Sport-After landmark World Cup, more sponsors keen on women's sport in 2024

NEW YORK : A gender-equal Olympic Games next year will coincide with increasing sponsorship opportunities for female athletes, experts say, after the Women's World Cup soccer tournament underscored the growing popularity of women's sport in 2023.

Organisers say Paris 2024 will be the first Games to feature an even number of male and female athletes, a landmark that has been a long time coming after years of work by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to create equal medal opportunities.

Regarding sponsorship, men's sport is still king. A Sports Innovation Lab survey this year that included more than 25 Fortune 500 brands found only about 9 per cent of respondents' sports media and sponsorship dollars were spent on women's sport.

However, 83 per cent of respondents from that survey said they planned to increase their investment in 2024.

"We heard from a lot of those that they were setting their sights on the Olympics and on doing more with female athletes," said Sports Innovation Lab CMO Gina Waldhorn.

"Brands are really celebrating all of the milestones in women's sports each year. I think we'll also see them celebrate this as another one of those critical milestones."

The 2023 Women's World Cup in Australia and New Zealand could foreshadow women's sport becoming even more appealing to sponsors in 2024, as tense pre-tournament TV negotiations gave way to record-breaking viewership across the globe.

Conrad Wiacek, head of sport analysis at research firm GlobalData, said that soccer had played a large role historically in developing the profile of female athletes.

"There is an opportunity there (for brands) to forge a relationship with female audiences directly through partnerships in women's sport (be that) individual