In 2020, COVID-19 ground live sports to a halt. With no spectators in sta-diums, sponsorship spend took a hit. Some estimate lockdowns caused a $14 billion drop in sponsorship value. In football alone, the top 20 clubs saw a 12% decrease in revenue primarily due to drops in matchday and broad-cast revenue.

The growing reliance on digital chan-nels via social media, online video, and esports to keep fans engaged was noticeable. We believe these will be sustained in the future as the sports industry strives to attract new audiences and finds more effective ways to measure ROI. 

This report uses our latest dataset, GWI Sports, to help navigate spon-sors and sports organizations through times of uncertainty, and point them to where the biggest opportunities might be during 2021 and beyond. 

By combining GWI Sports with our Core consumer dataset and its recontact capabilities, we’re able to dig deeper into sports fans’ behav-iors and motivations, as well as their attitudes as consumers.