Women’s soccer is becoming hugely popular, with fans breaking records in viewership and attendance, but unlike sponsors and investors, sportsbooks have yet to fully follow.
As the industry continues to prove of interest to many, it’s providing sportsbook operators with the opportunity to thrive in a growing market, but are they slowly turning their attention to the sport? Or leaving it behind? The betting industry may be lagging behind fans and sponsors.
In the sporting world, men’s soccer has long dominated in many countries around the world, but this growth could provide the chance for operators to accelerate their investment into the women’s sport market. It’s now a question of whether companies will evolve with the interest or if the sole dominance of the men’s industry will prevail.
These shifts are challenging sportsbooks to rethink how they approach a rapidly maturing market.
Women’s soccer is quickly growing in popularity
Women’s soccer is growing at a very fast pace, with more people than ever before tuning in to watch games on TV and support in person.
In a report by SPORTFIVE, it was found that the most prevalent reason behind fans starting to follow women’s soccer is due to an interest in the national team. The recent tournaments have proven to be successful in capturing attention, with the recent UEFA Women’s EURO’s being marked as the best-attended Women’s European Championship ever.
A total of 29 of 31 matches sold out and a record-breaking number of tickets were sold ahead of the tournament beginning. A total of over 160 nationalities were represented amongst the overall ticket holders, with the event being the most viewed and engaged with Women’s Euro ever on UEFA social media, even ahead of the final.
While men’s UEFA tournaments still pull in massive global audiences, women’s competitions are catching up fast, with year-over-year growth ranging from 25% to more than 400% depending on the event. Take the Women’s EURO 2025, for example: it drew record-breaking total viewership, and social media engagement jumped 55% during the group stage alone compared to the previous tournament.
The business behind women’s soccer is growing
As the interest in women’s soccer has evidently increased over the last few years, the business behind it has been rising too.
It was only in July this year when the first woman to break the £1 million ($1.35 million) mark for a transfer took place, with Canadian forward Olivia Smith making the high-profile move from Liverpool to Arsenal.
“It’s a privilege and an honour. Everything that the club has accomplished is so massive, and for me to now be a part of that, I’m very excited.”
Watch Olivia Smith’s very first Arsenal interview
— Arsenal Women (@ArsenalWFC) July 17, 2025
While the transfers for male players go for significantly more, this move signified a shift within women’s soccer as more money is starting to be put behind the teams.
Just a few months later, in September, the record was broken again as Grace Geyoro moved from Paris Saint-Germain to London City Lionesses in a $1.9 million deal.
The best sign for a big opportunity? When the experts say: “Don’t do it.”
When I told Serena I was starting a women’s soccer team, she pushed back. She knew how hard it would be. She’d lived it.
That kind of resistance confirms I’m on the edge of something about to be HUGE. pic.twitter.com/OVphRqqPL4
— Alexis Ohanian (@alexisohanian) June 9, 2025
In the US, women’s sport in general is growing exponentially. Revenue is projected to reach $2.35 billion in 2025, a 25% year-over-year increase, according to Deloitte.
Alexis Ohanian, founding control owner of Angel City FC, told the Fortune Global Forum in Riyadh that this surge stems from rising team valuations.
Investments in women’s sports were long “suppressed,” he said, and while the sector is still “a ways from [being] overheated,” valuations and revenues are now “whipsaw[ing] back quickly.”
He pointed to the National Women’s Soccer League’s (NWSL) record $110 million Denver expansion fee as evidence that fees have jumped “more than 100x” in just a few years. “That sounds like a tech story,” Ohanian said. “It’s a women’s sports story.”
Ohanian predicted that women’s sports will see billion-dollar teams within five years. For comparison, every NFL and NBA team is already valued at over $5 billion, and more than a dozen MLB franchises are worth more than $4 billion.
Are there commercial opportunities for women’s soccer players?
In a 2022 UEFA report, ‘The Business Case for Women’s Football,’ it was estimated that there would be a sixfold increase in commercial value over the following decade, potentially reaching an annual value of €686 million ($794 million) by 2033. It was also estimated that club sponsorship could rise to €295 million ($342 million) in that time.
As the industry grows, and more fans are sitting down to watch games (either on TV or in person,) the possible profitability from the business side has been an aspect investors and sponsors are taking note of.
Betclic, a French-based online sports betting operator, announced its partnership with the Arkema Première Ligue (APL) this summer. The company is already a partner of the French Women’s National Teams, with Betclic confirming its commitment to becoming a strong ally of women’s soccer.
Other non-gambling companies have committed to large investments or sponsorships in women’s soccer too, including the UK-based bank Barclays which has a multi-year sponsorship deal as the title sponsor of the Barclays Women’s Super League and Barclays Women’s Championship.
What challenges do sportsbooks face in women’s soccer?
Compared to men’s soccer, women’s leagues don’t have as much historical data or comprehensive statistics. This will change in time, especially as investment within the sport grows.
Another SPORTFIVE report which looked at data from 2023-24 found that the number of sponsorships in women’s professional sports increased by more than 22% YoY across leagues, teams and athletes from 2023 to 2024. When more money is injected into a sport, it allows teams to invest in technology that could provide greater data opportunities.
In men’s soccer, there have been decades of record-keeping and intelligent match-tracking systems that have been deployed which is of use to sportsbooks as they can use this data when creating offerings. In women’s soccer, however, some leagues still lack full data coverage which makes it difficult for operators to have all of the information they need.
It’s through rising interest and investment that infrastructure to capture this data correctly can be applied which is now what is being seen with the larger and more prominent leagues.
Another major challenge for sportsbooks is the changing demographics of women’s soccer. According to a Women’s Sport audience report from 2023, the sport offers stronger relative reach into female audiences than men’s soccer.
This change-up could be of use to many brands, as women generally have higher purchasing power, with women described by some reports as now being the ones to drive the world economy.
However, gambling operators haven’t always seen a huge interest from this demographic. A January 2025 Statista survey conducted amongst adults in the United States shows that 30 percent of male respondents said they had an online sports betting account.
Meanwhile, only 15% of women said they had an account. With this in mind, can sportsbook operators begin to entice a greater demographic to keep up with the growing pace of women’s soccer?
According to a chapter in the book, “Gambling and Sports in a Global Age,” the gender gap in sports betting highlights a real challenge for operators, and the research shows that women bettors often engage with gambling differently.
Young women’s betting is more strongly shaped by peer influence and sports fandom, and they experience higher rates of relationship-related harms than women who gamble on other products, suggesting distinct behavioral patterns and vulnerabilities.
Women’s sports fans also engage through socially driven, digitally mediated environments where gambling is increasingly normalized, yet targeting this growing demographic raises ethical issues, as the report notes that women’s gambling has historically been “suppressed” and is now rising through social pressures and marketing rather than through informed choice.
The dynamics show that attracting women bettors is not simply a commercial opportunity but a responsibility that requires careful, harm-aware design rather than aggressive demographic expansion.
However, if operators do begin to recognize the momentum that is growing, women’s soccer could become a substantial contributor that broadens the betting market. As fan engagement accelerates and investment from major brands pours in, operators who overlook this space risk ceding an entire emerging market to more forward-thinking competitors.
The data gaps will close, the viewership will continue to climb, and the commercial ecosystem will only strengthen. The question now is whether sportsbooks choose to grow with the sport or remain anchored to the old model. Those who delay may soon find that the most dynamic opportunity in modern football has already passed them by.
Featured Image: South_agency from Getty Images Signature via Canva
The post How is the rise of women’s soccer impacting sportsbooks? appeared first on ReadWrite.