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Sports can attract sales to a website

The number of unique visitors to fantasy sports websites peaked at about 7.4 million in October 2003, a month in which all four major sports were in their regular season or playoffs.

A study by comScore released in July 2004 measures the volume and usage of the unique audience for online fantasy sports sites from October 2003 to May 2004. Fantasy sports Web sites averaged about 4.7 million unique visitors in that period, with users averaging 93 minutes and 219 pages each per visit, with about 7 visits per month.

The National Football League (NFL) is clearly the strongest fantasy sports draw, accounting for 81% of fantasy sports users at the onset of the football season in October 2003, or more than 6 million people. By comparison, the beginning of the Major League Baseball (MLB) season in April only drew about 3.1 million visitors.

The number of unique visitors to fantasy sports Web sites was high from October to December, when three major sports were in their regular season. Usage dropped in January and February, as football ended and baseball was barely in spring training. By April, with baseball, basketball and hockey all in full swing, the number of visitors was up, though still between 300,000 to 400,000 below the October to December period.

Yahoo Sports drew more than one-half of the fantasy sports audience, averaging over 3 million for the time period, compared to under 1 million for ESPN and Sportsline.

All three Web sites received more visitors during football season, though Sportsline seemed to be more adversely affected by the end of the NFL season in January. From October to January, Sportsline drew an average of 300,000 more users than ESPN; once football ended, ESPN showed its strength in hockey, basketball and, by March, baseball fantasy games, outdrawing Sportsline by an average of 200,000 users through May.

Fantasy sports fans are active and voracious users of content, often scrolling through page after page of content to gather information on players and mold their fantasy team.

The fantasy sports category draws more dedicated visitors than the general sports category — the average fantasy sports site visitor viewed an average of 219 pages, compared to 107 pages per visitor for the average sports site.

Similarly, fantasy sports visitors viewed content for an average of 93 minutes, while general sports visitors only averaged 71 minutes. The kind of engaged user that fantasy sports sites attract present an ideal target and overall opportunity for companies marketing sports-related products.

Source: eMarketer.com

Posted by nakul at July 29, 2004 08:57 AM | TrackBack