Parity Predicts: 2025 Women's Sports Predictions

The success of women’s sports has quickly become the world’s worst kept secret. 2024 was a historic year for women’s sports across the globe, with records smashed and standards raised. Sporting News Athlete of the Year? Caitlin Clark. Sports Illustrated Sportsperson of the Year? Simone Biles. With female athletes and trends in women’s sports here to stay, it’s time to look ahead. What’s in store for the next groundbreaking year? We sat down with both Parity and industry professionals to get their predictions for trends to watch in women’s sports in 2025, and how you can take advantage of the quickly changing landscape. 

Source: Elena Bruckner

Brand and Athlete Partnerships

Elizabeth Montavon, professional water skier and Director of Athlete Marketing and Social Media at Parity, knows a thing or two about athlete branding and marketing. We asked Elizabeth: how brands can authentically engage with athletes and their audiences in the new year? She predicts that the run up to Milan 2026 will be a huge opportunity for both brands and athletes to make waves in the women’s sports space, and has tips for everyone to take advantage of the next few years of growth. 

Elizabeth’s Tips for Brands:

1. Stop seeing female athletes only through the “woman” lens. All female athletes have more facets, skill sets and identities than “athlete,” and brands will benefit when they lean into those other sides of the athlete’s personality. 
2. Fans will know when something is just a one off partnership, or lacking sincerity. If you’re going to invest in a partnership with a female athlete, make sure it’s longterm and authentic! Her fans will be able to tell the difference, and you’ll reap the reward. 
3. Women’s sports fans are built different: they are a community driven group, ready to ride or die for the long haul. Creating opportunities for direct interactions between athletes and their fans facilitated by you, the brand, will increase your impact and credibility within the women’s sporting community. 

Elizabeth’s Tips for Athletes:

1. A reset is the key to success. It can be quite difficult to see yourself objectively, and often intimidating to develop effective strategies that leverage your brand as an athlete, in and out of sport. Take stock of your target audience and make sure your content is tailored directly to them. 
2. Dust off that LinkedIn profile! Elizabeth shares a lot of the athletes she works with don’t see their athletic experience as work experience, but that’s just not true. Learning to represent yourself in a professional setting on LinkedIn is a way to start to see yourself as a professional in more ways than one! What’s more, a lot of the movers and shakers who represent brands use LinkedIn to find strategic partnerships, so having an active presence there will put you one step ahead.

Skincare brand Paula’s Choice has named professional rugby player and Olympian Ilona Maher as its first-ever brand ambassador. As part of the pairing, the duo will collab to launch the highly anticipated Pro-Collagen Peptide Plumping Moisturizer. Source: NewBeauty

New Leagues

Some trends might come and go, but the growth of women’s sports in the United States is clearly here to stay. Caroline Fitzgerald, founder of GOALS, has always known that investing in women’s sports is good business, and the rest of the world is finally catching up. In 2025, there will be a whole new set of investment opportunities as new women’s sports leagues get ready to launch. Women’s professional softball, lacrosse, volleyball, football and baseball are all getting ready for their debuts, and we asked Caroline: what unique opportunities she sees for new women’s leagues in the new year?

Caroline’s Tips for Brands/Industry Players:

1. Caroline predicts that 2025 will be the year of the challenger brand. Brands that might not be #1 in their industry, but want to connect with a new industry and consumers have the potential to stake out considerable market share within women’s sports.
2. Looking at the WNBA or the NWSL and kicking yourself that you didn’t buy in earlier? Now is the earlier for these new emerging leagues. Whether it’s baseball, football, softball or volleyball, brands have the opportunity to be the brand that champions a particular sport in the United States, and Caroline advises jumping at that opportunity. These new leagues will grow because we now have many years of data that shows that they will.

Caroline’s Tips for Fans:

1. Supporting the brands that support women’s sports. We know that women’s sports fans already do this, but continuing to reward brands will inform their future investment decisions. Buying tickets and merchandise is important, but shifting your daily spending can also be so impactful! If you have to bank, bank with a company supporting women’s sports! If you have to get insurance anyway, why not get insurance from the company supporting your favorite star? 
2. It can be harder to find women’s sports on television! Know that it’s going to take a tiny bit more effort, especially with emerging leagues, to stay in the know. Caroline advises going to women’s sports media platforms like The Gist, Just Women’s Sports, GOALS, HighlightHer and the Women’s Sports Network who will help connect you to the fandom and make it easier to stay tuned. Caroline also advises you to follow athletes directly, which will not only support them but give you a behind the scenes look! 

Founded by WNBA superstars Napheesa Collier and Breanna Stewart, Unrivaled is a professional women's basketball league that will play its games in the U.S. The league will be made up of WNBA players, feature some of the game's biggest names and provide record-breaking compensation. Source: Sporting News

Media and Fan Engagement

As Lead Data Scientist for Parity, Phillippa Thomson lives and breathes trends. We asked Phil: what trends in media and fan engagement we should be looking out for in 2025, and her predictions went far beyond the numbers. Over the Paris Olympics and Paralympics, Phil tracked engagement with athletes who were named to rosters for the Games, and, predictably, their exposure and earning potential greatly increased. Looking forward to the next few years, with the Women’s Rugby World Cup and Women’s Cricket World Cup both taking place in 2025, and the Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games in 2026, Phil predicts the outcomes will reflect what we’ve seen in Paris, with big events making big changes. 

Phil’s Tips for Brands/Industry Players:

1. Female athletes are continuing to prove just what dynamic and vibrant storytellers they can be on social media, leading fans to engage with them in a way we haven’t seen with male athletes. For instance, social media darling Ilona Maher recently became the most engaged-with rugby player in the world, of either gender. This is an incredible accomplishment when you take into consideration the breadth of the men’s rugby fandom across the globe. So make sure you’re taking advantage of partnerships with dynamic female storytellers!
2. You’re no longer the first! Women’s sports is now a tried and true investment. There are plenty of new women’s sports leagues popping up that are ready for game changing partnerships. Need something more established? Leagues like the NWSL and the WNBA still only have about half the number of sponsors as their MLS and NBA counterparts, so have plenty of room for more names on jerseys. 

Phil’s Tips for Fans:

1. Don’t turn off the TV! With countless historic media deals being negotiated, one of the best ways we can show leagues and sponsors that women’s sports are worth it is by tuning in. 
2. A side effect of our eyes on women’s sports? A trend Phil has observed that is great for fans and athletes alike is that as viewership numbers increase, investment trickles down into athletes’ pockets and they can afford to focus solely on their craft. This has made the product so, so much better, and with continued investment the level of play on the women’s field is only going to continue to skyrocket.

Oklahoma Sooners center Raegan Beers (52) waits to be introduced before a women's college basketball game between the University of Oklahoma Sooners (OU) and the Texas Longhorns at Lloyd Noble Center in Norman, Okla., Thursday, Jan. 2, 2025. © BRYAN TERRY/THE OKLAHOMAN / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Sport in Society

As a lifelong athlete and sports fan, Malik Fair is passionate about his role in empowering women’s sports, and helping bring them the value he knows they deserve. In his role as one of Parity’s Enterprise Key Account Managers, Malik is able to bring his unique perspective as an African American male to an otherwise female team, and largely female environment. We wanted to ask Malik how he predicts that women’s sports will shape broader societal trends in 2025. 

Malik sees sports as a space of opportunity moving forward in an increasingly divided world: sports is a bipartisan playing field, and can bring us together in a way other things can’t. Talent is talent, and greatness is greatness, regardless of gender, race, class or disability. Sports also has a way of making allies out of us, and men play a vital role in not only helping women’s sports grow, but in helping grow the ripple effect on society that women’s sports has impacted. 

Malik’s Tips for Brands/Industry Players

1. As women’s sports continue to bloom and get the recognition they deserve, Malik cautions industry players against price gouging. Find the right balance between charging for what the product is worth, but not scaring off fans who have been there since the beginning. 
2. Make sure you are investing equally in men’s and women’s sports! This one seems like a no-brainer but there’s plenty of portfolios that have men’s teams investments but are lacking a female team equivalent. 
3. Male leagues and athletes hold a responsibility to act as allies towards the women’s sports movement. Need inspiration? Look no further than Sabrina Ionescu’s shoe being the #1 shoe in the NBA this season. This allyship will make brands realize the increased demand for signature female athlete merchandise. 

Malik's Tips for Fans:

1. Engage with female athletes on social media. Continuing to give female athletes platforms will bring us closer to the equity we know women’s sports deserves, and uplifting behind the scenes content will expose inequities. 
2. As fans we have an opportunity and a responsibility to continue to shape women’s sports. As more leagues form and more money gets poured into them, we have the opportunity to support them or not: not all movements within women’s sports are automatically good. Are they giving players equity in new ventures? Are they considering community input? Continuing to be critical will help the movement in the long run. 
3. And if you’re an athlete? Know the field has changed for how you can represent yourself! Athletes who are fluent on social media will get ahead and stay ahead, so don’t be afraid to put yourself out there! We know you do so much, but continue to wear all of your hats and show us who you are. 

Tara Davis-Woodhall (USA) and Jasmine Moore (USA) celebrate after winning gold and bronze in the women’s long jump during the Paris 2024 Olympic Summer Games at Stade de France in Saint-Denis, France, Thursday, Aug. 8, 2024. © Andrew Nelles / USA TODAY NETWORK

A Word From the Athletes Themselves

Finally, there is no one who knows women’s sports better than female athletes. In a recent conversation with our six Parity Team Athletes (Kara Winger, Samantha Bosco, Nicole Mendes, Elena Bruckner, Alexis Belton and Keturah Orji), we asked them about the future of women’s sports, and the partnerships that make it run. From javelin to track cycling, all of these athletes agree that while there’s been so many changes, the best is yet to come. 

Our Athletes’ Tips for Brands

1. Partnerships with female athletes should go both ways! Enlisting a female athlete’s expertise to help develop your service or product is the best way to ensure that it will be a better product or service for the athletes you currently serve, and those of future generations. 
2. Continue to allow athletes to be their authentic selves on social media. Female athletes have so appreciated the transition towards more “real” online storytelling, and being given the chance to talk about issues that are important to them. They say it allows them to connect better with their audience, and feel truly excited about representing a brand. 

Our Athletes’ Tips for Athletes:

1. While marketing is a huge part of the new sports landscape, retaining your love of sport will help keep you in the game for the long haul. Whether it’s during practice or competition, focusing in on yourself and your journey is always the right approach versus worrying how an outcome will make you look online or to a sponsor.

1. Social media is not real life! It’s an incredibly valuable tool, but it’s just that: a tool. Sometimes social media can distort our perceptions of others’ journeys, and make us feel like ours isn’t moving fast enough. Having the patience for the slow burn and the dedication for the unsexy improvements is what will ultimately bring you to the top of your game.

Our Athletes’ Bold Predictions for the Next Five Years:

“There will be more female household names than male.” -Sam Bosco, track cycling

Source: Getty Images

“Same number of women’s leagues as men’s leagues will be broadcasted.” -Nicole Mendes, softball

Source: Nicole Mendes

“Body diversity will keep growing and become more and more visible across sport.” -Kara Winger, javelin

Source: Getty Images

“Serena Williams will be president. …maybe Alexis [Ohanian] will be vice president.” -Alexis Belton, golf

Source: Pro Long Drive

“When we talk about sports people will assume we are talking about women’s sports.” -Keturah Orji, track and field

Source: Her Agenda

Whether you’re a brand, an athlete or a fan, there’s so much to look forward to in the new year. With new leagues and new opportunities, we can’t wait to see what happens. Whatever 2025 brings, we’ll be right alongside you to celebrate all the big wins and learn lessons from the losses. 

Cheers to another great year!

About Parity, a Group 1001 Company
Minority-founded in 2020, Parity's mission is to close the gender income and opportunity gap in professional sports. By developing high-impact collaborations between brands, professional women athletes and their fans, Parity has proudly put more than $3.5 million in the pockets of women athletes, attracting dozens of brands to the movement in the process. The platform offers connections to more than 1000 women athletes from 80+ sports, including well over 200 Olympians and Paralympians. For more information on how to tap into the rapidly rising influence and popularity of women athletes, visit https://paritynow.co or follow us on Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook, and Threads.