From the wealthiest owners to groundbreaking players to innovative executives, meet the sports world’s 25 most dynamic game-changers.
Edited by: Maggie McGrath
Reported by: Sofia Chierchio and Erin Spencer Sairam
ForbesWomen Publisher: Moira Forbes
Contributing Editors: Erika Burho, Brett Knight and Michael Solomon
During September’s U.S. Open tennis tournament, ESPN cut away from a marquee match between two-time champion Naomi Osaka and the 2023 title-holder Coco Gauff to air an ad for other sports coverage on the channel. The athletes in the spot? Caitlin Clark and several of her WNBA peers.
The moment served as a powerful reminder that women’s influence in American sports has gotten too big to ignore.
The money has been flowing into the sector for the past few years now. In 2024, revenue for all of women’s sports surpassed $1 billion for the first time, and it is projected to hit $2.5 billion by 2030. According to a recent report by McKinsey, revenue from women’s sports is growing at more than four times the rate of men’s sports. Meanwhile, the WNBA’s 11-year, $2.2 billion media rights deal will begin next year, quadrupling the value of the league’s previous contracts and virtually ensuring that viewership records will continue to be broken.
And women are leading the way—in women’s and men’s leagues, as well as in the owners’ box, in the front office, in the media and of course on the playing fields. The 25 women on Forbes’ 2025 ranking of America’s Most Powerful Women In Sports have unprecedented influence on the country’s most popular sport, professional football (including No. 1 on the list, New Orleans Saints owner Gayle Benson), and are among the highest-earning athletes (including No. 13, Gauff) and coaches (South Carolina Gamecocks coach Dawn Staley is No. 20). They also oversee billions of dollars’ worth of sports betting (No. 2, FanDuel CEO Amy Howe) and are responsible for some of the most lucrative and highest-profile endorsement deals (No. 3, Nike Brand president Amy Montagne).
What distinguishes the women on this list from their peers is not just their current power, but the ways they’re leveraging that influence to shape the future of sports. “I have, I hope, a few years left here,” tennis icon Billie Jean King, who is No. 23 on the list and famously fought for equal pay for male and female tennis players, tells Forbes. “What do you think I should try to do?”
Sean Gardner/Getty Images
#1. Gayle Benson
Owner, New Orleans Saints and New Orleans Pelicans
Owners and Investors
Gayle Benson made history in 2018 when she became the only woman to own both an NFL and NBA franchise, taking control of the New Orleans Saints and the New Orleans Pelicans after the death of her husband, Tom. The two teams now carry a combined valuation of $8.35 billion while Benson herself has an estimated net worth of $7.9 billion. She has been central to the NFL’s international ambitions, with the Saints becoming the first franchise with marketing rights in France and partnering with the Paris Musketeers of the European League of Football (ELF). Benson was also instrumental in bringing Super Bowl LIX to New Orleans, according to NFL commissioner Roger Goodell, who said in February that “in business, philanthropy and football, Gayle is a leader, always advocating for the Saints and her native city.”
#2. Amy Howe
CEO, FanDuel
Executives
Legal sportsbooks recorded nearly $150 billion worth of bets in the U.S. in 2024, and Amy Howe is the executive at the top of the market. Since she became CEO of FanDuel in 2021, the company has captured 41% of American sportsbook revenue and last year recorded nearly $6 billion in revenue. Howe has expanded FanDuel’s footprint through partnerships with the NFL, the NBA, the WNBA and MLB while also rolling out the Pulse, a newsier live update feature that bettors use to follow their favorite teams. In her previous role as chief operating officer of Ticketmaster, Howe doubled the ticketing platform’s growth and increased mobile app downloads by five-fold.
#3. Amy Montagne
Brand President, Nike
Executives
As president of Nike Brand, Amy Montagne oversees a $44.7 billion business that defines the company’s global identity and growth strategy. A 20-year Nike veteran, she is responsible for product, marketing and consumer initiatives across all categories. Before her May 2025 promotion, Montagne was vice president of Nike Women and had oversight of some of the retailer’s buzziest athlete deals—including A’ja Wilson’s smash-hit signature shoe, the A’One. Montagne also previously ran Nike’s Asia Pacific and Latin America business; in 2022, she delivered what was then one of the division’s most profitable quarters in company history.
Alika Jenner/Getty Images
#4. Caitlin Clark
Guard, Indiana Fever
Athletes
Caitlin Clark has turned her record-breaking college basketball career into early dominance in the WNBA. Her estimated $8.1 million in income from her rookie season with the Indiana Fever was bolstered by big deals with Nike, Wilson and Gatorade and signals a shift in how female athletes are being valued in the world of professional sports. Last month, the Fever announced that Clark would be sidelined with an injury for the remainder of the WNBA season to focus on her recovery, but the injury doesn’t change the fact that Clark has, in the last two years, been the spark that lit the match that set women’s sports on fire.
#5. Michele Kang
Founder & CEO, Kynisca; Majority Owner, Washington Spirit, OL Lyonnes, London City Lionesses
Owners and Investors
Billionaire Michele Kang, who built her fortune in healthcare IT, is now channeling her attention—and wealth—into women’s sports. Kang is the owner of three women’s soccer teams across two continents: the NWSL’s Washington Spirit, OL Lyonnes of France’s Première Ligue and the London City Lionesses, promoted to the Women’s Super League in May. She is out to grow her empire, too, with plans to add clubs from Asia, South America and Africa to her portfolio under Kynisca, the holding company she created in 2024. Kang sees women’s sports as good business but is reserving some of her funds for philanthropy, with $55 million pledged to U.S. Soccer for the development and research of women’s and girls’ soccer.
#6. Renie Anderson
Executive Vice President & Chief Revenue Officer, NFL
Front Office
As the NFL’s chief revenue officer and executive vice president of partnerships, Renie Anderson is the most influential woman in the central office of the country’s most popular sport. She has been in the role since 2019 and now plays a key role in the league’s $21 billion revenue engine, overseeing sponsorships, consumer products and media sales. Anderson manages major partnerships with Pepsi, Microsoft, Verizon, Nike and more and also leads sales for the NFL Network, NFL Digital Media and the league’s growing sports betting business, all of which has helped make the NFL’s 32 teams worth more than $227 billion combined.
Tim Heitman/USSF/Getty Images
#7. Jessica Berman
Commissioner, National Women’s Soccer League
Front Office
Jessica Berman took over as commissioner of the National Women’s Soccer League in 2022 and has overseen a surge in team valuations, with all 14 clubs now worth at least $70 million and $134 million on average. The league set a record with attendance of more than 2 million in 2024, a 6% jump from the prior year. On Berman’s watch, the NWSL has successfully added expansion teams, seen the Kansas City Current build the first-ever soccer stadium for a women’s professional team, and land national media deals totaling $240 million over four years. This month, the NWSL’s four-person executive committee gave Berman a three-year contract extension.
#8. Hillary Mandel
Executive Vice President & Head of Commercial Rights, IMG
Executives
Hillary Mandel is one of sports media’s most influential dealmakers in her role as executive vice president and head of commercial rights at IMG. In just the past 18 months, she advised on ESPN’s agreement with the U.S. Tennis Association for $2 billion (including rights to the U.S. Open), WWE’s $5 billion Netflix deal and the NCAA’s ESPN package, which significantly increased programming opportunities for women’s sports. Mandel also spearheaded the NWSL’s national rights deals with CBS, ESPN, Amazon Prime Video and Scripps, helping drive television viewership to 18.7 million in 2024. “I think brands woke up and recognized the unlocked potential in what women’s sports stands for,” Mandel recently told Forbes.
Jemal Countess/Getty Images
#9. Napheesa Collier and Breanna Stewart
Cofounders, Unrivaled; Forward, Minnesota Lynx (Collier); Forward, New York Liberty (Stewart)
Amplifiers
On the court, Napheesa Collier and Breanna Stewart are among the best in the game: Collier was the runner-up in voting for the WNBA’s 2025 Most Valuable Player Award, and Stewart won the award in 2018 and 2023. Through Unrivaled, they’re changing the game altogether. Founded by the former UConn teammates in 2023, Unrivaled is a 3-on-3 league offering WNBA players an off-season alternative for competitive play and compensation without the need to go overseas. The league’s first season ran from January through March this year and attracted 11.9 million total viewers, with ticket sales that surpassed seven figures. This fall, Unrivaled raised a Series B funding round that gave the upstart league a $340 million valuation. (Full disclosure: Forbes EVP Moira Forbes invested in an early fundraising round for Unrivaled.)
Nina Westervel/Getty Image
#10. Clara Wu Tsai
Co-owner, Brooklyn Nets; Owner, New York Liberty
Owners and Investors
As the principal owner of the WNBA’s most valuable franchise, the New York Liberty, Clara Wu Tsai has become a central force in women’s sports. She and her husband, Joe Tsai, who have a net worth now estimated at $13 billion, bought the team in 2019, moving its home court to the Barclays Center and investing heavily in facilities and staff. The Liberty won their first championship in 2024 and later sold a minority stake at a valuation of $450 million. Wu Tsai also serves on the WNBA’s board of governors and has said her goal is to build the league’s first $1 billion team.
Stefanie Keenan/Getty Images
#11. Serena Williams
Founder, Serena Ventures
Amplifiers
The 23-time Grand Slam champion Serena Williams may have hung up her racket in 2022—with $95 million in total prize money earned throughout her career—but the “GOAT” continues to reign off the tennis court. Williams has continued to invest directly into women’s sports, holding stakes in both the NWSL’s Angel City FC and the WNBA’s Los Angeles Sparks. With half a billion views across her social and YouTube channels in the last year, according to research from sports marketing analytics firm Two Circles, Williams’ platform surpasses that of any other retired or active athlete on this Power list. Outside of the world of sports, Williams is the founder of Serena Ventures, an early-stage VC firm that has built a portfolio of 85 tech-focused startups—a majority of which are female-founded—and $111 million in funding since its 2014 inception.
#12. Amy Adams Strunk
Owner, Tennessee Titans
Owners and Investors
Since becoming the controlling owner of the Tennessee Titans in 2015, Amy Adams Strunk has made decisions that have helped the franchise’s valuation more than quadruple to $6.3 billion. With an estimated net worth of $2 billion, Adams Strunk has proved willing to invest money in areas where her father—Bud Adams, the team’s founder—was not, revamping Nissan Stadium and hiring GM Jon Robinson, who put together six consecutive winning seasons from 2016 to 2021. Recent years have been more tumultuous—Robinson was fired in 2022, his successor has already been replaced, and the team is off to a 1-6 start to the 2025 season. But Adams Strunk continues to serve as co-chair of the Titans’ board of directors and is a member of the NFL’s Hall of Fame committee.
Brad Smith/USSF/Getty Images
#13. Coco Gauff
Tennis player
Athletes
Coco Gauff has become one of the best-known figures in tennis, winning the U.S. Open in 2023 at just 19 years old and defeating Aryna Sabalenka in the 2025 French Open final. She is also the world’s highest-paid female athlete, with total earnings of $37.2 million over the 12 months ending in August, including $12.2 million in prize money and $25 million off the court. This year, Gauff was one of 20 players who wrote to the heads of the Grand Slam tournaments asking for an increase in prize money and more decision-making authority for athletes, a campaign that helped drive the U.S. Open’s increase to a record $90 million purse.
Brad Smith/USSF/Getty Images
#14. Cindy Parlow Cone
President, U.S. Soccer Federation
Front Office
As president of the U.S. Soccer Federation—the sport’s national governing body, overseeing pro leagues like the NWSL and MLS, the national teams and youth programs—Cindy Parlow Cone helps lead American soccer at every level. Since taking the reins in 2020, she has overseen one of the most transformative periods in the history of the sport. The first woman in her role, Cone oversaw the landmark $24 million equal pay settlement between U.S. Soccer and the women’s national team. She is up for re-election in February and this year strengthened her case by adding “FIFA council member” to her credentials. An electoral win would make Cone more influential than ever as the U.S. gears up to host the 2026 World Cup.
#15. A’ja Wilson
Center, Las Vegas Aces
Athletes
Fresh off winning the 2025 WNBA championship and securing her record fourth MVP Award, A’ja Wilson has cemented her status as a generational talent. Her influence extends beyond the hardwood as well: In December, Wilson signed a six-year extension with Nike—one of the most lucrative in women’s basketball history—and in May, she released her highly anticipated signature shoe and apparel line with the brand. She has also found success as an author, with Dear Black Girls becoming a bestseller in 2024. As she approaches free agency, Wilson has never had more leverage or more eyes on her next move.
#16. Rosalyn Durant
Executive Vice President, ESPN
Executives
Rosalyn Durant oversees some of the biggest media rights deals in sports as ESPN’s executive vice president of programming and acquisitions, including the NBA’s record-setting agreement with Disney in 2024. She began her career at ESPN as an intern in 1998 and has risen through the company, shaping its college and pro sports strategy for more than two decades, including the development of the ACC and SEC Networks. Earlier in her career, she played a critical role in an eight-year contract extension with the NBA in 2007 that marked ESPN’s most comprehensive digital rights package at the time.
Mark Von Holden/Variety/Getty Images
#17. Kara Nortman
Cofounder, Angel FC; Managing Partner, Monarch Collective
Owners and Investors
Kara Nortman is a cofounder of Angel City FC, the NWSL’s most valuable franchise at $280 million, and managing partner of Monarch Collective, a $250 million fund driving growth across women’s sports. Monarch holds minority stakes in three NWSL teams, including Angel City FC, which was formed in 2020 and began play in 2022. Before becoming one of the nation’s most prominent investors in women’s sports, Nortman served as managing partner at Upfront Ventures and cofounded All Raise, a nonprofit dedicated to increasing the number of women working in venture capital in the U.S.
Cao Can/Xinhua/Getty Images
#18. Simone Biles
Olympic Champion
Athletes
As the world’s most decorated gymnast, Simone Biles had nothing to prove in Paris in 2024, but she did anyway. Her Olympic comeback, which included a gold medal in the individual all-around competition and her 11th overall Olympic medal, sent a clear message: Biles is in a class by herself. Team USA’s star also had gold-standard earnings last year, taking home an estimated $11.2 million to rank among the world’s ten highest-paid female athletes. The commercial weight of her brand is boosting her bottom line through high-dollar deals with Nike, Athleta, Visa and United Airlines. After pausing her training post-Paris, Biles confirmed this month that she hasn’t ruled out competing in the 2028 Games in Los Angeles.
Robert Prange/Getty Images
#19. Portia Archer
CEO, WTA
Front Office
Founded in 1973 by fellow Most Powerful Women In Sports lister Billie Jean King, the WTA today has 1,600 players from more than 80 nations competing across six continents. Leading the elite women’s tennis circuit since August 2024 is CEO Portia Archer. Since taking the helm of the organization, Archer has wasted no time in transforming the WTA from a traditional sports series into a hybrid sports-entertainment brand, one that embraces new media platforms and prioritizes fan tournament experiences. Archer simultaneously reinforced the tour’s commitment to athletes by launching its first paid maternity leave program in March.
Ben Solomon/NCAA Photos/Getty Images
#20. Dawn Staley
Coach, University of South Carolina Gamecocks
Amplifiers
Dawn Staley sits at the top of women’s college basketball in both accolades and in earnings. The South Carolina coach’s current contract, which she signed in January and which runs through 2029-2030, pays out a base salary of $4 million per year. Now in her 18th season with the Gamecocks, Staley has led the team to seven Final Four appearances and walked away with three national titles. What she has built in Columbia hasn’t gone unnoticed by the pros, and certain front offices are considering Staley for high-profile positions: This year, she interviewed for the New York Knicks’ head coaching vacancy, although the job ultimately went to Mike Brown. A Hall of Fame point guard in her own right, Staley advocates for female athletes and in 2024 told Forbes there’s no reason that women’s basketball can’t have a billion-dollar team.
Dustin Satloff/Getty Images
#21. Nelly Korda
Golfer
Athletes
In 2024, a year in which Nelly Korda snagged seven titles, the 27-year-old golfer took home an estimated $12.5 million in total income, the top single-year figure for a golfer in the 17 years Forbes has ranked female athletes’ earnings. Tournament play earned her $4.5 million. The real windfall, however, came off the course: an estimated $8 million from partnerships with heavyweights like Nike, TaylorMade, Goldman Sachs, BMW, Cisco, Delta and T‑Mobile. In January, she added Ernst & Young to the list. Korda is still chasing her first 2025 title and pulled out of the International Crown this month because of injury. She plans to return in time to defend her title at the Annika in November.
#22. Becky Hammon
Coach, Las Vegas Aces
Amplifiers
Leading the Las Vegas Aces—a team worth an estimated $310 million—Becky Hammon became the first WNBA head coach with an average salary over $1 million, and she remains one of the highest-paid in the league. She also made history as the first female full-time assistant coach in NBA history with the San Antonio Spurs before taking over with the Aces in December 2021. In her first two seasons, she led the team to back-to-back championships, and she added a third title in 2025. Before coaching, Hammon was a six-time WNBA All-Star, and she still holds the all-time scoring record at Colorado State.
#23. Billie Jean King
Founder, Women’s Sports Foundation
Amplifier
At 81 years old, tennis great Billie Jean King continues to be one of the most influential figures in women’s sports. As the first athlete in any sport to earn more than $100,000—in 1971 she netted $117,000, or nearly $1 million in today’s dollars—King has relentlessly fought for equal pay for female athletes, and in 1974 she founded the Women’s Sports Foundation to aid in that mission. King puts her money where her mouth is, too, with investment firm BJK Enterprises. Her portfolio includes stakes in the WNBA’s Los Angeles Sparks, media company Just Women’s Sports and the NWSL’s Angel City FC, which leads the league with a $280 million valuation. King also played a pivotal role in launching the Professional Women’s Hockey League (PWHL), helping secure a multimillion-dollar investment from Los Angeles Dodgers owner Mark Walter. (Read more about King in this profile here.)
Steven Ferdman/Getty Images
#24. Val Ackerman
Commissioner, Big East Conference
Front Office
Val Ackerman has turned the NCAA’s basketball-focused Big East Conference into a $90 million revenue powerhouse, recently securing a deal with ESPN to expand coverage of women’s sports, with a mandatory 75 women’s basketball games per season. Ackerman first made history as the founding president of the WNBA, guiding the league in its early seasons through sponsorships, expansion and championships. In addition, in 2005, she became the first female president of USA Basketball, overseeing both the men’s and women’s national teams that won gold medals at the Beijing Olympics in 2008.
#25. Erin Kane
Vice President, Excel Sports Management
Executives
Erin Kane has become one of the most influential agents in women’s basketball, representing some of the WNBA’s biggest stars. As vice president at Excel Sports Management, she has a roster that includes Caitlin Clark—who secured a Nike deal worth a reported $28 million over eight years—along with Napheesa Collier, Arike Ogunbowale and softball icon Jennie Finch. Kane built her reputation by launching Octagon’s WNBA practice and later founded the Clarion Agency, dedicated solely to women’s sports.
METHODOLOGY
To determine the Most Powerful Women in Sports, Forbes began with some critical questions: Who are the owners using their wealth to drive business opportunities and investments into their team or sport? Who are the athletes with the biggest platforms, reaching the most fans and commanding attention that is driving consumer interest? Who are the executives, coaches and amplifiers fueling this ecosystem’s growth by boosting attendance or merchandise sales and forging big-money media rights deals?
We then divided each sector’s power players into five categories—owners/investors, business executives, front office leaders, athletes and amplifiers—and examined Forbes’ proprietary team valuations, company and sport revenue figures, media mentions, and social media follower and engagement data from sports marketing firm Two Circles, plus recent news and momentum. We also sought to include representation across all sports, so the final list contains five people per category and no more than two people from the same league in any category. A weighted formula that puts a premium on financial control and influence helped determine the final ranking.
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