By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
Although the 2019-20 season came to a premature end due to the coronavirus pandemic, it has shown impressive numbers compared to the previous campaign when it comes to fan interest, especially in France. It seems that ASVEL’s return to the elite did wonders.
It saw a year-over-year (YoY) growth of 15% in fan interest across all EuroLeague markets (France, Israel, Turkey, Spain, Germany, Italy, Lithuania, Greece, Russia and Serbia).
In fact, it grew in each country with the biggest percentage being registered in France (41%), Israel (38%), Turkey (28%), Spain (23%), Germany (16%) and Italy (15%). Third markets such as UK and USA also showed growth.
The attendance at games was higher by 12% putting it at an average of 8,676 fans which is an all-time record by this time of the year. The average increase in attendance from March to May is of an additional 3%, which would again have been an all-time record with the crowds of almost 9,000 fans per game.
The average arena occupancy has also been record-breaking at 75% while the total number of fans until March was 1,943,361.
Many more people took their time to watch EuroLeague via TV and that has been especially true for France with an amazing growth of 6634% followed by Italy (184%), Israel (144%), Germany (64%).
Spain and Turkey remained stable, however, it should be noted that live audiences in Spain grew by 81% as a result of more broadcasts being aired by DAZN and higher per-game averages than last season.
Last but not least, the fans showed more engagement with Euroleague via social media, 46% more to be precise while the number of followers increased as well, by 11%.
The competition’s official website received 22% more pageviews while YoY average growth in engagement in partners’ branded content was 94%. Engagement is also 41% higher when comparing the unfinished 2019-20 season with the full 2018-19 season.
The numbers have certainly been impressive prior to the hiatus and going the way Euroleague intended, considering its focus on growing in central Europe.
It remains to be seen how the cancelation of the 2019-20 season will affect the competition going forward and how the 2020-21 campaign will compare to the past one.
*YoY refers to comparing October-March periods in both the 2019-20 and 2018-19 season.