After a long period of male dominance in televised sport, content providers are figuring out how to make their service more gender balanced, and fans are learning how to navigate a new influx of content. There are differences in how men and women sports are played and perceived. Digital experiences must work with these to make products more meaningful and effective for fans, and more durable for the future.

At Ostmodern we embrace challenges head-on and strive to identify where changes are needed, because we’re passionate about the work we do and the impact it can have. We also believe that greater inclusivity in sport has inherent business value, by delivering a greater breadth of content businesses can acquire new users and increase user retention, if done well.

This article presents the following considerations for content providers, as they carve out more space for elite female athletes within their digital products:

• Leaning in to diversity can help your business grow, deliver long term cost savings and help you adapt more quickly when it matters
• Mastering content and data delivery is essential for a valuable user experience, product durability, and editorial efficiency
• Balancing the needs of new and existing sports fans is essential for retaining users as offerings expand
• Advocating for more diverse teams within sports organisations will lead to better design for diverse audiences
• Content providers have a social responsibility to give women’s sports the platform they deserve

Leaning in to diversity now can help businesses adapt more quickly.

There is high revenue growth in women’s sports

Women's sports events have experienced notable revenue growth over the past three years, surpassing that of men’s sports, which demonstrates a sustained interest from consumers. Effectively delivering women’s sports content can help businesses to capitalise on this movement. 

Organisations that care about their fans and user experience can not only boost revenue by delivering content more effectively, but also build a more positive brand image as a result. Getting it wrong risks wasting money, underrepresenting content or alienating fans if, for example, they are force fed content not relevant to them. 

Getting it wrong risks wasting money, underrepresenting content or alienating fans if, for example, they are force fed content not relevant to them. 

Fans are changing shape

Taylor Swift’s attendance at NFL games, supporting Kansas City Chiefs (and partner Travis Kelce), has led the way for younger female audiences to engage in competitive sport. The Chiefs game against the New York Jets in 2023 averaged 27 million viewers across all platforms. It was the second most watched NFL game of the season, where ratings among female teens aged 12-17 grew by 53%, female viewers aged 18-24 increased by 24% and those aged 35+ rose by 34%. 

This demonstrates the appetite of more diverse audiences within men’s elite sport too. 

Prime-time television is stepping up to cater for a rising demand in live coverage of elite women's sports. Brands like Netflix are also investing in original sporting content, to appeal to diverse audiences with documentaries like Drive to Survive (F1) and Breakpoint (Tennis), as well as movies such as Nyad (Swimming), and The Deepest Breath (Freediving). Beyond live sport and original programming, social media clips and podcasts also work to peak interest in less a-typical fans, and drive acquisition.

Prime-time television is stepping up to cater for a rising demand in live coverage of elite women's sports.

There are so many new opportunities to engage in sport content and a whole host of dynamic ways to be a sports fan.

Scalable digital products enable businesses to adapt

A lot of time and money goes into crafting digital products, so ensuring that products are scalable enough to withstand change, makes it easier to get ahead of the curve when it matters. 

Product scalability looks at the visual, functional and technical adaptability of a product, in line with key business needs; content catalogues, commercial plans, brand development, management capabilities and research gaps. Digital products that are built to scale with businesses are more cost effective in the long run. 

It’s impossible to predict every eventuality for a digital business, but being clear about the vision upfront and potential opportunities, helps with short term tactical decision making. At Ostmodern, we work with clients to map out these needs in the early stages of our engagement, and it’s central to our process. We want to ensure that our products are future proof, for long term business growth.

Mastering content and data delivery is essential for user experiences.

Get the basics right; ensure the architecture fits the sport

Data is abundant in sport and our job as designers and strategists, is to organise and prioritise it for clients in a way that’s meaningful for users and fits the content. This is reliant on a robust database and technical infrastructure to draw in the right data at the right time. 

There is no one size fits all data structure that works for every sport; data structures in basketball for example are not the same as in golf. There are different categories, team sizes, scoring systems, tournament rounds etc, which require different treatment. Understanding data nuances enables us to build something fit for purpose, from the inside out.

For users, sport data can be valuable in its rawest form - team names, player names, scores, speed, tyres, dates, locations etc - basic information that consumers need to know, to orient themselves in sports action. A bad example of this would be seeing the headline ‘Ipswich beat Huddersfield 2-0’ - without understanding the category it belongs to, men or women, could be misleading. Bombarding users with too much raw data can also detract from an experience, and become overwhelming. Working with users in product development helps to get this balance right; ensuring that data is prioritised effectively.

Don't ignore sports categorisation

Sports categorisations - gender, weight groups, age groups, paralympic categories etc - acknowledges that there are physical differences and advantages that some bodies have over others. It uses positive discrimination to give women, and all sorts of body types, platforms to succeed in their own right; just like some team positions favour certain body types more than others. For sports consumers, categorisation provides accurate framing and context for the content  so that it can be appreciated on its own merits. 

Categorisation also signals competitive adaptations used to support physical differences and create fair advantage. These adaptations also provide helpful context for consumers, especially when introducing new users to content for the first time. In golf, women have shorter tees to account for shorter shot lengths, in volleyball, women have lower nets to account for shorter height. There are many more examples of this too.

Low effort, high value experiences can be achieved with basic data alone

Really great user experiences in sport often leverage relationships between data, to build more meaningful connections that add user value; building interest and understanding. For example, notifying volleyball fans about an upcoming match with extra data ‘Cisterna Volley (ranked #5) vs Farmitalia (ranked #6), Superlega A1, 19:45’, (league rankings mixed with event scheduling), could help to peak user interest in lower-ranked teams, featured in high-stakes games. Combining and automating data sets in this way can be more costly to implement though, so we need to be confident about where increased effort delivers the most value for users and decide on the most appropriate solution for it.

Creative applications of sport data can become particularly valuable when delivering concurrent live events; where women’s events are at risk of being overshadowed. For example, in football, the Women’s 2024 FA Cup Final between Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur, aired at the same time as a men’s Premier League game between Manchester United and Arsenal. This scenario is a prime opportunity to capitalise on the interest of Manchester United fans, introducing them to new content and directing them between games when action is at a lull.

An effective back end structure for data is the key to enabling all of this value in the front end experience, and the flexibility to experiment with different tactics for engagement later on.

Sports categorisation is only going to get more complex

Categorisation in sport is only going to get more complex in the future as divisions between categories start to blur. There are many indications of this shift over the last decade or so. 

In 2008, Natalie du Toit, a South African swimmer, made history by becoming the first amputee to compete in both the Olympic and Paralympic Games, swimming in the open-water 10Km event at the Beijing Olympics and winning multiple gold medals at the Paralympics. In boxing, Cruiserweight, Alexander Usyk held all four titles at once after beating Heavyweight, Antony Joshua in 2021. Other Cruiserweights, like Evander Holyfield, have also done the same thing. Inter-sport transitions are emerging too. In October 2023, undefeated, World Heavyweight Champion, Tyson Fury took on UFC Heavyweight Champion, Francis Ngannou in a boxing match coined the ‘Battle of the Baddest’. Rugby stars Jarryd Hayne, Christian Wade and Louis Rees-Zammit also took sideways moves to join the American NFL. 

Crossing category lines isn’t always possible, especially where the advantage is too great. Heavyweight boxers can’t join a Featherweight division, and Novak Djokovic can’t enter into an U21 tennis tournament. 

With advancements in technology and medical intervention only set to improve into the future, it’s possible that our view of what constitutes advantages and disadvantages in sport will begin to shift more; especially if top contenders in elite sport start to look different. The  pro-doping ‘Enhanced Games’, is set to challenge our ideals of equality and fair competition.

As divisions between sports an categories continue to blur, and content catalogues continue to expand, digital sports products will become ever more reliant on the scalability of their service.

As divisions between sports and categories continue to blur...digital sports products will become ever more reliant on the scalability of their service.

Free up editors to invest in valuable talking points about elite women

We know from discussions with many sports fans over the past 18 years, that the most ‘serious’ and committed sports fans are elitist. They want to watch the ‘best of the best’, the strongest, most powerful and most skillful competitors; this is true across a whole range of sports where strengths differ greatly like Darts and Sprinting, and also includes many female heroes too. 

Historically, men’s physical dominance in many elite sports has  dovetailed with this appetite for extreme competition, and is why men’s events have often been put on a pedestal. These attitudes are already changing thanks to some successful female trailblazers, but it continues to be the job of content providers to enhance and frame women’s events effectively. Consumers need valuable and compelling talking points, to enhance content and influence their perception.

Balancing the needs of new and existing sports fans is important for retention.

Welcome the newbies

When welcoming new fans onto a content platform, we observe some common user needs. Users need help to orientate within their environment, and providers need to be abundantly clear what the proposition is and how to access content (especially if it’s not free). Once activated, users can be gradually introduced to different (or more premium) content options to grow their catalogue understanding over time. Users want to learn about sports action that builds and enriches their understanding of events.

It is entirely possible for a whole spectrum of user needs to be met within the same product experience at the same time. The art of designing digital products is about balancing and prioritising those needs across different locations with careful planning, while not feeling pressurised to achieve every feature all at once. 

Don’t forget about the OGs

When opening up the sport gates to a broader market, it’s also important that businesses don’t lose sight of the needs of existing audiences within their digital experience, especially when content may question their belief system.

For some existing sports fans, elite women’s sport provides more high quality content to watch, and a larger stake in national or club level successes. It offers a wider community of fans to share interests with and more emerging talent to be excited about. Driving awareness around new content for these users and helping them navigate an extended catalogue is key.

For other existing fans, in sports like football, there is still an underlying perception that women’s events are second tier, after years of suppression within the industry, they are comparing women’s and men’s events, rather than appreciating them in their own right. Some also perceive the more ‘family-friendly’ atmosphere as the antithesis of intensity and rivalry in live games (even though women thrive on this too). Prioritising valued content is key to their experience, while gradually introducing them to new content in relevant and measured ways. 

Understanding the consumer landscape is critical for good product development. Bringing together data sets and user types into one space requires careful consideration and content providers need to get it right, if they want business plans to land well with users. This is something that Ostmodern have lots of experience in.

Understanding the consumer landscape is critical for good product development. Bringing together data sets and user types into one space requires careful consideration and content providers need to get it right, if they want business plans to land well with users.

Team diversity will lead to better design.

Combat the male skew in sports organisations

The corporate environment in sport is dominated by men. Even among our esteemed list of sports clients, the decision makers are predominantly male and projects are predominantly focussed on delivering men’s events. It’s an unfortunate symptom of centuries of repression in women’s sport, such as bans on women’s football in the UK (1921-1970) and Brazil (1941-1979); in sumo, women are still not allowed to compete professionally today. Bias is so tightly engrained in sports culture, that it can often be very difficult to unpick. Sports organisations that exist today have a responsibility to make more conscious changes for the future.

As specialists in designing digital sports products, and as a comparably newer industry, we think about how to mitigate against this in our work. Some of us designers are women; I am a woman and I have designed a large proportion of the sports products that have come through our studio. The candidates we recruit for testing usually have an equal gender split, and we consolidate insights into mindsets or archetypes, which group core behaviours and anonymise demographics like gender - a much more useful design tool anyway. 

However, our diligence isn’t a failsafe against systemic bias within the sports industry, which penetrates things like the media coverage of content, scheduling within sports events and branding. All of which are integral to the product experiences we design and build; our objective is to make products that fit the content.

The impact of bias on design can be seen more broadly in the sports world, in things like inadequate kit causing injury to players, or neglecting to think about menstruation; as well as more obvious failures like disproportionate prize money, which in surfing, was only rectified in 2019! 

Design can only be truly stress-tested if it’s put in the hands of the right people, so we will undoubtedly start to identify more flaws in sports industry design as we progress into the future. Increasing female leadership in sports organisations and increasing representations of women in our coverage of sport, will improve future design, for future content and future audiences.

Content providers have a social responsibility to elevate women's sport. 

Digital spaces are an incredibly powerful tool for sharing content and influencing the way we think, and as a result of that, they can be manipulated into an arena for modern day discrimination, such as retired footballer Joey Barton’s abuse of Eni Aluko. While better regulation and policing of those spaces are needed to stamp down on unacceptable behaviour, the more sports providers can do to flood digital spaces with valuable opinions, provide constructive analysis and interesting talking points (like Ian Wright’s advocation for women’s football), the more it will help to steer public attitude.

Investing in the coverage of women’s events now, will come full circle

Good representations of elite women have a knock on effect in other areas of the sports industry too. It encourages participation in grass-roots events, influences the aspirations of young people, builds fan interest, changes fan perception of women’s role in sport, and inspires women more generally, to exercise for health. This will only improve the pool of competitors and the quality of competition. Ensuring that digital services are equipped to deliver women’s events effectively is therefore both socially responsible and good for business. 

In the past, men's sport events have been seen as lower risk by content providers because they were always guaranteed eyeballs. As social attitudes towards women’s events shift, so will the risk of investment.

Summary

All organisations should be thinking about how they contribute to greater gender equality within sport and their digital products, for social and commercial benefit. Digital products that are not built to scale with businesses will quickly become obsolete, making it much slower for organisations to mobilise when they need to.

If you are thinking about the future of your digital service and want to make sure it’s futureproof, we would love to hear about your challenges, and see where we can help. Get in touch.