Innovation in Sport: Data in women’s sport – Ahead of the Game: Sports Horizon Scanning 2026

Data in women’s sport will remain a major focus in 2026. Professional clubs will continue using athlete data to gain competitive advantages, while third-party researchers and governing bodies use data to improve performance, athlete welfare and fan engagement. Compliance with the UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018 (as amended by the Data (Use and Access) Act 2025) will remain essential.

What’s happened in 2025?

The use of data in women’s sport accelerated in 2025, both in volume and sophistication, as growing interest drove higher revenues and fresh investment. With global revenue expected to rise from $981 million in 2023 to $2.35 billion by the end of 2025, new opportunities are emerging to bridge the gap with men’s sport. Initiatives like FIFPRO’s Project ACL and the launch of the Centre of Excellence for Women in Sport in the UK, which aims to collect data and expertise to improve knowledge in women’s sport. These aims are reflected in research projects such as Project Minerva, a collaboration involving British Rowing, which focuses on the relationship between training load, the menstrual cycle and hormone function to optimise performance and reduce injury risk. Once this data is better understood, training methods can be adjusted to accommodate biological differences and improve performance.

Wales Women’s rugby team’s collaboration with Vodafone is another example. Menstrual-cycle and concussion tracking has been incorporated into the Vodafone PLAYER.Connect platform. This data is analysed to establish how the menstrual cycle impacts performance, wellbeing and recovery, and to explore its influence on concussion and recovery. It is likely that the upward trend of female-specific data projects will continue into 2026 as interest in elite women’s sport continues to grow.

Key developments and predictions for 2026

A focus on data collection from young female athletes

With rising revenue and increased emphasis on talent pathways, clubs will invest more in collecting data from younger athletes. Monitoring factors such as growth patterns, maturation and menstrual cycles will support personalised training, better performance and reduced long-term injury risk. It will also help address female-specific challenges across an athlete’s lifespan.

An increase in the availability of women’s specific sports tech

We have already seen sports bodies adopt innovative athlete monitoring technology. For example, the Football Association has partnered with The Well HQ to introduce menstrual-cycle tracking and other female-specific health initiatives across the Women’s Super League and Women’s Championship. Premiership Women’s Rugby has also partnered with Catapult, a GPS-based monitoring system that tracks training metrics such as speed, distance and workload.

As more organisations recognise the value of collecting data from female athletes, the market is expected to expand its range of women’s-specific technology.

Legal considerations 

Under the lawfulness principle in the UK GDPR, any processing of athletes’ personal data must have a lawful basis, the most relevant being consent from the athlete, a contractual obligation that means that data collection is necessary for the organisation to fulfil a contract, or the sporting body’s legitimate interests. As more personal data is collected, the threat of challenges to the collection and sharing of that data increases.

For example, in men’s football, Project Red card was a legal challenge that raised awareness of the use of players’ performance and medical data by betting companies Similarly, in America, the Major League Baseball Players Association has negotiated a clause prohibiting clubs from selling or licensing their training performance data or medical data.

Key stakeholders will need to continue to stay on top of changing legislation and regulation to ensure compliance with national and sports specific rules.

What’s the impact on sports organisations? 

Athletes must understand their data rights and ensure their information is not used without a lawful basis. Sports organisations will need robust, legally compliant data-collection strategies. This includes:

1. Ensuring appropriate data-protection wording in player, research and commercial contracts;
2. Providing clear transparency information to players;
3. Carrying out and documenting data protection impact assessments where needed;
4. Identifying the correct lawful basis for each type of data use; and
5. Implementing governance frameworks for data access, sharing and retention. 

To read the full report for Ahead of the Game: Sports Horizon Scanning 2026, click here.