Ad spend on sports websites to double

Television still commands the lion’s share of sports advertising budgets, and will do for the foreseeable future, but online and mobile channels are gaining in importance, found eMarketer.

by Helen Leggatt

Sports-related websites will see spending on online advertising double from just below 5 percent in 2006, to 10 percent by 2011. In eMarketer’s recent report, entitled ‘Sports Site Marketing: A Whole New Ball Game’, Senior Analyst Paul Verna points to the dynamic and instantaneous nature of the online sports content that is the draw for sports fans, feeding their insatiable appetite for scores and statistics.

While television will remain their main point of contact, sports marketers now have access to fans via a multitude of touchpoints including social networks, fantasy leagues, blogs, real-time scores, live game streaming and news tickers, to name a few. However, eMarketer forecasts that next year marketers will still only be spending around 7 percent of their sports advertising budget online.

"As Internet sports advertising grows in dollar volume and as a percentage of overall sports advertising, US advertising professionals are taking note of the favorable climate toward ad-supported sports sites,” said Verna.

The only medium which hasn’t been embraced by the online sports crowd is online video. Compared with around 50 percent of consumers who “were likely” to watch online news and music videos, just 11 percent would watch sports clips. In a world where time-shifting is an increasing habit, it appears there are still some instances where only "live and as-it-happens" action will do.