the 2026/27 season onwards, distribution will combine Rai, DAZN and the social media channels of the League, clubs and players. In the 2025/26 season, the LVF’s digital ecosystem exceeded two billion views and 61.5 million interactions; in its first year, commercial revenues doubled. This capital is backed by operational expertise: NJF Holdings was founded by Nicole Junkermann, a German entrepreneur and investor, following a career spanning sport, technology and venture capital; another key figure at the fund is Kike Levy, Head of Gameday by NJF, who combines a background in digital strategy, media rights and platforms with experience at Real Madrid, Infront, X-Twitter and Meta.
Women’s sport must not dismiss the lessons to be learnt from established industries, but must distinguish between transferable principles and inherited models, and be able to innovate whilst keeping the fans of the future at the heart of it all.
What does it mean to think like a start-up?
Viewing women’s sport as a start-up industry does not mean celebrating its precarious nature or accepting that everything must remain experimental. It means adopting a constructive approach.
Firstly: define the product before maximising its monetisation. A league is not just a series of matches. It is a promise to the public: accessibility, quality, pace, stories, rivalries, and the live and digital experience.
Secondly: get to know your audience before you market to them. Many organisations know how many followers they have, but not who they are, how they arrived there, what they consume, or which behaviours generate value. CRM and proprietary data are not merely technical details: they form the basis for measurable ticketing, membership schemes, merchandising and sponsorship.
Thirdly: experiment without losing consistency. New distribution formats, pricing, content and partnerships must be tested, measured and improved. Experimenting does not mean changing direction every month; it means building a system that learns.
Fourth: invest with an appropriate time horizon. One cannot expect an emerging asset to generate, within twelve months, the returns of a century-old industry. What is needed is patient capital, competent governance and milestones that also measure value creation: a defined audience, product quality, commercial capability, distribution and customer loyalty. The time horizon, however, cannot be copied from one market to another. Potential must be assessed by cross-referencing three variables: the cultural role of sport in the country, the depth of the youth base and the quality of investment by leagues and federations. International capital accelerates growth only if it is adapted to these conditions.
Fifth: create the category, not just compete within it. Organisations that define the language, rituals, data and standards of women’s sport will not simply capture market share. They will help determine what that market will be.
From a project to be supported to an asset to be built
When it comes to sponsoring a women’s team, for a long time these opportunities have been presented to companies primarily as a positive cause. Inclusion, empowerment and representation remain real and important factors. But they cannot replace the commercial value proposition.
A brand should not invest simply because it is the right thing to do. It should do so because it can reach relevant audiences, build trust, create products, generate content, gather insights and contribute to the growth of a sector. An investor should not get involved out of a sense of philanthropy, but because they see the potential for a return and know what capabilities are needed to achieve it.
This is the transition from the start-up industry to an asset class. It does not happen when the first big cheque arrives. It happens when capital meets structures capable of transforming it into a product, an audience and repeatable revenue.
Women’s sport has a rare advantage: it can still shape many of its own rules. It can build data systems before the audience becomes anonymous; partnerships based on participation rather than just visibility; leagues better suited to collective commercialisation; formats designed for contemporary audiences; and products rooted in the real-life experiences of athletes and fans.
This freedom will not last forever. As the market matures, today’s choices will become infrastructure that is difficult to change.
The real question, therefore, is no longer whether women’s sport will grow. It is who will be able to shape it as it grows, and who will simply stand by and watch its momentum unfold.
Note to the reader: Elena Mirandola is the founder and CEO of The Breakaway, a strategic advisory firm that supports clubs, leagues, federations, brands and investors in developing sustainable growth models for women’s sport. This article is part of ‘Women’s sport as a start-up’, a series produced by The Breakaway for Startupbusiness. (Image: Depositphotos)
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED ©
