It’s been a nonstop summer of sport, but now fans are getting ready for the main event: the return of domestic football. Sky Sports is once again the home of the Premier League, bringing you all the matches that matter. That means your customers can catch all the drama from what promises to be a fascinating title chase, where Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City will be defending their trophy. The Gunners will be aiming for the top spot once more, but they won’t be the only ones. Will Arne Slot be able to fill Jurgen Klopp’s boots and make Liverpool title contenders again? Can Erik ten Hag turn Manchester United back into the powerhouse the Red Devils once were? And will there be a surprise from the likes of Villa, Spurs, Chelsea, Newcastle or West Ham? With 128 live matches on Sky, you’ll be able to follow all the twists, turns and thrills from the biggest teams over the course of the season.
As well as those massive matches in the top flight, fans always want to see their local team in action. That’s where Sky Sports + comes in. This new channel, which is free to existing customers, enables you to screen more than 800 EFL matches than last year – that’s over 1,000 EFL games a season, which means you’ve got the chance to let fans watch the matches that matter most to them.
The season starts with a bang, with every EFL game from all three leagues shown live on the opening weekend for the first time ever. Every EFL team in Leagues 1 and 2 will be shown live at least 20 times over the season, while EFL Championship teams will be shown at least 23 times. Of course, all the drama from every end-of-season playoff match will be live too. Whether your customers’ team is in the race for promotion, in a relegation battle or up against their local rivals in a derby match, they’ll be able to follow all the action on your screens.
What does this mean for your venue? In short, more opportunities to attract more customers to visit more often. Fans who visit pubs and bars to watch sport spend more, stay for longer, visit in larger groups and come at times when they otherwise wouldn’t, enabling you to drive custom throughout the day. And now that you can show even more action from all three leagues, those fans are likely to come back to your venue for the next game – 89 per cent of customers say they’re more likely to revisit a venue if they know matches are being shown live, while over two thirds say they would visit a venue less often if games weren’t on.*
What will also be good news to landlords, managers and owners is that live picks will be announced weeks or months in advance for the first time this season, meaning you can easily plan what to show, and advertise it effectively using Sky’s online and print marketing tools.
The audience for EFL games is huge, which means there are tremendous opportunities to drive custom to your venue. When announcing the new deal with Sky Sports, Trevor Birch, Chief Executive of the EFL, said, “With some 20 million attending Sky Bet EFL matches each season and significant interest in the League at home and abroad, we look forward to growing our collective fanbase further.”
While this is a dream ticket for fans of EFL teams, there’s even more football for fans to enjoy this season. For the first time ever, your customers will be able to follow their team’s entire journey through the Carabao Cup, with all 93 games being shown live throughout the tournament, from the first round to the final. There will be live coverage of up to 60 Scottish Premiership games this season, including the return of the Dundee derby, plus the unmissable Old Firm derbies between old rivals Rangers and Celtic.
There will be up to 44 matches live from the Women’s Super League too, as the popularity of the women’s game surges in popularity, boosted by England’s success on the international stage. More than half of landlords, managers and owners say they’d like to attract more women and families into their venues to watch live sport, and showing the biggest games from the women’s top flight gives you the perfect opportunity to appeal to a whole new audience.*
In a time when rising costs mean eating and drinking at home is a more affordable option, sport gives consumers a great reason to go out instead. Of course, it’s important to know what will get fans off their sofa and into your venue so you can make it the go-to destination for every match. For most football fans, it’s the livelier match-day atmosphere in a pub or bar, enjoyed with friends and family, that makes watching football out-of-home so unmissable – that shared atmosphere, while watching the game on a big screen, is the closest thing to being in the stadium. Fans also want to be able to enjoy food and drinks, which gives you the chance to plan promotions to coincide with big games. Those who watch sport in pubs and bars spend an average of 36 per cent more on eating and drinking out per month than those who don’t.*
Rising costs are affecting landlords, managers and owners too. However, an investment in showing live sports is one that continually proves to be worthwhile: 68 per cent of those recently surveyed by CGA by NIQ and Sky Business say their revenue increases as a direct result of showing live sport.*
While football is the most popular sport to watch out-of-home, you can boost custom and keep customers in your venue for longer by showing a diverse range of live sport. Sky Sports brings you the biggest boxing bouts, more than 100 NFL games a season, plus domestic and international cricket. There’s also Formula 1 racing, ATP and WTA tennis, every game from every round of the Super League, plus PDC darts, golf and much more.
Combined with this season’s feast of football, there are some unmissable weekends of nonstop action coming up, which will give you the perfect chance to establish your venue as the place to be to enjoy world-class live sport.
Sky Business & CGA by NIQ Report: The Value of Live Sport in Britain’s Pubs and Bars, May & June 2023.
