After talking a good game when it comes to backing female athletes, brands appear to now be putting their money where their mouths are. 

Sponsorships of women athletes when measured by the number of deals grew 20% in the year ending Sept. 2022, compared with 2% for men, according to a new recent report by SponsorUnited, a sports and entertainment platform that tracks sponsorships and endorsements. The report looked at 6,330 sponsorships across professional and college sports from Sept. 2021 to Sept. 2022.

Men, though, still dominate when it comes to dollars. All 10 of the world’s highest-paid athletes are men, according to Forbes, whose annual list includes earnings both on and off the field of play.

But there are signs that female athletes are proving to be a better investment when it comes to sponsorships. Their power to win over audiences is undeniable—and their higher engagement on social media is making brands seek out more partnerships with them.

Among the SponsorUnited’s findings were that tennis and golf saw considerable growth in brand deals; and Alex Morgan, a striker and a captain for the U.S. Women’s National Soccer Team, became the most-endorsed female athlete of the year by volume with 27 deals. 

Rounding out the top 10: tennis stars Serena Williams and Naomi Osaka, followed by golfer Lexi Thompson; tennis player Leyla Fernandez; college basketball player Hanna Cavinder; soccer player Ali Krieger; basketball star Sue Bird, tennis player Venus Williams; and college gymnast Olivia Dunne.

On the brand side, the report found that Nike, Gatorade, Coca-Cola, Ally Financial, and Adidas were the top-five female sponsors, with Nike as the top sponsor among both professional and college athletes. Finance brands–which are already the most active sponsorship category among women’s sports–including MasterCard and Ally, upped their sponsorship game by 30%, followed by apparel and media to round out the top-three brand verticals.

The report seems to reinforce early data coming out of name, image, and likeness deals (NIL) showing female college athletes outperform their male counterparts on engagement. But the same is happening in professional sports for several reasons. One is that brands, including Ally and Michelob Ultra, have pledged to equalize their spending across sports. Another is that brands are being driven by data—and female athletes and teams are a good testing space for campaigns. Big events like the retirements of Bird and Williams, and the soccer season in full swing, have naturally gotten brands’ attention.

On top of strong social media followings, women’s sports are also attracting real-life fans in record numbers. This season’s 25 WNBA games saw a 16% spike in viewership compared to 2021—the highest in 15 years. Overseas, the 2022 UEFA Women’s EURO Tournament, held in England last July, set new attendance records for both a single game (87,192) and the tournament overall (574,875).

“While Women’s sports have always faced a variety of disparities in the industry, their ability to win over audiences and drive an exceptionally high level of engagement for brands is undeniable,” Bob Lynch, CEO and founder of SponsorUnited, said in a statement. “In recent years, attendance, viewership and social engagement for women’s sports and athletes has spiked, leading to long-overdue financial backing through investments and sponsorships that are visibly paying off and should only continue to accelerate.”

Women’s golf deals, coming in at 940, outnumbered all other women’s sports for brand deals. The LPGA saw a 30% increase in deals from last year, and an 18% increase in new brand partnerships. 

SponsorUnited’s Lynch says this could be due to golf’s tournament format with individual events that can be appealing for local, regional and national sponsors. For the third straight year, brands performed better with women’s tennis players: female stars engaged 53 million followers with branded posts, versus 38.5 million for male players. (While Morgan might be the athlete with the most deals by volume, Lynch says it is probably safe to assume that Serena Williams’ deals are worth more in dollars.) 

In the collegiate NIL space, women outperform men in both deal growth and engagement, generating four times more total audience engagement and seven times more engagement per deal than their male counterparts, despite having fewer than half as many partnerships.