Fifth annual report identifies the tendencies, communities, and real-time indicators serving to manufacturers join with one of many fastest-growing audiences in sports.
Genius Sports Limited (NYSE: GENI), a world chief in real-time sports knowledge, immediately launched the fifth version of The Fan Project – the longest-running and first-of-its-kind report collection devoted to inspecting the industrial worth of women’s sports fandom.
In the most recent report, Turning Culture Into Commerce, Genius reveals tendencies that come to life uniquely within the women’s sports fan group and how they’re converging to drive development. The free report can be downloaded here.
Among the report’s findings:
- Partnering with feminine athletes drives outsized returns. Fans of women’s sport are 3x extra possible than followers of males’s sport to purchase from player-created manufacturers — proving that athlete alignment goes additional, and converts more durable, in women’s sport than wherever else. (Full yr, 2025)
- Athletes can elevate model partnerships into model phenomena. Following Alex Morgan’s Bobbie marketing campaign, followers of women’s sport elevated their spend with the model by 33% — a masterclass in how genuine athlete storytelling interprets on to the underside line.
- Women’s sports followers who sport are the sportsbook trade’s most ignored development viewers. Women’s sports followers who play video video games are 3.2x extra possible than the final inhabitants to position a sportsbook wager — making them a high-intent, primed-to-convert phase that the trade has barely touched.
- Women’s sports have cracked the code on borderless fandom. Only 7% of women’s sports followers comply with a group as a result of they dwell close by, in comparison with 30% of males’s sports followers — certain by values, not zip codes, making it probably the most scalable and digitally native fan bases in sports.
- Women’s sports followers don’t simply wish to watch — they need an expertise. Fans of women’s sport are 2.6x extra prone to attend live shows and festivals than normal sports followers, signaling a large, unmet urge for food for manufacturers keen to create immersive moments across the sport.
- Supporting a neighborhood women’s sports group is now a nationwide model play. Minnesota Aurora attracted traders from all 50 U.S. states and 19 nations. Angel City FC ships merchandise to 80+ nations. Brands that again native women’s groups aren’t shopping for regional publicity — they’re shopping for into a world dialog.
Turning Culture Into Commerce makes use of Genius’ proprietary Fan Graph knowledge to research precise fan spending and observational client conduct indicators at scale, serving to manufacturers perceive the place women’s sports fandom is shifting subsequent and the place to interact. The data-driven findings present that as women’s sports audiences develop, followers are spending, gathering, investing, enjoying, touring, and interesting with athlete-led culture in methods which can be reshaping the class’s industrial worth.
“The next phase of women’s sports growth will be shaped by brands that understand fandom as a full consumer journey, not a single sponsorship moment,” mentioned Gina Waldhorn, SVP, Marketing at Genius Sports. “Fans are telling us what they care about through how they spend, what they collect, who they follow, and when they engage. With the right intelligence, brands can move beyond visibility and start building deeper, more valuable connections around the moments that matter most.”
Emerging fan behaviors found by Genius that outline the subsequent part of women’s sports fandom embrace: the rise of collectible culture, athlete-led belief economies, participant possession fashions, vulnerability as a model asset, festival-style fan experiences, native golf equipment with international resonance, gaming as an on-ramp to betting, and the evolution of women’s sports merchandise into streetwear and cultural merchandise.
These behaviors are backed by Fan Graph knowledge, creating a powerful enterprise case for manufacturers to put money into women’s sports properties.
“Women’s sports fans reward brands that show up with cultural fluency and a real understanding of the communities they are entering,” mentioned Angela Ruggiero, four-time Olympic medalist and co-founder of Sports Innovation Lab. “This report gives brands a clearer view of where fandom is turning into behavior, where behavior is turning into commerce, and where the next opportunities for growth are taking shape.”
Turning Commerce Into Cuture additionally guides manufacturers on how to authentically present up and leverage cool-factor areas that women’s sports uniquely have over males’s sports in trendy pop culture. From Labubu’s to athlete-owned espresso outlets, the report explores the artistic canvas open to manufacturers, representing an unlimited alternative to seize shoppers and market share.
This newest launch within the The Fan Project collection – beforehand authored by Sports Innovation Lab, now a Genius Sports firm – comes as dwell sports evolves into a scaled media surroundings, that includes emotionally charged moments that may be recognized, activated, and measured in actual time via the Genius Sports Moment Engine.
For women’s sports, the place athletes, communities, and culture are shaping fandom in actual time, this creates a brand new playbook for manufacturers to construct relevance, carry recall, and drive measurable industrial impression. Key steering for manufacturers to take them via the rest of 2026 contains:
- Unleash knowledge’s full power to faucet into emotion. Prioritize reaching followers throughout emotionally charged moments that drive deeper engagement and stronger model recall.
- Have systemic impression. Help shut the funding hole in women’s sports by creating partnerships that ship lasting worth for athletes, groups, and followers.
- Connect via culture: Show up authentically throughout the communities, rituals, and cultural conversations that outline women’s sports fandom.
Download Turning Culture Into Commerce here.