How the Gainbridge Super League Sets the Stage for Women’s Sports Growth

Last week, our partners at Gainbridge announced a groundbreaking, multi-year naming rights partnership with the United Soccer League (USL), renaming the USL Super League as the Gainbridge Super League. Through this landmark deal, Gainbridge also secured the Exclusive Financial Services Partner designation for both the Gainbridge Super League and all other USL divisions.

As the first-ever league-wide entitlement partnership in the history of U.S. professional soccer, this not only grows the commercial profile of the Super League but also signifies the U.S.’ return to a sponsorship model long embraced overseas.

This partnership aligns directly with Gainbridge’s sponsorship and ideological goals, with the company having dedicated more than 40% of their sponsorship dollars to advancing the growth of women’s athletics. Additionally, it falls right in line with what we discussed in our blog on Deloitte’s forecast, which projects global revenue from women’s sports to take a massive $1.3 billion jump in 2025, bringing yearly global revenue to $2.3 billion.

Where this deal is truly eye-opening is in how it mirrors the league naming rights sponsorship model of European professional sports.

Arguably the most notable professional soccer league, the English Premier League, was known as the Barclays Premier League from 2007 to 2016, which saw the league collect between $48.5 and $53 million per year.

France’s Ligue 1 was known as Ligue 1 Uber Eats from 2020 to 2024 before replacing their named partner and becoming Ligue 1 McDonald’s in July of 2024, with the fast-food giant committing around $34.2 million per season.

For over 25 years, Italy’s Serie A maintained a naming rights sponsorship deal with Telecom Italia, worth around $22.8 million annually, before Enilive took over the naming rights in early 2024 under a three-season contract valued at $25 million per year.

By mirroring the sponsorship model proved successful by deals like the above, the Gainbridge Super League have set themselves up for success and growth with crucial funding and amplified visibility.

This deal also reflects a return to form for US sports sponsorship. In our blog from late 2021, we explained that many leagues (MLB, NBA, NFL, NHL, MLS) do not allow league-wide naming rights sponsorship deals, opting for a tiered sponsorship structure, which was then adopted by the Premier League and NASCAR.

While there are no signs suggesting that the U.S.’ five major professional sports leagues, NASCAR, or the Premier Legue plan on returning to league-wide entitlement partnerships, the Gainbridge and USL deal could be the beginning of leagues revisiting the idea of these deals.

The partnership, estimated to be valued in the low-seven-figure range, does more than just inject capital into the growing league. It shows that brands see women’s professional soccer as a premier sponsorship platform and blazes a path for other women’s professional sports leagues, like the PWHL or the NWSL, to enter similar league-level entitlement deals of their own.

As brands chase after the strong ROI and value alignment that women’s sports sponsorship delivers, the Gainbridge Super League will stand as a prime example of how brands can capitalize on the growth of women’s sports.