Preview table of contents and sample page
Sports Entertainment - Extending Fan Enjoyment
About This Sports Industry Report
This report focuses on how fans extend their engagement in sport through mostly virtual experiences that encompass: sports betting, fantasy sports, video games, esports, sports collectibles and sports-themed bars. In 2023, worldwide spending on these six core areas of sports entertainment totaled nearly $375 billion. The U.S. accounted for 41% or $154 billion of the total. The report provides annual spending data and forecasts and analyzes the pre-and post-COVID recovery performance of each of the six segments.
In 2023, legal Sports Betting worldwide totaled $261 billion. However, this figure does not account for the many billions of dollars bet illegally, at unregulated, “off-shore” sports betting sites. Since first legalized in 2018 in America, sports betting has been the fastest growing segment of the of the sports industry in the U.S. In just 5 years, sports gambling revenues grew from $13.1 billion in 2029 to $124.5 billion in 2023, accounting for nearly half of the world’s total. Our report examines how sports leagues around the world and in the U.S. have embraced sports betting as a new, robust revenue stream. It also calls attention to the “dark side” of sports gambling and the growing addiction problem.
Fantasy Sports allow fans to own, manage and coach their own virtual sports teams. What began as a hobby among friends or workmates, has grown into a $31 billion global business. The report examines the factors that have led to the rapid growth of this popular form of fan engagement. India’s largest fantasy platform has over 100 million users, while 69 million North Americans participate in fantasy sports. Market demand has been driven by the prolific growth of sports fantasy betting platforms, like Dream 11 in India, Mondogoal in Europe and Draft Kings and FanDuel in the U.S. These private gaming companies offer Daily Fantasy Sports (DFS) allowing users to compete against each other on a pay-to-play basis for daily for cash prizes. While extremely popular, six states have banned DFS as a disguised form of gambling. Nonetheless, players in the U.S. spent close to $10 billion in 2023 on fantasy sports gaming.
Competitive video gaming or Esports has become a global phenomenon. As video technology became more affordable, gaming became more accessible, attracting more players, larger audiences and corporate investment. The report examines the disruptive impact of the global pandemic in 2020 from which the U.S. esports market has not fully recovered. While viewership has grown, many American esports competitive teams have been unable to monetize their engaged fans and sponsors. Demographics are provided for those who play in and view esports tournaments, noting women’s growing share. The report provides contrasting measures of how annual esports revenues are accounted for, comparing New Zoo’s most often cited “events-only” ($1.62 billion) measure with Ahn’s more robust esports ecosystem model ($24.9 billion) global estimate.
This section of the report focuses on capturing the amount consumers spend annually on Sports-themed Video Games, including the amount spent on game content, downloads, and in-game spending related to sports play. The video games industry identifies “sports” as one of many genres, including action, shooter and strategy. In 2023, the sports category’ share of all video game sales was 11.1%, fourth highest behind 22.2% action, 17.8% shooters and 17.0% strategy. The 11.1% share was used to calculate the annual revenues of sports-themed sales both globally and in the U.S. The sports category accounted for $28 billion of the world’s $252 billion total spending and $7.30 billion of the $66 billion spent in the U.S. The report tracks the growing popularity of video gaming that has become more digitally accessible, affordable and youthful. sales performance of sports games globally and in the U.S. In 2023, 3.34 billion around the globe were identified as “gamers,” nearly a billion more than in 2018. In 2022, four of the top 15 selling video games were sport games, led by Madden NFL 2023 (3rd) and FIFA 23 (7th).
Another rapidly growing sport entertainment sector is the Sports Collectibles market. The combined sales of player trading cards and game-used jerseys and sneakers has transformed what began as a hobby into a booming global industry, projected to exceed $200 billion in consumer spending by 2032. This section of the report examines the conditions and factors that have propelled the exceptional growth of the sports collectibles market.
Sports Bars have become an important social fixture in modern America. A place where fans can gather to cheer on their favorite teams in a comfortable atmosphere with friends and family. Over the past decade, sports bars have evolved from male-centric establishments (e.g., Hooters, Tilted Kilt) to more female and family-friendly environments. The U.S. version of sports-themed restaurants is the counterpart to sports/social pubs across Europe. In 2023, over 20,000 such pubs operated across Great Britain, with an increasing number of “American-style” sports bars featuring live U.S. sports and American food. Recently food industry journals, such as Restaurant Business, began recognizing Sports Bars as a standalone category, including them in their annual analysis of Top 500 restaurants. The number and annual revenue data provided by Restaurant Business and related sources were used to capture the sports bar sectors robust post-pandemic recovery and estimated annual revenues from 2018 to 2023.
We hope you find our report of great value and thank you for your purchase.
Dennis and Roger
Sports Industry Report
Contents
CONTENTS
Extending Sports Enjoyment
The Best-Howard Model (Figure 1.1) examines how fans engage the sports industry through mostly virtual experiences through its Sports Entertainment core area. Betting online, participating in or viewing esports competitions, joining a fantasy sports league, and playing sports video games with friends can all be accomplished on various electronic devices, allowing easy and around-the-clock fulfillment.
Sports fans worldwide spent $38 billion in 2023 on sports memorabilia, from trading cards to game-used items like balls and jerseys. The value of cards and iconic sports merchandise has appreciated so rapidly over the past decade that some collectors view sports memorabilia as investment-grade assets. Spurred by the rapid expansion of online platforms, the sports trading market is projected to reach over 100 million collectors globally within the next three to five years.
The Best-Howard Model also recognizes an increasingly popular sports engagement dimension, social dining experiences in sports-themed environments. Restaurant Business magazine recently recognized sports bars as a standalone industry category. In 2023, total sports bar sales reached $11.7 billion in the United States alone.
This chapter is devoted to providing an in-depth examination of the performance of each of the six segments, detailing spending trends over the past decade and projections for future growth.
Sports Entertainment Segments
