RL at the Darts

[gingerjon]

7 minutes ago, Eddie said:

If Sky pay £200m for those two maybe they can sell the rights on, I can’t see the UK market for either being worth that. 

Sky’s contract with the ECB is worth £220m annually which includes all England domestic internationals and county games, as well as The Hundred.

The perverse bit about it is that Sky now show less cricket than in recent years but control all of it. A bit like when they had rights to the second tier RL but showed basically none of it.

[Eddie]

20 minutes ago, gingerjon said:

Sky’s contract with the ECB is worth £220m annually which includes all England domestic internationals and county games, as well as The Hundred.

The perverse bit about it is that Sky now show less cricket than in recent years but control all of it. A bit like when they had rights to the second tier RL but showed basically none of it.

Wow, what an extraordinary amount. Maybe it’s because I’m not remotely interested in cricket but I rarely hear anyone talk about watching it, like they do football, the six nations, and now darts; I never knew it was so popular. 

[The Masked Poster]

17 minutes ago, Eddie said:

Wow, what an extraordinary amount. Maybe it’s because I’m not remotely interested in cricket but I rarely hear anyone talk about watching it, like they do football, the six nations, and now darts; I never knew it was so popular. 

It is one of those things that have such a long standing tradition that people can take them for granted. Perhaps not including the inner cities, (modern day at least) there are still numerous cricket clubs all over the country. There are 5 within a short walk of where I live (there was 6). It is in a quite lucky position in that it has very solid foundations, which admittedly doesn't mean it will not have problems or have to maintain things, but it also means its popularity is not so obvious. 

[HawkMan]

1 hour ago, Eddie said:

Wow, what an extraordinary amount. Maybe it’s because I’m not remotely interested in cricket but I rarely hear anyone talk about watching it, like they do football, the six nations, and now darts; I never knew it was so popular. 

Cricket is a great game Eddie, so many formats and is very popular globally,  second behind football.

On the same website, there are top sports lists for each country, based on the estimated number of fans using a very interesting method to measure popularity. The lists are based on the results of website visitor traffic analysis (using the Alexa traffic rank) of over 300 sports websites, which reflect which sports the internet users in the particular country are most interested in. Regional popularity gives an insight into where the fan base is located around the world.

Field hockey is widely played, though I'm not sure it should be ranked so high. 

Response from Google AI about RL

 

How many fans does the rugby league have?

 

 

“The overall numbers have also increased significantly compared to a year ago with over 7.2 million Australians now supporting an NRL club, up a large 757,000 (+11.7%) on a year ago, and up almost as many, 6.8 million, now watching the NRL on TV – up 674,000 (+11%) on a year ago.26 Sept 2023

 

rank	Sport	Estimated Fans	Regional Popularity
1.	Soccer / Association Football	3.5 Billion	Europe, Africa, Asia, America.
2.	Cricket	2.5 Billion	Asia, Australia, UK.
3.	Field Hockey	2 Billion	Europe, Africa, Asia, Australia.
4.	Tennis	1 Billion	Europe, Asia, America.
5.	Volleyball	900 Million	Europe, Australia, Asia, America.
6.	Table Tennis	850 Million	Europe, Africa, Asia, America.
7.	Baseball	500 Million	America, Japan.
8.	Golf	450 Million	Europe, Asia, America, Canada.
=9	Basketball	400 Million	America.
=9	American Football	400 Million	Europe, Africa, Asia, America, Australia.

 

Motor Sport is not included,  so asking Google AI,

Formula 1 (F1) has over 750 million fans worldwide. This makes it the most popular annual sporting series. 

 

How has the fan base grown?

• Women

  Women make up 41% of the F1 fan base, and the 16–24 age group is the fastest growing. 

   
• Middle East

  Saudi Arabia is the biggest growth market, with 11% more fans than in 2023. 

   
• Digital

  F1 is outperforming other major sports in the digital arena. 

   
• Netflix

  The 2019 release of Formula 1: Drive to Survive helped F1 gain popularity in the U.S. 

   
• Social media

  People are more likely to learn about F1 through social media than through Drive to Survive. 

   

How many people watch F1 on TV? 

 

• In 2022, 1.5 billion fans watched F1 on TV.
• In 2021, 445 million people watched F1 on TV.

 

How many people attend F1 races?

• In 2023, 5.69 million people attended F1 races. 

Edited January 17 by HawkMan

[JonM]

43 minutes ago, Eddie said:

Wow, what an extraordinary amount. Maybe it’s because I’m not remotely interested in cricket but I rarely hear anyone talk about watching it, like they do football, the six nations, and now darts; I never knew it was so popular. 

Depends on your social circle I guess. I don't know anyone who watches darts (or boxing, or golf), only know two people who watch the six nations, but know dozens of people who follow cricket and talk about it. Nowhere near as big as football, but pretty big. IPL Cricket has a US$1.6 billion annual tv contract. English players in the IPL will typically earn over £1 million in a 10 week season.

[Eddie]

30 minutes ago, JonM said:

Depends on your social circle I guess. I don't know anyone who watches darts (or boxing, or golf), only know two people who watch the six nations, but know dozens of people who follow cricket and talk about it. Nowhere near as big as football, but pretty big. IPL Cricket has a US$1.6 billion annual tv contract. English players in the IPL will typically earn over £1 million in a 10 week season.

Fair enough, yes it must be a social circle thing, though obviously I knew it was massive in the Indian subcontinent, I was really talking about England where I don’t really hear it mentioned. 

[Father Gascoigne]

13 hours ago, HawkMan said:

Cricket is a great game Eddie, so many formats and is very popular globally,  second behind football.

On the same website, there are top sports lists for each country, based on the estimated number of fans using a very interesting method to measure popularity. The lists are based on the results of website visitor traffic analysis (using the Alexa traffic rank) of over 300 sports websites, which reflect which sports the internet users in the particular country are most interested in. Regional popularity gives an insight into where the fan base is located around the world.

Field hockey is widely played, though I'm not sure it should be ranked so high. 

Response from Google AI about RL

 

How many fans does the rugby league have?

 

 

“The overall numbers have also increased significantly compared to a year ago with over 7.2 million Australians now supporting an NRL club, up a large 757,000 (+11.7%) on a year ago, and up almost as many, 6.8 million, now watching the NRL on TV – up 674,000 (+11%) on a year ago.26 Sept 2023

 

rank	Sport	Estimated Fans	Regional Popularity
1.	Soccer / Association Football	3.5 Billion	Europe, Africa, Asia, America.
2.	Cricket	2.5 Billion	Asia, Australia, UK.
3.	Field Hockey	2 Billion	Europe, Africa, Asia, Australia.
4.	Tennis	1 Billion	Europe, Asia, America.
5.	Volleyball	900 Million	Europe, Australia, Asia, America.
6.	Table Tennis	850 Million	Europe, Africa, Asia, America.
7.	Baseball	500 Million	America, Japan.
8.	Golf	450 Million	Europe, Asia, America, Canada.
=9	Basketball	400 Million	America.
=9	American Football	400 Million	Europe, Africa, Asia, America, Australia.

 

Motor Sport is not included,  so asking Google AI,

Formula 1 (F1) has over 750 million fans worldwide. This makes it the most popular annual sporting series. 

 

How has the fan base grown?

• Women

  Women make up 41% of the F1 fan base, and the 16–24 age group is the fastest growing. 

   
• Middle East

  Saudi Arabia is the biggest growth market, with 11% more fans than in 2023. 

   
• Digital

  F1 is outperforming other major sports in the digital arena. 

   
• Netflix

  The 2019 release of Formula 1: Drive to Survive helped F1 gain popularity in the U.S. 

   
• Social media

  People are more likely to learn about F1 through social media than through Drive to Survive. 

   

How many people watch F1 on TV? 

 

• In 2022, 1.5 billion fans watched F1 on TV.
• In 2021, 445 million people watched F1 on TV.

 

How many people attend F1 races?

• In 2023, 5.69 million people attended F1 races. 

Mostly garbage statistics. Baseball being 7th and basketball 9th is comical and says everything about the veracity of the figures. Rugby league gaining 700k fans in Australia in the space of one year is equally absurd. No logic to it. It's been a major sport for eons. It's been operating at the upper end of its popularity potential for a long time now. You're not going to discover 700k new fans here under any circumstance. 

12 hours ago, Eddie said:

Fair enough, yes it must be a social circle thing, though obviously I knew it was massive in the Indian subcontinent, I was really talking about England where I don’t really hear it mentioned. 

Never set a foot in England but I read the online version of your publications, both red tops and quality. My impression is that the England cricket team has very good coverage and engagement and appeals to more people than the RU team.  

Like here in Australia, cricket seems like the only sport that brings together the followers of all the different football codes. 

[Dullish Mood]

1 hour ago, Father Gascoigne said:

Mostly garbage statistics. Baseball being 7th and basketball 9th is comical and says everything about the veracity of the figures. Rugby league gaining 700k fans in Australia in the space of one year is equally absurd. No logic to it. It's been a major sport for eons. It's been operating at the upper end of its popularity potential for a long time now. You're not going to discover 700k new fans here under any circumstance. 

Never set a foot in England but I read the online version of your publications, both red tops and quality. My impression is that the England cricket team has very good coverage and engagement and appeals to more people than the RU team.  

Like here in Australia, cricket seems like the only sport that brings together the followers of all the different football codes. 

Mate.  Honestly.  Add AFL, NRL and Cricket together in Australia and that is what Football is like here in the UK in terms of coverage.  Nothing comes even close.

[Father Gascoigne]

30 minutes ago, Dullish Mood said:

Mate.  Honestly.  Add AFL, NRL and Cricket together in Australia and that is what Football is like here in the UK in terms of coverage.  Nothing comes even close.

Should have clarified that better. I didn't mean to imply that cricket is the most popular, just that fans of all three major football codes in England--who otherwise wouldn't follow one of the other two codes--are frequently fans of cricket if they follow another sport at all. At least that's the impression I get. 

You and Eddie are better placed to comment on what the vox populi believes. But I'm struggling to understand how it's possible to live there and conclude it's not popular when the BBC/red tops/qualities give it so much coverage, and with engagement levels high--referring specifically to the national team. 

Is it because England don't play on a weekly basis? But that would be like concluding Wimbledon isn't popular because it's on for two weeks every year. 

Edited January 18 by Father Gascoigne

[JohnM]

There's a cricket club just about 1\2 a mile from our new abode. There's always something going on there, lots of youngsters training in some sport or other at weekends. Subjectively, it seems to fulfil the same community function in this area as rugby union clubs and tennis seem to do in other areas.

[The Masked Poster]

Basketball isn't just popular in America though. Its popular all over Europe, particularly in Greece and in places like Lithuania, where I think it eclipses football. At least, that's what my Lithuanian friends have told me.

[HawkMan]

10 hours ago, Father Gascoigne said:

Mostly garbage statistics. Baseball being 7th and basketball 9th is comical and says everything about the veracity of the figures. Rugby league gaining 700k fans in Australia in the space of one year is equally absurd. No logic to it. It's been a major sport for eons. It's been operating at the upper end of its popularity potential for a long time now. You're not going to discover 700k new fans here under any circumstance. 

 

We mustn't confuse wealth with popularity. Baseball is wealthy but not really massively global, and NFL certainly isn't a global sport. NFL sort of transcends sport because of Hollywood and US TV where it appears regularly and gives the impression of being OMG Humongous! Can I believe tennis has more fans than Baseball, or table tennis more as well. Absolutely,  think of China, 1.4 billion people in 2023, and table Tennis is massive there. The figures presented are all about Internet sports sites traffic,  so presumably not subjective. But yes it does depend on what sites you take figures from, and I agree with the article author about Field Hockey  played a lot but not a big spectator sport,  though  in India and Pakistan it's huge. Basketball is a minor sport in England but more popular in Europe , as someone said previously,  a wide fan base but perhaps not that deep.

As per the subject of this thread, darts is nowhere as is RL or Union.

Edited January 18 by HawkMan

[Eddie]

3 hours ago, HawkMan said:

We mustn't confuse wealth with popularity. Baseball is wealthy but not really massively global, and NFL certainly isn't a global sport. NFL sort of transcends sport because of Hollywood and US TV where it appears regularly and gives the impression of being OMG Humongous! Can I believe tennis has more fans than Baseball, or table tennis more as well. Absolutely,  think of China, 1.4 billion people in 2023, and table Tennis is massive there. The figures presented are all about Internet sports sites traffic,  so presumably not subjective. But yes it does depend on what sites you take figures from, and I agree with the article author about Field Hockey  played a lot but not a big spectator sport,  though  in India and Pakistan it's huge. Basketball is a minor sport in England but more popular in Europe , as someone said previously,  a wide fan base but perhaps not that deep.

As per the subject of this thread, darts is nowhere as is RL or Union.

I’d say basketball is fairly global tbf, look at the spread of teams in the Olympics. It’s probably the second most global sport after football. For the record I’d rather watch paint dry. 

[Father Gascoigne]

On 18/01/2025 at 20:45, HawkMan said:

We mustn't confuse wealth with popularity. Baseball is wealthy but not really massively global, and NFL certainly isn't a global sport. NFL sort of transcends sport because of Hollywood and US TV where it appears regularly and gives the impression of being OMG Humongous! Can I believe tennis has more fans than Baseball, or table tennis more as well. Absolutely,  think of China, 1.4 billion people in 2023, and table Tennis is massive there. The figures presented are all about Internet sports sites traffic,  so presumably not subjective. But yes it does depend on what sites you take figures from, and I agree with the article author about Field Hockey  played a lot but not a big spectator sport,  though  in India and Pakistan it's huge. Basketball is a minor sport in England but more popular in Europe , as someone said previously,  a wide fan base but perhaps not that deep.

As per the subject of this thread, darts is nowhere as is RL or Union.

I repeat: Baseball at 7th and basketball at 9th is objectively wrong. I don't even want to start on field hockey being third. Basketball is comfortably the second most followed sport. Any claims to the contrary are proffered by delusional folk, those that live in a bubble, or both. 

It's surface level data analysis. India is big...India plays field hockey...therefore field hockey is one of the biggest sports on the planet.  Indians also play and follow football in large numbers, and yet no one would use India as an example of football's popularity. Both of these sports are completely marginalised in comparison to cricket, which makes claims about field hockey's popularity redundant.