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 THE STAT 26Percentage of wireless customers who use their cell phones to take picturesMore Vitals
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APRIL 15, 2003
Sports Score Big Online [Page 2 of 2]
Unlike TV sports, which require a couch and a living room, online sports have proven far more flexible and all-enveloping. Bowman says 50% of all MLB viewers visit the site during business hours. And millions of NASCAR fans check out qualifying rounds on Friday afternoon from the office. "To believe that NASCAR is a one- or two-day a week sport isn't accurate," argues Jeffrey Pollack, director of new media at NASCAR. "There's something going on every day of the week." Tens of millions of fans not only watch real games but play in fantasy sports leagues composed of teams chosen and managed by Web-surfing fans. Most serious sports sites have such leagues, including ESPN.com, CBS Sportsline (SPLN ), and Yahoo Sports, which claims 10 million players in its fantasy football league. According to Yahoo Sports General Manager Brian Grey, participation in his site's leagues grew 40% last year and are on track to do as well again this year. "Our growth has been amazing," gushes Grey. WALLET-OPENERS. Fantasy-sports enthusiasts are relatively insensitive about price, paying anywhere from a few dollars for simple statistics to $100 a season to play in a league. Adds John Bruel of sports-marketing and research consultancy Avila Partners: "Sports-fantasy leagues have had better than 20% conversion rates from free users to paying customers over the past couple of years. Normally, when a site goes from free to paid it falls off the cliff. But today, millions of people are paying $20 or more for the right to have a team in the league for any one of these sports." Sports fans are proving far more willing than the overall Internet populace to open their wallets. More than twice as many visitors to NASCAR.com buy tickets and retail goods as compared to visitors to nonsports sites. MLB.com's Bowman says 60% of visitors to pages selling live audio end up buying some type of access. The league has raised prices each year from $9.95 in 2001 to $14.95 in 2002 to $19.95 today. Sports Web sites have a long way to grow before they start to cannibalize TV audiences -- and threaten the huge rights fees that fund most pro sports. And when quality viewing is more important to fans than convenience, they still opt for TV. According to comScore Networks' reports, for example, Internet traffic drops off precipitously during the Super Bowl telecast. ...THEY WILL COME. Even so, the leagues remain cautious: The National Football League hasn't offered the same type of live online content as the other leagues, analysts theorize, because it feels it has more to lose by angering its TV partners than it has to gain by picking up more Web visitors. Most online-sports execs see no reason to slow down, however. "I go to bed each night wondering why I only have 150,000 paying customers when there are 70 million NASCAR fans," says Turner Sports Interactive's Reifenberger. At the rate the paid audience for Web sports is growing, he might not have to wonder much longer.
 By Alex Salkever, Technology editor for BusinessWeek Online Get BusinessWeek directly on your desktop with our RSS feeds.  Add BusinessWeek news to your Web site with our headline feed. Click to buy an e-print or reprint of a BusinessWeek or BusinessWeek Online story or video. To subscribe online to BusinessWeek magazine, please click here. Learn more, go to the BusinessWeekOnline home page  | | |
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