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Sports Fans Check Scores and Stats on Mobile Phones, But Usage
Still in its Infancy
It’s no secret that sports are a big deal to many Americans all year long. But fall is the season when many of the most popular contests converge: Major League Baseball culminates in the World Series; professional and college football kick into high gear; basketball starts its long grind; and the professional hockey season begins its push to the Stanley Cup.
The sports industry is also a lucrative business, accounting for $350 billion in annual revenue, according to some estimates. Given the needs of die-hard sports fans to keep track of their favorite sports and teams, it’s only natural that some of them find the mobile phone to be a great way to stay in touch with scores, team moves, and the wildly popular fantasy sports leagues.
Clear Leader: ESPN
New data from NPD’s Mobile Consumer Track shows which Web sites fans have been visiting using their mobile phones. Among the sports-specific sites, the clear leader in August 2006 was ESPN (2.7 percent). Second place went to FOX Sports (0.8 percent) and CBS Sports was third (0.7 percent). NASCAR’s site and MLB Mobile tied for fourth (0.4 percent), followed by another tie between “Other Sports” and Sports Illustrated’s site (0.3 percent).
Given these extremely low numbers, it’s clear that surfing sports Web sites on mobile phones is still in its infancy – but the activity is not that far behind other non-sports sites. For instance, the ESPN site was third among all sites, behind only Yahoo Mail (3.6 percent), and the Weather Channel (3.1 percent).
Mostly Men
Since the majority of sports fans in the U.S. are men, it’s not surprising that nearly nine in ten visitors (86 percent) to the ESPN site in August were male. By comparison, women accounted for just 14 percent of visitors.
These same sports fans also tend to have higher incomes than rank-and-file mobile phone users. In August, nearly 18 percent of consumers who accessed ESPN’s site from their mobile phones had annual household incomes of $100,000 or more. That’s more than ESPN visitors in all other income levels combined, which shows that these early-adopter sports fans don’t mind spending money on mobile data.
Carriers Take Notice
Some carriers have taken notice. Recently, Sprint launched a mobile version of Electronic Arts’ popular Madden NFL 07 videogame for $3.49 a month. Alltel Wireless offers subscribers an ESPN radio package of updates, event coverage and recaps of games for seven dollars a month. Alltel has partnered with CBS Sportsline to offer a fantasy football news service for five dollars a month. In addition, mobile search and content provider UpSNAP is offering fans a dial-in service that streams fantasy football news from Ready-Set-Go Fantasy Sports to mobile phones.
Although sports-related surfing on mobile phones makes up a relatively small portion of overall mobile data activity, it’s likely to grow in time as network speeds improve and fans get more comfortable with turning to their mobile phones for information. Once dedicated mobile TV networks get deployed commercially next year, even more fans will likely be enticed to stay close to their favorite sports – not only watching actual games, but also checking out sports Web sites for the latest news and information.
- Neil Strother, Research Director, Mobile Devices, Content, and Services
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