In the past few years, the trends have shown that there is in fact a demand for including more women sports in the mainstream, both in the case of broadcasting and promotion as well as sponsoring. Let’s take a look at the most popular women’s sports in the UK and find out how many fans actually have some interest in them.
Undervalued market
The most intriguing aspect of the absence of women’s sports in the mainstream is that it’s in reality a truly undervalued market for many sponsors and companies that wish to promote their products. What does this mean? It turns out that the majority of respondents answered that they are interested in watching and cheering women’s teams on any field and court, so it gives a target audience consisting of more than 20 million people in the UK. All companies that avoid sponsoring sportswomen and the whole teams just because it seems less profitable than the male leagues are losing much of potential income.
These issues together with the fact that more and more women get interested in playing sports on a professional level should lead to a change in the way their sports disciplines are handled by the television and broadcasting platforms.
The most popular women’s sports in the UK
There is probably no surprise that on the top of the list of the most popular women’s sports in the UK we will find football. FIFA Women’s World Cup was the most commonly watched event in June 2021 out of all female sporting contests that month. It goes without saying that football is a national sport in the UK. However, when it comes to the actual number of fans who regularly watch football games of female teams, it turns out that even less than 40% of all football fans are also enthusiasts of the women’s game.
The second most popular women’s sports discipline is tennis. As statistics show, the majority of tennis fans in general in the UK are also enthusiasts of women’s tennis and watch it whenever there is a tournament going on.
Among the sports fans who appreciate women’s teams, we can find the enthusiasts of rugby, golf and hockey. In the case of these disciplines, more than half of the fans, in general, are also the ones who cheer and watch female competitions.
When we look at the other side of the coin, the sportswomen, it turns out that the popularity of various disciplines among them slightly differs from the tendencies of the fans. The majority of young girls choose netball as their discipline outside of school and later decide to focus on this type of team sport. Only the latest few years have brought a slight change in the matter and the number of men interested in playing netball has risen.
The future of women’s sports in the UK
It’s only fair to assume that the future of women’s sports in the UK is brighter than their past. Especially, as the bigger part of the UK population shows an interest in at least one female discipline. The potential of large audiences to reach might interest sponsors and companies, which in turn could lead to the development of this female side of sports. The fans can make their contribution to popularizing women’s sports by watching them and participating in events. Once you catch the bug, you can, as with any other sports discipline, make use of UK betting sites and similar platforms to make a bet on your favourite team or player. Choose a safe, secure site like SBO.net, pick a sports discipline that interests you and give yourself a chance to win some money while enjoying the match. It’s all tried-and-tested, reliable and dependable, and what’s most important, easily available because you might bet from any place in the UK.
For years, women’s sports in the UK and all around the world were neglected by sponsors, television and broadcasting platforms in the belief that there were not enough fans to bring them any profit. The last few years, however, have proved that these disciplines and female teams have their own enthusiasts, and their number is growing with every year. Maybe it’s time to engage a bit more in this part of the sports world?
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