Equal Play Day: From 20 February, women’s sport is invis­ible

• With the Equal Play Initiative, win2day, the gaming platform of Austrian Lotteries, is drawing attention to the imbalance in the visibility of women’s and men’s sport, and is implementing measures intended to reduce this disparity.
• Greater visibility for women’s sport means: more sponsorship, more professionalism, more young talent.

Equal Play Day marks the day of the year from which, statistically speaking, women’s sport no longer appears in domestic media: in 2025, this day falls on 20 February.

The reference date is calculated on the basis of a current study by MediaAffairs. (see attachment). The key findings at a glance:

• Only a few sports dominate coverage in a sporting year – outside the Olympic Games. Foremost among them is men’s football, which accounts for an overwhelmingly large share of sports coverage, followed by alpine skiing, tennis, ski jumping and motorsport. In all of these leading disciplines, the media primarily focus on male athletes, with alpine skiing the only exception.
• During the Olympic Games, something is achieved that is otherwise rarely seen: space for a diverse range of sports and broad coverage. Female athletes thus account for 43 (!) per cent of Olympic sports coverage.
• There are few sports in which women achieve high media visibility through television broadcasts. Alpine skiing is the foremost among them, but biathlon and ski jumping have also made significant gains in media visibility in recent years, thanks to ORF coverage.
• For the first time, the study also examined the visibility of professional athletes with disabilities. Only 1 (!) per cent of sports coverage is devoted to them. This would put Equal Play Day on 4 January. Without the Paralympic Games, it would be 2. (!) January.

Yasmin Stepina, ÖEHV Vice-President: “Equal Play Day, initiated by our partner win2day, clearly highlights the major imbalance in media coverage. The achievements of all female athletes, as well as all para-athletes, are exceptional for the most part. As ÖEHV, we support win2day’s campaign and are also working within our sport to ensure that all areas – para, women’s and men’s – receive the same appreciation and attention.”

Nationwide campaign for greater visibility of women’s sport

win2day, the initiator of Equal Play, is therefore tireless in drawing widespread attention to this imbalance. From 10 to 23.02, posters throughout Austria will draw attention to the issue of “Greater visibility for women’s sport”. To this end, win2day has strikingly portrayed Austrian national team players Dorina and Ronja Klinger (beach volleyball), Antonia Matzka (ice hockey), Simone Sill, Rebekka Kalaydjiev (both basketball) and Cornelia Pripfl (American football) – combined with quotes intended to provoke thought.

What does invisibility feel like? “I have had to explain countless times that women also play ice hockey and that it is not purely a men’s sport; that there is a Central European Women’s Ice Hockey League and an Austrian women’s ice hockey national team; and, above all, that we train just as hard and take the sport just as seriously as men do. Even if these questions are not meant maliciously in most cases, this lack of awareness and knowledge among the public is something that saddens you and makes you doubt your own worth as an athlete. It is time for professional women’s sport to be viewed as naturally in everyday life as professional men’s sport,” said national team player Antonia Matzka.

Equal opportunities in sport as the highest principle

For Georg Wawer, Managing Director at win2day, the point is clear: “Media visibility is immensely important for athletes. Only those who are visible can be role models for our young people. Only those who are visible have the chance of securing lucrative sponsorship deals through media exposure. More money, in turn, increases opportunities for professionalisation in sport and, in the long term, for more medals at major events, which we can all celebrate. At win2day, we are committed to fair play and equal opportunities in all sports we support. Our goal is equal opportunities for all athletes – with and without disabilities.”

Equality as a core value is, after all, part of Austrian Lotteries’ DNA. For decades, it has been the most important funder of grassroots and elite sport in Austria. Director General Erwin van Lambaart: “Through our commitment to sport in Austria, we want to ensure that Austrian athletes have the best possible conditions in which to go on to deliver top performances at international competitions. The visibility of women’s sport is also so important because we need female role models who can inspire young people. This is essential – because only then can young talent discover elite sport for themselves.”

More information on the Equal Play Initiative and the study findings is available here: www.equal-play-day.at