The economy today

Women's sport is starting to pay off

Audio 03:34

English and German women will face each other in the final of the 2022 Women's Football Euro. © AFP / DAMIEN MEYER

By: Dominique Baillard Follow

3 mins

In the semi-finals of the Euro, the French lost to the Germans with a score of 2 to 1. It was a failure for the Blues, but economically the competition was creating more and more winners.

Because women's sport is now considered good business.

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This women's European football championship confirms it: the final will be sold out.

Advertising revenues and TV audiences should explode.

UEFA has sold the rights in 195 countries.

She expects an income of 60 million euros, four times the earnings of the previous Women's Euro.

Sponsors flock: Visa, Adidas, Nike or Heineken are there.

Barclays bank has pledged to finance the British women's football championship for three years, by injecting 40 million euros, as much money as it invested twenty years ago in the men's championship.

Football on the women's side is starting to be taken very seriously by investors, but the discrepancy in the amounts invested indicates that there is still a lot of room for improvement to catch up with the men's competitions.

For investors, it's time to take a position in a sector that is still underfunded.

A promising sector because the fans there are reputed to be more committed than in men's sport, and therefore ready to spend a lot more money on derivative products.

Women's sport, a cash machine for television

In the quarter-finals, the match between the French women and the Dutch drew more than 5 million viewers on French screens.

In handball, the World Cup final lost by the French women last December generated the same audience as the men's final of the Olympic Games – which they won.

Audience records fall in all sports.

This was the case of the World Cricket Championship held last December in New Zealand.

This summer, the Qatari channel BeIn Sports has decided to bet more on the champions by broadcasting throughout the Middle East and Africa the three major women's events of the summer: the CAN, the Euro and the Tour de France. .

Three major events that RFI listeners were also able to follow on our channel.

According to a survey carried out in the United Kingdom, the under 55s are the most fond of women's sport.

The ladies also attract a new audience that is highly appreciated by broadcasters and sponsors alike.

Earnings that follow the audience curve?

They are indeed on an upward slope.

But in most sports, we are still very far from the fortunes pocketed by men, with the exception of tennis, where the queens of the court receive bonuses similar to those of men for ten years in major tournaments.

Last year, it was still a man, Roger Federer, who earned the most money with his racquet, all sources of income combined;

followed by a woman, the Japanese Naomi Osaka.

Third, Serena Williams, ahead of Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal.

On the other hand, in the less popular disciplines, the disparities are still glaring.

The winner of the Tour de France will pocket a check for 50,000 euros, ten times less than what the winner of the Tour 2022, the Dane Jonas Vingegaard, received.

In football, the American women's fight for parity, led by their world star Megan Rapinoe, has finally paid off.

After 6 years of proceedings, a historic agreement was signed at the beginning of the year.

About a dozen countries have similar agreements, from England to Brazil to Australia.

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