Source: Unsplash
As internet access has increased worldwide, the global online sports betting market has registered healthy growth. The numbers speak for themselves: the industry is forecasted to increase from USD 24,988.4 million in 2019 to USD 59,530.7 million by 2026.
The rising popularity of sports has fuelled this growth. Unsurprisingly, football brings in millions of devoted viewers annually around the world. It doesn't matter whether it's a pre-season friendly or a final: there are seemingly betting markets for everything and people are always ready and waiting to place their wagers.
For instance, a recent example is those fans who bet on football odds for the Super Cup game between Chelsea (the Blues had odds of 1/3 to lift the trophy at the start) and Villarreal on August 11th. That’s interesting because, for starters, rarely do people remember who wins the Super Cup, and secondly, it doesn't affect the league standings. Regardless, bettors flocked to the market to place wagers on potential outcomes.
So if sports are becoming more popular, especially football, and are propelling the online betting market forward, and, respectively, all the platforms that provide football betting tips to the public, one would think that women’s football is part of this reality. Unfortunately, that doesn’t seem to be the case, and we can only blame the lack of sports broadcasters investing in women’s sports media rights.
On August 6th, 2021, CBC announced that 4.4 million people watched Canada’s women’s football team win the gold medal against Sweden at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. The game went to penalties, and like England’s men’s football team in the Euro 2020 final, the game-winning kick went down to one of the rising stars on the team: 20-year-old Julia Grosso, and she scored.
On Friday morning, a TV audience of 4.4 million watched @CBC to cheer on the Canadian Women's Soccer team as they won gold for Canada at 10:47 am, making this the most-watched moment of #Tokyo2020 in Canada pic.twitter.com/31dE7VF937
— CBC Olympics (@CBCOlympics) August 7, 2021
A TV audience of 4.4 million is in the arena of NHL and NBA playoff numbers. In fact, BT Sport’s coverage of the 2021 men’s Champions League final reached 8.7 million viewers. While that’s a significantly higher number, it does put things into perspective and demonstrates that interest in women’s football isn’t, when compared accordingly, too far behind men's.
It also pokes holes in the narrative that women don’t drive ratings. As Canada’s goalkeeper Stephanie Labbé said: “Visibility and exposure matter.” Labbé added that these 4.4 million people can only watch them on TV once every four years when there's World Cup or Olympics coverage. In Canada, there are no professional women’s football teams. They recently formed a Canadian Premier League, but it's only for the men's teams.
The UK and France have professional divisions for women, but they don’t get nearly as much recognition as the men’s leagues. This reality brings up another point: imagine the growth networks would see if they aired women’s football matches like they do men’s. What’s more, imagine the numbers the online sports betting market would record if you could as easily bet on women’s football like you do the Premier League.
In 2021, we saw the excellence in women’s sport. What has to happen next is sports broadcasters worldwide need to invest in women’s sports media rights, enabling them to show their matches on prime time. By doing so, there will be a ripple effect, and one of the industries bound to reap benefits from such a move is the online sports betting market.
