Will Apple’s sports app play bear fruit in Britain?

Apple last week announced the launch of Apple Sports, giving users a free sports tracking app to stay on top of live scores, fixtures and even betting odds. In this piece we dive into YouGov Profiles data to understand the potential for adoption of this app among iPhone users in Britain.

Sports fans who are iPhone users are more likely than the average British sports fan to use mobile apps as a way of tracking sports (34% vs 29%).

iPhone users aged between 35-54 are the most likely to use mobile apps to track sports (46%), while those aged about 55+ are the least likely (20%). Among those aged 18-34, over two-fifths of iPhone users keep tabs on sporting action through mobile apps (43%). Apple will not only look to displace other apps that existing mobile app users are already using for sports tracking, but will also hope to grow the overall proportion of sports fans who use mobile apps for sports tracking in the first place.

But what sports do iPhone using sports fans in Britain follow?

Football takes the top spot, with seven-tenths of iPhone using sports fans saying they follow it regularly (71%). This is good news for Apple Sports given that a majority of the app’s offering at launch is centred around football properties, including the Premier League, La Liga and MLS among others.

Other popular sports include cricket (34%), rugby union (30%), tennis (26%) and motorsport (23%). These preferences could help shape Apple Sports’ expansion strategy should it wish to woo a bigger share of British iPhone users to the app.

Make smarter business decisions with better intelligence. Understand exactly what your audience is thinking by leveraging our panel of 20 million+ members.

Methodology: YouGov Profiles is based on continuously collected data and rolling surveys, rather than from a single limited questionnaire. Profiles data for Great Britain is nationally representative and weighted by age, gender, education, region, and race.