The stage is set for a record-breaking Women’s Euro 2022. UEFA, the tournament organizer, announced that more than 500,000 tickets have been purchased ahead of the opening fixture between hosts England and Austria at a sold-out, 74,140-capacity Old Trafford stadium on 6th July.
By comparison, the landmark more than doubles the number of tickets sold for Euro 2017 in the Netherlands, which has for five years held the Women’s Euros’ highest total tournament attendance of 240,045. For context and to demonstrate the growing appetite among women’s football fans over the past decade, at the time, the 2017 tournament surpassed the 2013 edition held in Sweden by 23,000 spectators.
As well as a landmark for women’s football in Europe, this summer’s milestone also represents a feat for women’s football’s digital strategy. Becoming the first Women’s Euros to deploy UEFA’s SecuTix-powered digital ticketing system, the technology combines ticket sales across all 10 venues and nine host cities, whereas previous iterations of the tournament have been organized by respective venues.
In retrospect, Euro 2022’s record ticket sales are not only a reflection of the growing interest in women’s football in Europe but are also a result of the ongoing digital transformation taking place behind the doors of professional teams and footballing bodies worldwide. This is, in turn, supporting segmented marketing efforts that drive support for the women’s game via direct-to-consumer (D2C) media.
The marked spike in fan interest is thanks to a collective effort between football’s global and local authorities. For example, the success of the 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup, which attracted 1.12 billion viewers worldwide, including 481.5 million via digital platforms, demonstrates the value women’s football offers to the sport and the burgeoning opportunity to diversify its fan base.
With more eyes on the domestic and national women’s game, exposure via major broadcasters is helping increase sponsorship and media rights revenue for the women’s product in prominent football markets. For example, in the UK, a three-deal deal struck in 2021 between the Football Association (FA) to air domestic Women’s Super League (WSL) games on Sky Sports and the BBC showcases women’s football to a wider demographic.
Returning full circle, the continued consumer growth witnessed throughout the women’s game grants football’s federations, leagues, and teams undergoing their own digital transformation with an opportunity to develop a customer database that identifies core and casual fans interested in watching the women’s game. By taking ownership of customer data in this way, rights holders are becoming better equipped to customize their marketing strategies to individual fans and to commercialize their digital portfolio. This includes, for example, the way UEFA and the FA have boosted Euro 2022 ticket sales with the help of a collaborative, digital infrastructure, and to put on the best-attended Women’s Euros to date.
FAN SEGMENTATION STARTS WITH LOCAL INFRASTRUCTURE
During preparations for Euro 2022, the FA set out by building a digitally native ecosystem within the tournament’s host cities and venues and has been accelerated in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic. As digital infrastructure becomes more commonplace for people working from home, and for customers shopping online, consumers expect more personalized experiences online.
According to The State of Personalization 2022 report, published by Twilio Segment, nearly 80 percent of business leaders say that consumers spend, on average, 34 percent more when their experience is personalized, while 62 percent of consumers say that a brand will lose their loyalty if they deliver an un-personalized experience. Furthermore, nearly half (49 percent) of consumers say they will likely return to a product after a personalized shopping experience.
Ahead of the pre-sale of Euro 2022 tickets in July 2021, which saw 500,000 tickets priced at UK£25 or less and families of four able to purchase group ticket allocations for UK£30, Chris Bryant, the FA’s Head of Tournament Delivery, said that, while paper ticketing for the event will be made for some key groups, such as schools, “some venues have certainly accelerated the digital ticketing journey on the back of Covid”, adding: “We will be seeking to capitalize on that.”
Speaking to TheTicketingBusiness, he said: “We want all teams to be playing in front of full stadiums, and you can see that in both our pricing and choice of arenas. The pricing is also influenced by our legacy and accessibility ambitions to ensure more than 100,000 more women and girls are playing football in our host cities by 2024.”
The impact that these digital ambitions would have on Euro 2022 ticket sales was clear to see from the beginning, with UEFA announcing in August 2021 that more than 140,000 tickets had already been sold a year out from the tournament. According to the latest figures released by UEFA, of the half a million tickets sold, while the majority were purchased by fans in England, 20 percent of tickets were sold outside of the host nation, across a total 99 countries, including ticket orders from North America, China, and Australia.
It has also been disclosed that 43 percent of ticket purchases were made by female fans, and identifies the popularity of women’s football across genders, while one in five (21 percent) tickets were ordered by children under the age of 16. While there were still 200,000 tickets unsold before the start of the tournament, marketing efforts are set to continue into July.
This means that, with the adoption of digital technology to define the tournament’s core demographics, the learnings that UEFA will take from this year’s Euros not only help European football’s governing body better understand its fans today, but support the personalization of the fan experience around the women’s game and ahead of tournaments in the future, contributing to football’s digital legacy.
WHAT’S N3XT?
In April, as FC Barcelona Femeni broke their own world record attendance for a women’s football match when 91,648 fans filled the Camp Nou during their Women’s Champions League semi-final first leg versus Wolfsburg, N3XT Sports Director of Women’s Football, Arianna Criscione, discussed the importance for the sport to capitalize on the moment.
While the women’s game has received significantly more investment in recent years, demonstrated by UEFA’s move to unbundle sponsorship rights for women football in 2018, Criscione emphasizes the role digitalization plays in growing fan engagement and the creation of brand-focused content around women’s football, and its ability to convert casual fans into core supporters.
As the sport’s digital transformation continues to take shape, this summer’s Euro 2022 spectacle acts as another landmark in the evolution of the women’s game. While its ticket sales highlight the appetite fans have for women’s football at the top end of the sport, its legacy will depend on how football capitalizes on fan engagement beyond the tournament. This means leveraging the moment to build a digital infrastructure that helps women’s football continue to gain traction, at all levels, in the decades to come.
To find out more about how N3XT Sports can support your organization’s digital transformation and women’s football strategy, please fill out the form below and we’ll be in touch. We look forward to hearing from you.