How is the rise of women’s soccer impacting sportsbooks?

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.