Women's Sports Marketing Growing in India: LS Digital Report

By: WE Staff | Thursday, 4 December 2025

• LS Digital released a year-end report called ‘The Rise of Women's Sports Marketing in India’
• The report links India’s Women’s Cricket World Cup win to the rapid commercial growth of women’s sports

LS Digital has released its year-end report, The Rise of Women's Sports Marketing in India, highlighting how the India Women's Cricket World Cup win has accelerated the commercial growth of women's sports.

According to the report, the category is now moving from CSR-led visibility to a far more valued, digitally driven ecosystem supported by growing viewership, better brand participation, and key institutional changes.

Using LS Digital's Quilt-based methodology that combines curated search and social data with machine-assisted analysis, the report identifies major cultural and commercial trends. Among the key findings is the rise of "Patriotic Marketing," where women athletes are now positioned as national symbols in 50 percent of labelled conversations.

Of this trend, 78 percent of the content focuses on national achievement, while consumer engagement and the "local hero" affect each contributes 11 percent, offering brands robust opportunities for meaningful storytelling.

Significant commercial growth exists in the Women's Elite Sports market as reports indicate that the global value of this market will reach $2.35 billion by 2025.

The rate of growth for sponsorships within women's leagues is also reported to be growing at a rate of 50 percent higher than that of men's sports. The majority of sponsors (86 percent) reporting that they have either met or exceeded expectations for return on investment.

Digital behaviour is playing a large part in this growth, as streaming now represents more than 40% of all viewership, and interest in Women's Sport digitally has increased almost 200 percent over the last 36 months.

Audience patterns are changing, too. Social data indicates that 57–58 percent of viewers during recent women’s cricket tournaments were men, challenging assumptions about the category’s audience base. About 6 percent of conversations involve themes of youth inspiration, showing how women athletes are influencing younger fans.

These cultural shifts are reflected in the athlete economy. For top players, such as Jemimah Rodrigues and Smriti Mandhana, endorsement values have grown between 25–100 percent.

Smriti's endorsement fee is reportedly around Rs 2 crore per brand, while top athletes work with upwards of 16 partners across sportswear, nutrition, technology, finance, and lifestyle.

This report concludes that continued growth will be determined by how stakeholders deepen fan engagement, build robust narratives, and maintain continuity of visibility throughout the sports calendar.

Women's sports in India can now are positioned as a legitimate and future-facing marketing segment with growing digital consumption and extending athlete influence.