The UEFA Women's Euro 2025 matches has proven to be a significant driver of ad-funded streaming success, according to recent data from Yospace, a specialist in Dynamic Ad Insertion (DAI). The event saw an unprecedented number of ads stitched into live streams, surpassing any previous men's or women's football event.
Yospace revealed that it stitched a staggering 6 billion one-to-one addressable advertisements across the duration of the tournament. This figure is derived from data collected from 57 live streams with dynamic ad insertion, monetised by Yospace across three continents.
Interestingly, the company reported stitching 30,000 more ads per day than during the men’s tournament last year. Furthermore, some rights-holders saw double the amount of ads stitched compared to the last edition of the women’s tournament in 2022.
Audience engagement and growth
The final match began with a relatively small audience size but experienced several significant boosts throughout its duration. Spain's opening goal in the 25th minute drove an immediate increase in stream starts by 17%, half of which came from mobile users tuning in for replays.
England’s equaliser at minute 57 led to another surge in viewership with a remarkable increase of stream starts by 57% within just one minute. The audience continued growing steadily throughout the second half and into extra-time and penalties.
By conclusion time after penalty shoot-outs, there was triple growth compared to kick-off numbers. As such, this resulted in three high-value ad breaks that were not initially scheduled - at full-time normal play end; immediately before extra-time; and post-penalties conclusion. Surprisingly enough, even after two hours since kick-off time and post-trophy lift ceremony completion, there were more viewers than those present before the match started.
Maximising ad revenues with dynamic prefetch solution
Yospace's dynamic prefetch solution played a crucial role in maximising ad revenues during the tournament. This innovative technology calculates the number of ad requests that the adtech ecosystem can handle at any given moment, providing it with ample time to deliver maximum value for each individual request.
Tim Sewell, CEO at Yospace, said:
“It’s been an incredible tournament, and huge congratulations to the Lionesses for lifting the trophy again. The rise of the women’s game is happening alongside a continuing rise in ad-supported streaming, meaning that Yospace stitched more ads during the tournament period than the men’s edition last year. Our job is to help ensure that every moment of engagement becomes a moment of monetisation for rights-holders – at scale, in real time, across any device.
“It’s no secret that monetising live sports at scale is challenging. Achieving the highest possible ad revenues at mass scale, while managing huge fluctuations in audience size and devices takes the challenge to a new level. In such an environment, Yospace’s decade and more of dynamic ad insertion expertise really shines through.”
The UEFA Women’s Euro 2025 has set a new benchmark for ad-funded streaming success in sports events. The combination of high audience engagement and advanced DAI technology like Yospace's dynamic prefetch solution has proven to be an effective strategy for maximising advertising revenues. As such, this could potentially shape future strategies for monetizing live sports streaming.
