Pivot Sport White Paper on European Football in the US
May 10, 2016
Key Learnings
– Passion for soccer in the US is in constant growth, erectile with 53% of soccer fans declaring an increase in their interest over the last few years.
– Fans of soccer can be grouped into 3 categories:
1. Active followers (25.4% of all soccer fans), viagra pills who proactively invest time in searching for information or planning to watch games;
2. Casual followers, who follow soccer as a part of their general interest in Sports. 42% of US soccer fans fall in this category;
3. Social followers (33%), who would only watch soccer in a social setting such as a bar or a friend’s house.
– Social environment, and mainly family (43%) and friends (19%) are the main channels of introduction to soccer in the US. However, beginning to practice soccer at school while kids is the second path of entry to this sport, as 23% of fans state.
– 60% of soccer fans have a favourite European soccer club, of which the majority are English (39%), Spanish (33%) or German (15%).
- Among the English, preferred clubs are Manchester United, Arsenal or Chelsea FC, and among the Spanish, the most followed clubs are FC Barcelona and Real Madrid CF.
- Most of these fans (93%) have traveled to Europe at least once, and state that the key reason to follow European football is the quality of the competition.
– US soccer fans consider that watching a game is a social event, hence preferring to watch it mostly with friends (71%) or family (26%) and either at home (54%), at the stadium (28%) or at a bar (17%).
– In terms of devices used for following soccer, laptops (used by 61% of fans) and mobile devices (48%) are the most used media after TV (89%).
– A significant amount (42%) of soccer fans use social networks to follow their favorite sport, Facebook being the most used platform (71%) and followed by Twitter (47%) and Instagram (29%).
– Fans use player-specific accounts (on social networks) or generalist sports media to follow soccer online, and typically search for game highlights and live games, followed by news about specific players.
The Average Sports Fan
in the US
The general fan of sports in the US is typically an adult male, under 45 years old, who earns over $50K per year. Geographic distribution is relatively even across the country.
Behavior Towards Football
One-third of US citizens who enjoy football engage with this sport mostly in social settings, whilst 25% consider themselves “Active followers”. The majority (42%) would self-classify in the “Casual Followers” group.
Read the full white paper HERE
