The 2024 Wimbledon Championships saw record-breaking sponsorship and prize money, reflecting the event’s growing financial clout. Barclays’ significant $118.65 million deal highlighted the tournament’s evolving commercial landscape, while British Broadcasting Corp’s (BBC) media coverage underscored shifting viewer dynamics. Despite lower viewership due to competition with the UEFA final, Wimbledon’s commitment to equal prize money continues to set a benchmark in sports, says GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company.
GlobalData’s latest report “Post Event Analysis – Wimbledon 2024” reveals that a total of 17 brands sponsored the 2024 edition of the Wimbledon Championships. It had an estimated annual media value of $127.24 million. The total prize money reached $63.6 million (£50 million) for the first time.
Olivia Snooks, Associate Sport Analyst at GlobalData, comments:
“Barclays partnership (2023-2027) with Wimbledon has a far superior annual value compared to any of the other tournament sponsors. The partnership is significant, given Barclays replaced HSBC, which had sponsored the tournament for 15 years before last year. Additionally, Slazenger, the official supplier of tennis balls since 1952, provided 54,250 balls for this year’s event.”
The largest media deal in terms of value is BBC’s broadcast deal. The deal is worth an estimated total of $298.97 million. The men’s singles final between Carlos Alcaraz and Novak Djokovic had 7.6 million viewers on BBC, with streams at 3.3 million, compared to the 2023 men’s final where TV viewers peaked at 11.3 million and streams were at 4.1 million. The women’s singles final between Barbara Barbora Krejčíková and Jasmine Paolini had 4.1 million viewers on BBC.
Snooks continues: “This year’s Men’s Wimbledon final clashed with the UEFA European Championships Men’s Final; Both taking place on 14 July. As England was playing in the final of the European Championships, with coverage for the football overlapping with the Men’s tennis final coverage, it is highly likely that the UK’s tennis coverage on both BBC and ITV was impacted as peak viewership was down, as well as streams.”
During the last decade of the Wimbledon Championships, the total prize money for the tournament has doubled, from $31.8 million (£25 million) in 2014 to $63.6 million (£50 million) in 2024. The winners Carlos Alcaraz and Barbora Krejčíková took home a record $3.4 million (£2.7 million). The ladies’ and gentleman’s double prize money fund has increased by 11.9% on 2023, while the Qualifying Competition prize money allocation increased by 14.9%.
Snooks concludes: “Wimbledon made the decision to award equal prize money to men and women in 2007. The progress which the sport has made in terms of closing the gender-pay gap is amongst the best within the world of sport. Other sports are starting to fully suit. Wimbledon has made huge strides in the last decade, and the prize money is only going to keep increasing year-on-year, for both the men and women.”