20 prime tier ladies’s sport leagues, groups and competitions throughout seven completely different sports activities took half within the first session of a brand new Government scheme to spice up funding and enhance broadcast audiences.

The Women’s Sport Investment Accelerator, launched by the Department for Business and Trade (DBT), will run for a 12 months and produce collectively UK-based sports activities rightsholders – reminiscent of leagues, groups, competitions and occasions – who’re searching for funding along with trade consultants and sports activities buyers.

Participants included elite ladies’s sport competitions such because the FA Women’s Super League, England Rugby, England Netball, England and Wales Cricket Board, Volleyball England and extra.

Seven completely different sports activities have been represented in complete: soccer, rugby, netball, cricket, golf, crusing and volleyball. Investment in ladies’s sport is rising quickly, and the trade is predicted to be price £1 billion a 12 months by 2030.

Industry Minister Nusrat Ghani mentioned:

It’s implausible to see this scheme get off the mark as we purpose to make the UK the world’s primary vacation spot for girls’s sport funding.

We’ve had so many good ladies’s sport success tales this 12 months. I’m excited to see the overwhelming urge for food from leagues, groups and competitions from proper throughout the breadth of girls’s sports activities, and am proud to again this fast-growing sector because it pushes boundaries and grows to the subsequent degree.

In affiliation with Deloitte’s Sports Business Group and supported by the International Working Group (IWG) on Women and Sport, the scheme is offering a sequence of periods providing market insights, connections and networking occasions alongside complete mentoring for rightsholders who’re in search of funding.

This week marked the primary of three flagship periods of the scheme – the subsequent of which takes place in January – with DBT additionally offering devoted workshops for rightsholders on particular areas, reminiscent of rising broadcast revenues, unlocking new audiences and greatest apply for working with buyers.

Holly Murdoch, The FA’s Head of Operations for the Women’s Professional Game, mentioned:

We are proud to be concerned within the new Women’s Sport Investment Accelerator initiative. This group will assist to supply a platform that can profit ladies’s sport throughout the nation, by way of shared intelligence and help.

We have seen first-hand the unbelievable progress that ladies’s soccer goes by way of in England, with the unprecedented success of the Lionesses and the record-breaking seasons from throughout the Barclays Women’s Super League and the Barclays Women’s Championship.

Women’s sport has confirmed that it has the ability to encourage folks and positively impression lives – and we consider that creating this group of trade consultants is usually a catalyst to drive optimistic change for girls’s sport throughout the nation.

Tony Sutton, CEO of the Rugby Football League mentioned:

We had a superb first session of the Women’s Sport Investment Accelerator final night time, with a very good combine of individuals, sports activities and organisations within the room which led to a excessive normal of debate, the advantage of some very related expertise and a few optimistic networking.

Personally, I made some good contacts from throughout the broader sports activities sector which I really feel will likely be of a excessive worth as we transfer by way of the programme.

Hannah Bruce, Head of Public Policy, England and Wales Cricket Board mentioned:

Women’s sport is on an upward trajectory and cricket is proud to be on the journey to changing into a gender balanced sport. The first accelerator session was a implausible alternative for rightsholders to come back collectively, share greatest apply and discover rising tendencies.

We are grateful to the Department of Business and Trade and Deloitte for his or her help in showcasing what the most effective of UK ladies’s sport has to supply now and sooner or later.

Fiona McIntyre, Managing Director of the Scottish Women’s Premier League mentioned:

I’m delighted to have been chosen to take part within the Women’s Sport Investment Accelerator programme on behalf of The Scottish Women’s Premier League (SWPL). External funding has been essential to our current progress, and will likely be much more important as we try to problem ladies’s soccer in Scotland to assume innovatively and guarantee it meets its undoubted potential, each on and off the pitch.

This programme is precisely what ladies’s sport within the UK wants – creativity, innovation and help mixed with the eagerness and motivation of these striving to lift the bar and create a brand new future for girls’s sport within the UK.

Phoebe Tomlinson, England Rugby’s Commercial Partnerships Manager for the Women’s and Girls’ Game mentioned:

It was vastly helpful to be a part of the dynamic conversations round ladies’s sport. The open discussion board to debate strategic plans, digital improvement and study from different sports activities rights holders is vital to the optimistic motion of girls’s sport.

One of the highlights of the night was studying in regards to the strong dedication to investing within the ladies’s recreation and the thrilling strides which have been made in commercialising it by way of progressive means.

Mark Foster, Chief Commercial Officer at England Netball mentioned:

It was implausible to attend the primary session of the Women’s Sport Investment Accelerator programme on behalf of England Netball. The room was filled with extremely spectacular folks all with a ardour and need to help the additional progress of Women’s Sport and this programme may also help us all to study from and help one another in addition to profit from the experience of DBT & Deloitte and the channels for funding that they may also help us to unlock.

Off the again of our Vitality Roses making their first World Cup Final in the summertime and the just lately introduced re-launch of Netball Super League deliberate for 2025 this programme comes on the very best time for us as a sport as we enter into a considerable progress interval, which would require funding from quite a lot of completely different sources to assist us to attain our bold targets.

Rob Payne, National Competitions Manager at Volleyball England mentioned:

I’m delighted to take part within the Women’s Sport Investment Accelerator programme on behalf of Volleyball England. The prospect of attracting new funding is a key precedence in our ambitions to professionalise the Women’s recreation, and this programme will likely be an vital stepping stone in reaching them.

A elementary a part of our organisational technique is targeted on elevating the profile of the MAAREE Women’s Super League, and the chance to obtain devoted mentoring, community with world-leading organisations and construct my information by way of insights from trade consultants will likely be vastly helpful to remodel our sport.

Jenny Mitton, Women’s Sport Lead at M&C Saatchi Sport and Entertainment and mentor for the scheme mentioned:

Women’s sport is the progressive start-up to the boys’s sport business big, and the potential is evident to see. New audiences, innovation and aggressive progress, it has all the basic qualities that buyers search for.

The UK is dwelling to a number of the most fun ladies’s sport properties, this scheme will equip them with the information to draw funding and make the UK the primary vacation spot for elite ladies’s sport.

Tim Bridge, lead companion for Deloitte’s Sports Business Group, mentioned:

The Women’s Sport Investment Accelerator has already generated enormous curiosity from events throughout a variety of industries, demonstrating that buyers and business companions are alive to the alternatives that ladies’s sport presents.

This will likely be essential for progress, offering funds to be channelled in direction of professionalisation, digital methods, infrastructure, and extra. This programme will carve out the clear strains of communication which might be wanted in order that business companions and buyers perceive the expansion methods and make-up of girls’s sport organisations.

Secretary General of the IWG Women and Sport, Lisa O’Keefe mentioned:

The first session of the Women’s Sport Investment Accelerator introduced collectively sports activities rightsholders from a variety of sports activities from throughout the UK, which was good to see, in addition to trade consultants and potential buyers.

I heard some glorious discussions going down in regards to the present business panorama, the elements driving the expansion in funding, and what the learnings have been from the previous, and I’m now trying ahead to seeing what alternatives will emerge.

Background:

• The software course of for the Women’s Sport Investment Accelerator is open to rightsholders of any UK-based ladies’s sports activities leagues, groups, competitions or occasions aiming to draw funding and enhance their progress.
• The scheme can be being made out there without charge to taxpayers, with all audio system and mentors offering their time and experience on a professional bono foundation and the scheme being delivered by way of DBT’s collaboration with Deloitte, who’re offering occasion house and facilitating a number of of the scheme periods.
• Source for £1 billion ladies’s sport trade worth projection determine: Two Circles analysis – https://twocircles.com/gb-en/increased-visibility-key-to-1bn/.