There’s no doubt that the last few years have seen a notable increase in the stock of women’s soccer, certainly in the UK. This has culminated in a landmark television deal to show Women’s Super League games exclusively on Sky Sports, much like with the men’s Premier League. It is worth pondering the impact that this could have on the division and the future for English women’s soccer too.

Perhaps the biggest thing that this new television deal could bring to the women’s game is the increasing importance of money and rising transfer fees. It’s been noted that since the arrival of higher value deals for broadcasting rights in the Premier League, for instance, that there’s been more and more money floating around Premier League clubs that has then caused the values of players and the actual clubs themselves to skyrocket. They're no longer just clubs but more global brands.

For instance, reports on the signing of the sponsorship deal between Arsenal and the Rwandan Government to have ‘Visit Rwanda’ on the shirt sleeve made specific reference to the fact that the Arsenal shirt was seen 35 million times a day. This, in turn, reinforces the idea of soccer becoming an increasingly global game and it becoming more about branding and marketing in the modern age. The television deal for the WSL may have this knock-on effect in a couple of decades in making it rather unrecognizable in monetary terms in comparison to what is it today.

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However, this increased visibility of the game could help to bring more people in when it comes to both viewing figures and wider exposure. Whilst the TV deals in the past have given way to this global branding principle, it has fundamentally impacted the health of a league in a positive way. It could be argued that keeping the game at a grassroots level, by contrast, may not be sustainable long term and that such deals are actually needed in order to secure the league’s long-term future.

Using the Women’s World Cup from 2019 as a case study, a combined amount of over 1.1 billion viewers tuned in to official coverage and upwards of a quarter of a billion unique users watched the final between the USA and Holland. These kinds of numbers occurred only thanks to the fact the women’s game was given a global audience, and if the WSL can make a success of the exposure from the television deal, there’s no reason why similar things couldn’t happen.

Of course, when it comes to getting news and odds from the world of football, the women’s game is becoming increasingly prevalent and visible, which is also reflected in the fact there are now dedicated odds from providers such as bet365 on continental events such as matches in the UEFA Women’s Champions League. However, there is little in the way of odds when it comes to outright winners. 

There are outright odds for the men’s Champions League, though, that detail that Manchester City are the current favorites to win the competition with odds of 11/5 and given that other English clubs such as Liverpool on 6/1 and Chelsea on 9/2 aren’t far behind. This also demonstrates how well-placed the nation is when it comes to the quality of soccer.

Source: Pixabay

It can be said that the Sky television deal could actually be a blessing in disguise when it comes to helping the WSL to increase its profile not only domestically but also worldwide. If all goes to plan, it surely won’t be long before the entire stock of the women’s game rises through similar deals and other investments worldwide and, therefore, should hopefully result in the long-campaigned-for issue of equal pay. That would be the real icing on the cake.