Fueled by billion-dollar media rights deals, a surge in sports streaming, and a boom in sports betting, the sports industry has raked in record revenues in recent years. Still, the impressive market momentum is set to slow significantly in the following years, taking the sports industry far from the growth it has seen so far.
According to data presented by Betideas.com, the average annual rate in the sports industry between 2025 and 2029 is expected to drop threefold to only 4.1%.
Europe’s Markets Weigh on Sports Industry Growth
After years of rapid growth, the sports industry is hitting limits on audience size and media rights value. Rising costs, economic challenges, shifting consumer spending, and increased competition from digital entertainment have already begun to slow revenue growth, and with fewer new markets left to enter, this trend will only accelerate in the coming years.
According to Statist survey, the global sports market is expected to generate $117 billion in revenue in 2025, up 4.9% in a year and 60% more than eight years ago. While that figure is quite impressive, the annual growth is far from where it has been over the past four years. Between 2021 and 2025, the industry grew by an average of 13.8% annually. According to a Statista Market Insights survey, the annual growth rate hit an all-time high of 28.4% in 2022, then halved to 12% a year later, followed by 6% in 2024, before landing at 4.9% this year. This slowdown is set to continue in the following years.
Statista expects the annual growth rate in the sports industry to rise to 5.2% in 2026, followed by a drop to just 3.7% in 2027, and holding near 3.5% through 2029. That will put the average four-year annual growth at around 4%, roughly three times lower than before. However, not all sports markets will face the same decline.
According to Statista, European markets will be the biggest drag in sports industry growth, with their annual growth rates falling much more than in other major markets. For instance, the annual growth rate in the U.K., the world`s second-largest sports market by revenue, will drop from 3.8% to just 2.5% in the next four years. Germany, Spain, and Italy, the next three sports markets by size, follow this pattern, with growth rates sliding from around 4% to below 2.7% in the same period. On the other hand, the U.S. sports market, as the largest in the world, will see a more modest slowdown, growing by 4.6% in 2029 compared to 6% this year.
Soccer and Cricket Face the Sharpest Revenue Slowdown
The Statista survey also gave an interesting insight into which sport will see the biggest revenue slowdown in the next four years. While all major sports face a considerable drop in growth rates over this period, soccer and cricket will definitely take the worst hit.
As the largest segment of the global sports industry, the soccer market is forecast to grow by 4.3% in 2025 and generate $59.1 billion in revenue. Although this figure is set to jump to $66.7 billion by 2029, the annual growth rate will drop to only 2.8%. Cricket follows with a projected 2% growth in 2029, down from 3.7% this year. Most other major sports will follow this trend, but at a slower pace. Baseball`s annual growth rate will drop from 5.5% to 4.3% in the next four years, American football`s from 7.9% to 5.5%, while the basketball market will remain flat with a modest 0.8% growth.