November 10th, 2023, Lesley Simeon
There’s so much apart from a game itself that makes a sports event enjoyable for fans - great food and drink, sponsor activations, the big-game atmosphere, to name a few. But seamless digital experiences while booking event tickets, enjoying digital simulations or even watching the event live online or on an app can really enhance or dampen the experience for the fan. In this piece, we discuss whether viewers are happy with the digital experiences offered to them by sports events.
A recent YouGov survey asked consumers across 17 international markets about which sectors they think provides a good digital experience for customers. Just 10% say car brands offered a good digital experience for customers in 2023. Sports events (14%) report a four percentage-point lead over bottom placed car brands - but that still puts them in second-to-last place. Consumers seemed to be slightly happier with sports brands’ digital experiences (16%) last year than they are in 2023.
YouGov’s demographic data reveals that men across all our markets are considerably more likely to be happy with the digital experiences offered by sports events that women. In 2023, 17% of men say they are happy with the experience (down from 21% in 2022). As for women, just one in ten (10%) say sports events offer a good digital experience - in 2022, the figure was 12%.
Moving on, let’s now look at what consumers across countries feel about the digital experience sports events provide.
By country, what do consumers say about digital experiences offered by sports events?
Urban India accounts for the largest share (23%) of consumers across all our markets who say that sports events offer a good digital experience in 2023. Back in 2022, over a quarter (26%) of Indians were of this opinion.
Indonesia (21%, up from 16% in 2022), UAE (19%) and Hong Kong (18%, up from 14% in 2022) follow India. Singapore is the least likely among other Asian markets we survey (11%) to say sports events offer good digital experiences.
Overall, Germany takes the bottom spot - less than one in ten (7%) consumers here say sports events offer good digital experiences. The US records a two-percentage point lead (9% in 2023, down from 13% in 2022) over bottom-placed Germany.
Satisfaction with sports events’ digital experiences this year has remained mostly unchanged in Great Britain since 2022 (10% vs. 11%).
In Europe, Italians account for the largest share of consumers (15%) who are happy with the digital experiences sports events offer in 2023. Shifts in perceptions towards sports events’ digital experiences are the most drastic in Poland - nearly three in ten (28%) consumers here were happy with the digital experiences in 2022. The figure has halved to 14% in 2023.
Figures have dropped considerably in Sweden as well (from 17% to 10%).
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Methodology: YouGov Surveys: Serviced provide quick survey results from nationally representative or targeted audiences in multiple markets. The data is based on surveys of adults aged 18+ years in 18 markets with sample sizes varying between 513/512 and 2008/2000 for each market. All surveys were conducted online in August 2022/August 2023. Data from each market uses a nationally representative sample apart from Mexico and India, which use urban representative samples, and Indonesia and Hong Kong, which use online representative samples. Learn more about YouGov Surveys: Serviced.
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