The oldest major national womens' sporting competition in Australia, the WNBL has battled to get its share of media coverage and commercial support in recent times, with cricket, netball and the football codes all launching or rebranding their elite competitions.

Opals superstar Jackson, who was appointed head of women in basketball by Basketball Australia in June, pointed to added online exposure as a positive ahead of the WNBL's 40th season.

Fox Sports will again screen one game a week and the WNBL plan to stream the vast majority of the remaining matches live on their website from round three, after trialling selected fixtures over the first two weeks.

"We're definitely starting to find our niche in this new market of womens' sport,"Jackson told AAP.

'We're the oldest, longest running elite womens' competition in the country so we've seen highs and lows.

"We are going to find our mark. We're getting our brand strategy together, we're figuring out who we are as a league and what we want people to see us as," she said."

Jackson pointed to the increasing number of WNBA players joining the competition as an indicator of its improved depth and standard,

The American-based contingent includes two-time All-Star Crystal Langhorne (Adelaide), Ariel Atkins (Perth) while Mercedes Russell (Southside Flyers) will play for the rebranded Dandenong franchise.

"We're competing with European countries that have a lot more money to offer these athletes and the fact we are getting top WNBA athletes out here playing ... in my opinion we are in the top two leagues (globally)," Jackson said.

A four-time WNBL title winner with Canberra, Jackson expects her old side to again be strong while Southside, Adelaide, Perth and Townsville were other potential contenders along with dark horse Sydney.

Australian Associated Press