Sports coverage got a whole new playfield with the appearance of social media. Television is already starting to look like an outdated source of information, especially when it comes to sports.
The infographic below created by Betting Sites suggests that around 61% of sports fans get information through websites like The Sports Daily and Bleacher Report, and a large portion of them is using social media to gain access to the latest news and highlights. The use of mobile devices for watching sports content has increased as well, from 21% in 2013 to 39% in 2016.
The transition from TV to social media has made many sports channels lose a significant amount of viewers. Sky Sports, for example, lost 19% of its viewership in 2016 alone.
This is why some media houses started to embrace the trend of streaming. BT Sport used Facebook, Twitter, and Snapchat to promote its Champions League finals broadcast on YouTube.
The reason why so many people like following sports on social media is because they can get on-demand access to specific content, and get updated on their favorite athletes’ activity.
Big sports stars like Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi, and LeBron James have hundreds of millions of followers on their social media profiles. Alongside giving announcements and advertising brands, they use these platforms to share personal stories, which a lot of fans find entertaining. Cristiano Ronaldo alone saw a $500 million return from Nike in 2016 for presenting the brand on social media.
People love sports, and it is estimated that around 10% of all social media users share sports-related posts on their profiles, while the number of sports fans on Facebook is a little short of 700 million.
Even while watching games on TV, 80% of sports fans interact on social media sites. Demographics show that male Millennials are responsible for this trend, as they spend as much as 72% of their time on social media watching sports content.
Find out more about this phenomenon by scrolling to our detailed infographic below.
Infographic URL: https://bettingsites.me.uk/sports-on-social-media
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