Back to the drawing board

The GIST: The stars aligned for women’s sports in the UK this year, with the country hosting international tournaments like the Women’s Rugby World Cup, promoting domestic leagues like the Barclays Women’s Super League, The Hundred, and the Netball Super League, and winning the UEFA Women’s Euro title (again).

• A new Women’s Sports Trust report found viewership among UK women for women’s sports reached record highs for the Women’s Euro (44%) and Women’s Rugby World Cup (43%). This suggests hosting global events is a surefire way to grow the women’s game, and for upcoming U.S. competitions, sponsors have an opportunity to make winning assists.

The data: The nation won big in sports like rugby and soccer, along with local faves like cricket and netball. As media deals improved access, total viewing hours from January to September reached a record 357M hours. During this period, the average viewing time for women’s TV sport programming was nine hours and 45 minutes, surpassing the previous 2023 record of nine hours and 29 minutes.

• And across all TV programming, the nation’s most-watched broadcast moments so far this year starred the Lionesses: The Women’s Euro final drew a peak audience of 16.22M, while England’s semifinal drew 9.88M nationally.

The trend: We know that hosting a tournament fosters national viewership, and in the UK, the influx of tournament bids and trophies coincides with the growth of women’s sports. This spills into increased fandom and viewership for domestic leagues, which means these tentpole events have long-lasting effects.

• This happened after the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup (WWC) and in 2024 following the IIHF Women’s World Championship. It’s also setting the stage for sports like volleyball, women’s soccer, and women’s rugby as the U.S. prepares to host the 2027 FIVB Women’s Volleyball World Championship, the 2031 WWC, and the 2033 Women’s Rugby World Cup.

Zooming out: When the UK hosted (and won) the 2022 Women’s Euro, it ignited women’s sports fandom beyond the tournament: 27% of its 15.8M new viewers watched more women’s sports for the following two months. This is why it’s pivotal for the U.S. to launch and win bids to spur long-term domestic fandom, and it’s imperative that sponsors and media entities jump in to strengthen bids.

• It’s also beneficial to enter at the domestic level before major global events, which lets sponsors enter at a lower price point as they build up to the world stage — consider U.S. Soccer’s record sponsorship revenue in the lead-up to men’s and women’s World Cups and Netflix’s rights coup for the WWC in 2027 and 2031. Brace yourself.

The GIST: Marketing agency STN Digital and partnerships insights platform Zoomph teamed up to evaluate more than 20K pieces of social media content from WNBA teams throughout the regular season, releasing their “WNBA Social Rankings and Insights Report” last week.

• The data illustrates how each W team fared on social media during this season, singling out the highest-performing teams and content in terms of engagement and media value. Burnin’ up.

🔥 The Indiana Fever remains the most popular. The Indianapolis team boasted a league-best social value ($55.04M), engagements (38.73M) and impressions (1.17B) during the regular season. In terms of estimated social value, the Fever were followed by the Dallas Wings ($8.61M), Las Vegas Aces ($7.64M), Minnesota Lynx ($7.54M), and Chicago Sky ($6.35M).

• It’s likely no coincidence these teams feature the WNBA’s most popular athletes, including Caitlin Clark, Paige Bueckers, A’ja Wilson, the StudBudz, and Angel Reese.

💸 But the Wings are taking flight. Though it comes in at a distant second in social value, the Dallas franchise saw the most dramatic YoY growth. After the Wings landed 2025 Rookie of the Year Bueckers with the No. 1 overall pick, engagements spiked 505%, impressions increased 251%, and social value went up 344% since 2024.

📷 Photo outperformed video across X and Facebook. On average, photos created nearly twice the engagement than videos on both platforms: They performed 1.9x better on X and 1.8x better on Facebook. Additionally, photos comprised 18 of the top 20 posts on X and 15 of the top 20 on Facebook. A picture really is worth a thousand words.

🤝 And on Instagram, WNBA–NBA crossover posts won over fans. According to the research, five of the top six team posts analyzed spotlighted collaborative moments between the two basketball leagues.

The takeaway: The report included the clubs’ most valuable social media post, led by a Fever YouTube video worth an estimated $733,594 in social value and an Atlanta Dream Instagram vid worth an estimated $226,555. These moments were powered by iconic players — there’s little more quintessential than Clark sinking a deep three or Renee Montgomery cheering on the Dream.

• That’s what makes athlete partnerships a continued point of consideration as brands look to win over audiences organically. As the media landscape continues to change, sponsors working on scalable and authentic videos for social — potentially in collaboration with both basketball leagues — is imperative.

⚽ The NWSL’s postseason is officially upon us…and so is The GIST's free-to-enter NWSL Playoff Bracket Challenge. Whether you’re a diehard fan or just here for some friendly competition, this challenge is for everyone — no expertise required.

🤔 Why you should play:

• Rooting for your favorite team takes on a whole new meaning.

• Be a part of The GIST’s one-of-a-kind community and compete against friends.

• There are some bragging rights (and prizes) on the line.

👏 Trust us, it’s even more fun to watch the postseason when you have some skin in the game…and when you’re enjoying the action with thousands of fellow GISTers. You have until Friday, November 7th at 12 p.m. ET — may the odds be ever in your favor.