The first definitive study of online sports, released today by Screen Digest, predicts advertising spend on sports websites will exceed $6 billion a year by 2005.
The report, entitled "Sport on
the Internet," says that typical online sports visitors have a higher net-worth and propensity to buy online compared to visitors to other types of sites. And the "stickiness" of sports sites makes
them more attractive to advertisers and sponsors.
The report highlights the official Wimbledon site, for which traffic grows up to 700% year on year. The Euro 2000 website was expected to
receive over 150 million hits per day during the course of the tournament. The Sydney 2000 Olympic Games site is predicted to set new records with over 1.4 billion page impressions over the life of
the site.
In the report, the typical users of general sports sites are predominantly 34-year-old males (75%) with an average income of $40-$60,000. 65% are college educated and are considered
to be "technology-savvy, online shoppers." Soccer sites share the same split of male to female visitors, typically aged 26, 50% are college educated, earning $45,000.
The most affluent sports
site demographic belongs to tennis sites where users are 57% male to 43% female, average age is 35 and average income is $80,000. Golf sites show the same statistics in terms of the age, education
and professional status, but male visitors represent 96% of total users. The report finds that 36% of golf enthusiasts will buy online within the next six months and that 50% take golf vacations
each year.
According to Screen Digest, online advertising on sports sites in 1999 totaled $612 million and is estimated to increase to $6.27 billion by 2005. The lion's share of advertising
on sports websites went to general sports sites in 1999 with 51% of overall spend worth $311.91 million followed by soccer with 9% worth $55.04 million.
The full Report -
http://www.screendigest.com - contains profiles and case studies of over 130 sports websites worldwide, covering all major sports categories from soccer to sumo wrestling.