Stop Playing It Safe: Why Women’s Sport Needs Rule Breakers, Not Copycats

Women’s sport is having its moment – and what a moment it is.

The 2024 Summer Olympics, the Women’s Euros and Women’s Rugby World Cup have smashed records left, right and centre.

Brands are circling, feeling that something important is happening and intrigued by the new possibilities.

But here’s what I have observed: most are asking the wrong question.

Instead of “how big is this opportunity?” we should be asking “what kind of opportunity is this?” Because the answer changes everything.

Beyond the Numbers Game

Yes, the stats look good. Growing audiences, better demographics, fan sentiment through the roof – all the usual ROI boxes getting ticked. Women’s sport is capturing audiences that traditional sport has historically failed to reach, while keeping a good chunk of existing fans happy. Every fan survey that I have seen confirms what we’re seeing on the ground: fans love, and are loyal to, the brands backing women’s sport.

So far, so good. But focusing purely on numbers misses the real prize.

The Blank Canvas Moment

The real opportunity here isn’t just growing audience numbers – it’s the chance to rip up the playbook. Women’s sport is ‘new’ in terms of mainstream popularity, so it is largely a blank canvas – For now, at least!

We all have a window of opportunity to reimagine everything: how a sport is organised, marketed, experienced. How we communicate with fans. What events actually look like. Every aspect can be viewed through a fresh lens, and it is brands who are perfectly positioned to drive this change – and reap the rewards.

Take a look at the recent Vision 2035 report from Havas Play if you want to imagine rather than predict the future for women’s sport. Read it. It will inspire some fun, interesting and creative thinking.

Time to Bin the Boring Stuff

Let’s take tickets and hospitality (my patch, so bear with me). The standard model? Chuck some grandstand tickets and corporate hospitality into the sponsor package. Tickets go to consumer campaigns, hospitality handles the B2B crowd. Job done.

Except it’s not. This model is already looking tired in men’s sport, but it’s completely wrong for women’s events. Been to a women’s match recently? The vibe is anything but corporate.

So why not flip the script entirely? All-inclusive tickets, for starters – they’re fun, inclusive, more sustainable, kill the queues, and make better commercial sense for rights holders. A brand brave enough to fund or co-fund this idea would make every fan a VIP guest. Lean into that fan loyalty. And that hospitality? Bring it down to where the fans are, instead of locked away in a sterile fourth-floor conference room. Let your guests join the party instead of just watching it from the sidelines.

The Secret Weapon: Accessibility

Another major asset women’s sport has (for now) is that it is still refreshingly accessible – and again, we should lean into this while we can. The players are open, authentic and available, but think bigger. The B team, academy players, coaches, trainers – these are the women who’ve lived and breathed the sport. Bring them to your partnership party.

I saw this work brilliantly in F1 with our Expert Host programme. Our CEOs, celebrities and VVIPs turned into wide-eyed kids when a young racing driver starts explaining tyre strategy like it’s a James Bond plot. This simple idea turned into a programme that was transformative for us. Everyone leaves energised, entertained and knowing more about the sport than they arrived knowing. That’s proper engagement.

Here’s something simple that I have observed over my years in F1; no matter how important your hospitality guests think they are, they all become children the moment they walk through the gates. Experiences should be joyful, fresh, informative – and delivered by people with lived passion for the sport.

Don’t Copy, Create

I haven’t covered half of the areas that are ripe for re-thinking. But, the cardinal sin in all of this would be simply replicating the men’s game when the one thing that we are learning is that the audience is so completely different. Sponsors should champion what makes women’s sport unique, not what makes it the same as other sporting events.

The Call to Arms

So here’s my challenge to brands and agencies eyeing women’s sport: be brave, be creative. This is your chance to test new concepts and work with sports to do something we all talk about a lot – disrupt and innovate.

And please – don’t limit your ambition to creating a smaller, pinker version of what you’ve always done. How often does a brand get the chance to influence and shape an entire sport? That is a huge prize.

The canvas is blank. What are you going to paint?

Kate Beavan will be speaking at the upcoming Sport Industry Socials at Lord’s Cricket Ground on Wednesday 17th September. Attendance to Socials events are limited to Sport Industry Members.