Spotlight on women’s sport and Olympic expectations: What to expect in 2025
From landmark tournaments in women’s sport, to new formats, Olympic expectations and international expansion by US leagues, 2025 is set to deliver another big year of sport. SVG Europe looks at what’s new and some of the potential highlights.
2025 is poised to be a landmark year for women’s sport, with major football, rugby union and cricket tournaments taking place this year.
The Women’s Euro 2025 (2-27 July) kicks off in July in Switzerland and expectations will be high that the tournament can build on the success of the Women’s World Cup 2023 and Euro 2022, both of which set new records for viewing and attendance.
The tournament will take place against a backdrop of growing domestic audiences, with average attendances across the top four women’s European football leagues up by 24% in 2023-24, and with the added incentive of a bigger prize fund of €41m – more than double what was on offer in 2022.
And with the EBU describing its media rights deal with UEFA as “unprecedented in terms of broadcast reach,” organisers will be confident of bumper viewing figures.
A month later, the world’s top women’s rugby union nations will meet in England for the Rugby World Cup 2025 (22 August – 27 September).
More than 220,000 tickets have already been sold for the event, meaning it is already guaranteed to be the best-attended women’s edition ever.
World Rugby chief executive Alan Gilpin has spoken of the tournament being a “massive moment” for the women’s game and his desire to secure free to air deals for “maximum visibility” (in August last year, the BBC was announced as the UK’s exclusive provider of live coverage of the tournament across linear channels, with every match also available to watch live on BBC iPlayer and the Sport website and app).
And one month later, the 2025 ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup (Sept – Oct) will take place in India.
Olympic expectations
On 6 February, the one-year countdown to Milano–Cortina 2026 (6 – 22 February 2025) will begin. And, with it being an odd-numbered year, there will be plenty of world championships in many summer sports – including the World Athletics Championships (13-21 September) in Tokyo – plus Olympic qualifying events in winter sports scheduled for later in 2025.
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The Olympic flame’s journey will begin on 26 November in Olympia, Greece, where the lighting of the flame will take place before it arrives in Rome on 4 December.
There will be some screen-based Olympic action this year, with the first Olympic Esports Games (dates TBC) to take place in Riyadh in 2025 after the International Olympics Committee agreed a 12-year deal with Saudi Arabia.
US sport in Europe
US sports have long looked for growth outside North America by hosting exhibition and regular season fixtures in Europe, with the NFL leading the charge. There were five international NFL games in the 2023 and 2024 seasons but this year, the NFL can schedule up to eight league-operated international regular season games.
The NFL will play its first regular season game in Berlin, Germany in 2025. That’s in addition to a commitment to playing two regular season games in London at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium and one game in Madrid at the Santiago Bernabéu Stadium. Other games and locations are yet to be confirmed.
The NHL will continue expanding its international footprint after playing a preseason game in Germany, two regular-season games in the Czech Republic and two regular-season games in Finland during the 2024 season.
The 2025/26 schedule, which is typically released around late June/early July could include fixtures in the UK, Germany and Switzerland after NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly spoke of a desire to return to London and of Germany and Switzerland being “prime candidates” for regular-season games in the future.
Last year, MLB’s World Tour took in London for a Mets v Phillies tie, plus fixtures in Mexico City, Seoul and Santo Domingo. However, there won’t be any MLB in Europe this year; plans for a regular-season game at Stade de France in Paris in 2025 were cancelled after MLB reportedly failed to find a promoter. International efforts will instead focus on Japan, with the 2025 season set to begin at the Tokyo Dome in March. The MLB has committed to a return to London in June 2026.
And the NBA returns to Paris later this month (23 and 25 January), this time for two matches between the San Antonio Spurs and the Indiana Pacers.
New formats
Earlier this week (7 January), TGL, the new team golf league founded by Tiger Woods’ and Rory McIlroy’s TMRW Sports, teed off for the first time. Sky has struck a two-year partnership with TGL to air live coverage in the UK and Ireland, DACH and Italy.
UK and US versions of six-a-side football format Baller League will launch in 2025. Led by footballers Mats Hummels and Lukas Podolski, Baller League launched in Germany in 2023. The UK version will begin on 3 March and will take place every Monday until 19 May.
And the expanded FIFA Club World Cup (15 June – 13 July) will take place in the US during the summer, with DAZN confirmed as the exclusive global broadcaster of the competition potentially sublicensing to local free-to-air linear broadcast networks.
Formula 1 celebrates its 75th anniversary this year, and it will mark the occasion by hosting a season launch event for the first time. Taking place at the O2 in London on 18 February, it will feature all 10 teams and their 20 drivers and will be streamed live.
And electric off-road series Extreme E has evolved to Extreme H, featuring hydrogen-powered cars. The new series will involve 10 rounds of racing in five locations. The series will open in Saudi Arabia in April, before the European leg of the campaign begins in the UK, followed by a maiden visit to Germany and a return to Italy. The 2025 Extreme H season finale will take place in the US.