Google Extends WNBA Changemakers Partnership Through 2025

One of the WNBA’s biggest sponsors is getting further into the game.

Google is extending its marquee partnership with the league through 2025 as the popularity of women’s basketball continues to grow exponentially. The announcement comes just ahead of Saturday’s WNBA All-Star Game, in primetime for the first time.

The tech giant, one of the first WNBA Changemakers—a partnership and sponsorship program designed to help the league overhaul its business—has been a long-time sponsor of the league, but sees high value in furthering its investment in the WNBA.

“What’s unique about Google is they are so creative, so innovative, and committed to growing women’s sports that we continue to evolve the partnership,” Colie Edison, the WNBA’s svp and chief growth officer, told Adweek. “It’s not that we put our money in and walk away, it’s a continuous evolution of the partnership between two amazing brands in this space.”

Google’s parent company, Alphabet, has been a long-time sponsor of the WNBA Finals through YouTube TV, but the overall deal with the league started with its search and consumer apps.

“As a brand, we showed up in the moment, but we weren’t invested in these longer-term partnerships and doing them as platforms,” Kate Johnson, Google’s director of global sports, media and entertainment marketing, told Adweek.

The WNBA became Google’s first partner under the new long-term approach, beginning with search and consumer apps. The company later added the NBA.

“It’s really important that happens more often … and that we can start with women’s sports,” Johnson said.

Pixel party

Though Google’s partnership may have begun with search, the extension will see the Pixel properties increasingly highlighted.

“[We’re] trying to find a throughline between the work that we’ve done in the NBA with Pixel into the WNBA,” said Johnson. “There’s something unique about the WNBA in particular that fits really well with how we’re looking to support users through Google products.”

For the WNBA, partnering with Pixel allows for further capturing of content, whether it’s getting viewpoints from players with marketing agreements or fans utilizing Pixel at the WNBA’s All-Star game.

“As we’ve turned on the Google ecosystem around the WNBA, around the NBA, it made sense to include Google Pixel in all these things as well,” added Johnson.

Watch this space

The Changemakers program has had a visible impact on the league, as Cathy Engelbert, WNBA commissioner and former Deloitte CEO, works to build a new economic model for the WNBA.

In just three years as a Changemaker, Google has worked with Disney/ESPN to add 173 hours of women’s sports programming to broadcast TV, including 48 hours of new live games and 17 hours of new pre-game show content on WNBA Countdown.

“It seems so simple, but it’s something that you can’t do without the type of funding and support that Google is able to give,” said Edison. “It shows just how far the league has come, our partners have come and why our partnership makes sense.”

Every postseason game now airs on Disney networks. And for the first time, the WNBA All-Star Game will air in primetime on ABC on July 15.

“We are a big media partner, we understand the importance of owned, earned, all of it,” said Johnson. “We have deep relationships with broadcasters, and we looked at women’s sports, in particular, to see how we’re spending there.”

In 2021, Google and ESPN worked to ensure 25 games were aired, and that number has increased every year.

And the investment in broadcast is working. In 2023, WNBA viewership on ESPN platforms is up 56% year-over-year so far this season. It’s an impressive stat, considering 2022’s average of 412,000 viewers per game was the most since 2006.

Looking forward, the league is welcoming meaningful investors.

In collaboration with Deloitte earlier this year, the WNBA completely overhauled its app and website to help grow the fan base. Plus, the league has been carefully adding Changemaker partnerships, most recently CarMax.

“The Changemaker platform is a really unique platform for sponsorship in that it’s a two-way relationship,” said Edison. “Not only that the collective of some of the most accomplished driven organizations who are committed to grow in women’s sports, they’re also committed to making changes on a greater level as it relates to equity and inclusion and diversity.”