Interest in women’s sport in S’pore below global average

YouGov’s new report explores attitudes and behaviours of socially responsible sports fans and reveals what it means for marketers

YouGov’s Global Sports Report 2022, that features 18 international markets, reveals just over a quarter of sports fans (who follow at least one sport) in Singapore (27%) agree with the statement, ‘I prefer watching women’s sport over men’s’, accounting for the second-lowest level of interest in Asia, after Japan.

The report also measures sports fans’ attitudes around the issues of social responsibility and equality, spotlighting their expectations of sports rights holders and their sponsors to get involved in these matters, and ultimately champion change.

Although women’s sport is less popular than men’s sport worldwide, data from YouGov’s Global Profiles, a global audience intelligence tool, shows there is an appetite for it. Over a third of global sports fans say they prefer to watch women’s sports over men’s (34%), with interest growing even more significantly among younger generations aged 18-24 (44%) and 25-34 (40%).

Within the APAC region, numbers in Singapore are comparatively lower, suggesting there is still work to be done to raise the profile and interest of women’s sports in the country.

A deeper dive into the data shows sports fans are also more likely than the average consumer to care about issues associated with diversity and inclusion. With sports being a demonstrated platform to bring people from different cultures and nationalities together, almost two-thirds of global sports fans agree diversity and inclusion should be considered when putting on events (65%). A further seven in ten feel more could be done, with 68% agreeing that ‘Sports need to be more inclusive’, suggesting there is room for improvement within the sector.

Looking at support for considering diversity and inclusion during events, Singapore made up the third-highest level of agreement with this statement among sports fans in the region (70%), after Indonesia (75%) and Hong Kong (73%). Fans in Singapore and Indonesia were also the most likely in the region to say sports need to be more inclusive, with three-quarters expressing agreement (75%).

For more insights and analysis, download the full paper, Global Sports 2022: Uncovering the Socially Responsible Sports Fan, here.

Methodology:

Global Sports 2022: Uncovering the Socially Responsible Sports Fan connects research from our YouGov syndicated research surveys, including YouGov Profiles, YouGov Global Profiles, YouGov Global Fan Profiles, and YouGov BrandIndex, whilst also leveraging a small amount of custom research using YouGov Direct.

YouGov Profiles tracks 2 million+ data variables from YouGov’s 20 million+ global panel members in 49 markets, covering demographic, psychographic, attitudinal, and behavioural consumer metrics, with data collected daily and updated weekly.

YouGov Global Profiles tracks 1,000+ questions in 43 major markets, offering the largest globally consistent audience dataset.

YouGov Global Fan Profiles provides an instant view of the size, make-up, attitudes, and behaviours of fan bases in 50+ markets. Identify how big the fan base is, who the fans are, how they consume content and how they align with the thousands of brands and audience trends tracked daily.

YouGov BrandIndex measures brand health, from thousands of consumer interviews every day across 54 markets.