SPORTS EVENT SPOTLIGHT. 16 th December 2016

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1 SPORTS EVENT SPOTLIGHT 16 th December 2016

2 Sports Event Spotlight Throughout the course of the year Sport MR will be monitoring the level of interest in key sports events as they happen. Sports Event Spotlight is a time critical and sensitive measure of how much traction major sports events have in a given week. We are collecting further details on sports and events by different subgroups so if you are looking for more information please contact Jack Murray or Michael Stone. Topline findings will be published on Sport Jack@sportmr.co.uk Michael@sportmr.co.uk The survey was conducted amongst a nationally representative sample of 2,000 adults by our partner, Populus Data Solutions 2

3 Interest in Following Sport Q2 How interested are you in following the sports - % Net Interested 1 2 Football Rugby Union 44% 25% Cricket Winter Sports Darts 23% 20% 18% 6 Ice Hockey 7 American Football 8 Basketball Winter Sports (Skiing, Skating, Bobsleigh etc.) are measured for the first time this week and are of interest to one respondent in five. Ice Hockey just pips the other primarily American sports covered and resonated strongly with year olds. 3

4 This Week s Events Part 1 of 2 Events fans followed / will follow THIS WEEK and preferred EVENT TO FOLLOW Total English Premier League 24% 1 36% Football League (Championship, League 1 and 2) 15% 2 4th Test India v England (Cricket) 4% 14% European Rugby Champions Cup (Union) 3% William Hill World Darts Championship 6% 8% European Rugby Challenge Cup (Union) 1% Scottish Premier League 5% Alpine Ski Jumping World Cup 3% Preferred Event to Follow This Week Will Follow This Week 8% 5% The Premiership outperforms all other events again this week with the Football League in clear second place. The England v India test match scores well despite the series having been lost. In rugby the Champions Cup does better than the Aviva Premiership in previous weeks. The World Darts Championship has a good following across all social classes disproving the perception that it has a blue collar DE skew. 4

5 This Week s Events Part 2 of 2 Events fans followed / will follow THIS WEEK and preferred EVENT TO FOLLOW Total Alpine Skiing World Cup 1% 4% 5% NFL (American Football) 4% 5% NBA (Basketball) 3% NHL (US Ice Hockey) Elite League (UK Ice Hockey) 1% 1% British Basketball League (BBL) 0% 1% None of these 50% Preferred Event to Follow This Week Will Follow This Week 1% 50% The Skiing World Cup interests 5% of the population. The following is 51% female and 41% social class AB. The NBA has a greater following among the young with 70% of followers aged Half the population are not following any event this week which is one of the highest scores this year. 18% of sports fans are tuning out of sport this week. 5

6 Key Findings Football dominates following in December with both the EPL (36%) and the Football League (2) providing the biggest draw. The SPL had a following of 39% in Scotland. More than half the SPL following were living in the rest of the UK. Football followers are 69% male and 31% female. The EPL has a stronger male following with men comprising 73% of people following this week. The Football League following is even more male dominated (75% of followers are Male) but it is also older and more likely to be social class AB. Darts appeals more strongly to a year old. 43% of darts followers lie in this age group which accounts for 33% of the national adult population. The William Hill World Darts Championship has an older profile with 41% of followers aged The tournament also has a slightly higher ABC1 following at 54% which is in line with the national population and again dispels the myth that darts has a down-market following. Winter Sports and Ice Hockey have a relatively high following given that they are not traditional UK sports. Winter Sports has a high female following with a gender split of 54% female/46% male. They both have an upmarket following with 33% and 34% respectively coming from social class AB. Whilst following is niche in the two main Ice Hockey competitions, the UK Elite League has a stronger AB composition in its following which is 44% (compared with 2 in the population) whilst the NHL is polarised with 35% AB and 29% DE (compared with 2 in the population). 6

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