Kudos to Simone Biles for prioritising her mental health over simply "pushing through" and performing because that's what everyone expects her to do. It really does feel like things have changed recently, with top athletes being more open about the pressures of doing what they do. None of us can really imagine what it's like … Continue reading The pressure of being a superstar athlete
It's Pride Day today so I thought I'd take a look at how the LGBT+ community in the UK engages with sport - from both a fan and participant perspective. It's fair to say that many sports are still failing to successfully engage LGBT+ people, but there is quite a marked difference between men and … Continue reading Sport and the LGBT+ community
On the back of the Ronaldo/Coca-Cola issue this week, and also NZ Rugby/Ineos, I've seen quite a lot of chat about how sport needs to adapt to a "Gen Z" or "Millennial" audience that is increasingly concerned about environmental issues and social responsibility. Thought I'd check out the data on this. I've broken the 16-24s … Continue reading Are young people more concerned about social responsibility?
With Euro 2020 almost upon us, I wanted to take a look at the demographics, interests, brand and media preferences of football fans from across the continent. I've used GWI data to paint a picture of football fans from England, Scotland, Wales, Germany, Spain, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Russia and Turkey. Here are some … Continue reading Anatomy of a European football fan
On the day the UK goes to the polls in various local and national elections, here's a look at the political leaning of the country's sports fans, plus a few other insights that I found interesting. #1 F1 fans are the most conservative Actually it’s neck and neck between F1 and golf - 33% of … Continue reading Ten quite interesting things about UK sports fans
So the proposed European Super League has caused quite a stir. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen a proposal be met with such universal disapproval from fans, media, NGBs, federations and governments. Putting aside the general debate on whether this is good for the game as a whole (I don’t think it is), does the … Continue reading ESL and the ‘fans of the future’
YouGov Sport put out some nice research the other day, looking at sports fans across various European markets. One of the most startling pieces of data is that only 26% of sports fans in the UK are female - a much lower figure than any other country in Europe, where it's at least 40%. Can this … Continue reading Can it be true that only 26% of UK sports fans are female?
Yesterday I went along to #FutureFit - an event hosted at Plexal and part of London Tech Week, designed to bring together innovators, entrepreneurs and policy makers to explore how tech can play a role in getting more people moving. This was a collaboration between Plexal (the tech innovation centre at the Olympic park), London Sport, UK … Continue reading #FutureFit
Sport England released the latest Active Lives results the other day. This is a huge survey of almost 200,000 adults in England, designed to track levels of physical activity over time, so it's worth a bit of time digging in to the data. The main headline this time was that there isn't really a headline. … Continue reading Active Lives Insights
An interesting report from Mintel in the news this morning, revealing that "fun-loving Britons are expected to spend £129 billion on leisure activities this year, a 17% increase on five years ago, with activities such as trampolining and outdoor assault courses seeing a surge in interest from adults". This contrasts with a 17% decline in … Continue reading UK adults spend large on having fun
