UK Ready to Mirror US: Female Athletes Becoming Investors
- For three consecutive years, not a single female athlete has appeared among the world's 100 highest-paid athletes.
- In 2025, the threshold jumped to $53.6m, up 19 per cent year on year.
- Meanwhile the global women's sports market has exploded from $1.88bn in 2024 to a projected $2.35bn in 2025.
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Meanwhile the global women’s sports market has exploded from $1.88bn in 2024 to a projected $2.35bn in 2025. Broadcast deals are climbing, sponsorship is accelerating and investors are scrambling for access.
Wealth is being created. It’s just not reaching the women who create it.
Female athletes stateside
Table of Contents
In conversations I have with athletes, that disconnect is becoming harder to ignore. Visibility is no longer the problem. Demand is no longer the problem. What’s missing is a clear path to long-term security once the contract ends and the spotlight moves on.
Serena Williams was early. Her venture capital portfolio now includes more than 80 companies, many focused on underrepresented founders. She understood what most athletes only realize in retirement: influence without ownership expires the moment you stop competing.
Naomi Osaka followed a similar path. Through her media company Hana Kuma, she raised $5m from institutional investors including Epic Games and Fenway Sports Group. Allyson Felix, the most decorated track and field Olympian in history, founded Saysh, a women-first footwear brand that has since raised $8m in venture capital. both hold equity in businesses designed to scale long after their sporting careers end.
Going further
Others have gone further by reshaping the structures of sport itself. Former WNBA star Renee Montgomery became part-owner of the Atlanta Dream. Napheesa Collier and Breanna Stewart co-founded Unrivaled, a 3-on-3 basketball league were every player receives equity ownership.Fifteen percent of the league’s total equity is shared among its inaugural players, giving athletes a meaningful stake in the infrastructure they’re helping to build.
Perhaps the clearest signal of what’s possible comes from Michele Kang, who now owns three professional women’s football clubs across multiple continents. Her multi-club model has no real parallel in the men’s game. It’s being built from the ground up, with women positioned not as short-term commercial assets, but as part of a long-term value ecosystem.
These moves are already having an impact. The WNBA recently proposed a new maximum salary of $1m,four times last season’s supermax,alongside expanded revenue sharing. That shift didn’t happen in isolation. When athletes create alternatives and build leverage elsewhere, the balance of power begins to move.
UK shift
In the UK, the infrastructure is younger, but the intent is sharpening.
Chelsea captain Millie Luminous has taken an equity stake in Sokito, a enduring football boot company backed by dozens of professional players. lucy Bronze holds an ownership position in sports nutr