Using Game Theory to Analyze Trends in Women’s Sports Fans:
https://www.sportsilab.com/reportstore/p/the-growth-of-womens-sports
Sports Innovation Lab (founded by Angela Ruggerio – 4X Olympic Women’s Hockey Medalist) conducted the largest ever study of women’s sports fans, titled “The Fan Project”.
The data showed that investing in women’s sports is beneficial for brands, and that women’s sports fans were likely to spend 2-4X more per purchase than general sports fans (a term used in the report to differentiate women’s fans from fans of the rest of sports). This contradicts criticisms which some brands have received for these partnerships. Investing in women’s sports is not just brands being “woke” or wanting good publicity, but actually a beneficial business strategy.
While this commitment of fans to support brands who have partnered with their favorite teams/leagues may read as surprising, it makes perfect sense when looking at the network, and seeing how it satisfies the Triadic Closure Property. Considering the node labeled “women’s sports teams” we can reason that it has strong ties to both its fans and its partners. Its fans care a lot about them, and they care a lot about their fans. We can understand this intuitively, but it is also highlighted in the report. Additionally, we know there is a strong tie between the teams and their brand partners because they both have monetary interests in the relationship, and want to work together to increase payoff.
Because of these two strong ties to “women’s sports teams,” by the Strong Triadic Closure Property we can conclude that there is at least a weak tie between the fans and brand partners. The Fan Project not only confirms this tie, but proves the tie between women’s sports fans and brand partners is stronger than the tie between general sports fans and their partners. This strength is defined by the amount of money fans spent on brand partners. As stated, women’s fans spend 2-4X more on purchases from brand partners.
Ruggerio said the goal of the report was to “give those responsible for investing in broadcast rights and sponsorship of women’s sports data they simply can’t ignore.” The report definitely succeeded in doing so, and I hope to see more major investments in partnerships and in the coverage of women’s sports leagues.