New research has shown that women are the driving force behind the global growth in sports fandom. Carried out by the Wasserman Collective, the study is called Her Love of the Game: A Global Overview of Female Fans of Sports.
Wasserman is a sports marketing and talent management company, and The Collective is its women-focused, global impact and advisory business.
The Halfway Line sat down with Danielle Smith, Vice President of The Collective, for an exclusive interview following the publication of the groundbreaking research.
Understanding the research
Smith explained exactly what Her Love of the Game is about, and shed some light on the initiative behind the project.
“We’ve been seeing an amazing 18 months where so much conversation has been around women’s sports. But that is only part of the what we call the female story” detailed Smith.
“We [people who work in the sports industry] are kind of forgetting about the women fans, and whether they’re fans of a men’s EPL team, or men’s rugby, or F1 for instance, there’s still a massive group that is being left behind.”
Smith highlighted that this premise in particular, is why the study was conducted.
Wasserman’s research found that the number of women who consider themselves to be avid sports fans has increased drastically since it was last reported.
Smith told The Halfway Line “This is a very, I would say, global-macro level of understanding women’s sports fans.”
The unique perspective of female sports fans
Female fans of sport “Bring unique perspectives, experiences, and motivations,” emphasised Smith. The perspectives are“Very different from how society- and that is true of I would say almost any market- has considered what a true sports fan is.”
“It is so rooted in how men have historically consumed sport” Smith continued.
Drawing attention to the ethos behind the research, Smith explained “We still see cyber bullying of female sports fans, and depending on how they showcase that fandom, they’re often chastised, and at the very least they’re not really celebrated for that by rights holders or by marketers.”
“So, the intention behind this research was to highlight and celebrate that [the individuality of female sports fandom], and help people understand that being a sports fan is very multifaceted, and women are driving a lot of the really great innovation that we’re seeing.”
Standout statistics
The Halfway Line asked Smith which part of the study impacted her personally the most.
“72% of women’s fans, globally, consider themselves avid fans of one or more sport” she highlighted. This figure is a substantial increase on previous reports, which Smith said were between 50 and 60 percent.
“What ladders into that are two other really key interesting stats for us,” said Smith. “The first was that Gen Z across the board was the most avid from a generational cohort perspective, and this is very different from a lot of what we’ve been reading.“
Smith went on, “Gen Z male fans were a lot less likely to be fans than millennial or Gen X, and what we found for women is that that’s completely different, right? We’re seeing the highest fan avidity from our Gen Z female fans. This was really surprising.”
Further to this, “About 30% of women have become avid sports fans in just the last three years,” compared to 20% of men.
In light of the data, Smith urged “Why wouldn’t you use sports, not just women’s sports, but all sports, to really talk to this audience?”
Global truths
Whilst Smith herself is based in the USA, the study looked at 30 different countries. Smith pointed out the significance of the findings on a global scale.
Different sports, as we know, are popular in different parts of the world. The top sport in the United Kingdom is, unsurprisingly, football, and Smith used this example to detail what the study implies.
“These women have existed, probably in pubs and supporting their favourite Premier League teams, or however they support for a while, we just haven’t really been speaking to them in the right ways, or they haven’t felt, you know, comfortable expressing their fandom.”
Further discussing the history of the sporting sphere in the United Kingdom and across Europe, Smith said “Different cultures and societies have different followings, right? But we actually saw from a European standpoint, their fandom tenure, they’ve been fans pretty long, comparatively to some other markets.”
What is the impact?
The Halfway Line asked Smith what the desired impact of the study is, and to what extent it is being achieved.
“It’s always a hope that data and research will guide decision making and conversation. Since we published this, we’ve had some really great conversations from both rights holders in various markets as well as brands,” she said.
Smith spoke candidly about how approaches to marketing sport should address the concerns of women. “We need to start to create different marketing strategies, and that could be something as simple as how safe the stadium feels, or the arena feels for women to attend,” she asserted.
“Our hope is that the data starts to open the eyes of the people that have the ability to really connect with this powerful group of women as consumers. A secondary hope is that they also understand that they need women in decision making roles, or in creative roles, to be that voice.”
There is more than one way to be a sports fan
Smith went on to address the stereotypes and misconceptions surrounding what a sports fan looks like, and reiterated that the research aims to shift harmful narratives and celebrate the different ways women consume sports.
Delving further into the key factors contributing to women’s unique perspective on life as an avid sports fan, Smith drew attention to how, and why, women gravitate towards sports organisations that support social causes.
Smith declared, “As women, we oftentimes come from a place of we are fighting to have our role, and that’s true for women athletes. In sport particularly, we’re coming from this place of like, I’m fighting for my right to be here, and that’s true even sometimes as a fan.”
“Women in general support brands who have aligned with their values” expressed Smith.
Women continue to be impacted by inequalities and injustices around the world. Sport is not only something that brings unity and escapism to fans, but it also serves as a model for wider society and a vehicle for change. This is why Wasserman’s research matters, and why Smith’s insight is valuable.
