When the new English Premier League (EPL) season kicked off two weeks ago, many UK football fans were already aware of more than just the impending on-field battles.
Both BT Sport and Sky Sports have recently launched high-profile, and expensive, advertising campaigns – employing TV, radio, outdoor and social media — designed to win new subscribers.
YouGov’s BrandIndex (see below)– a UK consumer-research based tracking service – provides a fascinating insight into how these campaigns have been received by their target audience since their July launch.
The stakes are high!
Earlier this year, BT Sports won a significant share of the rights to broadcast EPL matches, alongside Sky, between 2016 and 2019 for a record-breaking £5.14bn ($7.92bn)
This year, they are the exclusive carriers of live UEFA Champions’ League, wresting that away from rival broadcasters’ iTV Sport and Sky.
In sports-betting terms, the EPL and UEFA Champions’ League are by far and away the most-watched, and most bet-on, football matches for both the recreational, and more serious, betting customer. With in-running betting now taking up as much as 80% of revenues on these highest-profile games, plus the absence of any free-to-air broadcasts of either competition for the first time, the implications are clear.
Sky still owns a significant minority of SkyBet, and will no doubt be happy that a planned entry into the Italian sports betting market – as predicted last year by Gaming Economics, and where Sky has rights to broadcast Serie A – is apparently on schedule, and which will broaden their customer base.
Whether more football fans watch, or bet, more on the key games this new season, certainly remains to be seen…but just 2 games in, it’s already a fascinating off-field battle.
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Lee Richardson – CEO – Gaming Economics