Community In Isolation - 4 Ways That Fandom Was Redefined By Covid

Even for someone as obsessed as myself, there’s been a hell of a lot of sport during lockdown. 

As leagues and federations scramble to rearrange three months’ action lost in spring, it seems there’s been barely a minute since June without some form of live top-tier sport available on your TV, phone, or laptop.

But none of it has been very memorable, has it?

At least not if you believe 974 sports fans we’ve spoken to this month about how lockdown has changed their experience of watching live sport. In fact, the most common word used by fans to describe their viewing experience has been ‘ordinary’. 

Which begs several questions:

• Why do fans feel the experience is ordinary?
• How have fans adapted their viewing experience?
• Which trends might be here to stay?
• What opportunities have emerged for brands to meaningfully connect with fans in this new-normal?

Sport. It’s better together.

If the reason for fans finding sports viewing mundane over several months seems obvious, that’s because it is.

For all the accomplishments - record breaking championships, unfathomable upsets, and long-awaited titles - few, if any, or these moments have been shared. 

The Covid-19 pandemic has fundamentally changed where and how we watch sport. Stadiums are empty, bars are closed, and even those watching at home often do so alone.

But beyond the assumption, there’s science at play.

Watching sport is elevated in social environments because we have mirror neurons, a collection of nerve cells that fire off when we replicate or imitate actions and emotions in others. 

You know when you see a brutal tackle in contact sport and say something like “oof” or physically recoil away from the screen? That’s your mirror neurons firing - you’re imagining what it’s like to be scythed down by the opposition and acting accordingly. It’s a sort of physical empathy and it’s why you jump up and celebrate when someone scores a goal too.

When you’re watching sport with other people, however, not only are your mirror neurons tapping into the emotions of the competitors on the screen, they are also open to everyone else around you. You feel the hopes, fears and dreams of everyone around you as if they were your own. 

So when your team scores a last minute winner, it’s not just your own energy that’s forcing you literally to rise up out of your seat. It’s the combined emotional energy of an entire room.

Together. Even if you’re not together.

At a time when governments around the world encourage us to self-isolate, that social energy has been lost. Connection, meaning, escape... whatever sport provides, we haven’t had it. 

Sports bodies, teams, and brand sponsors recognised this and a stream of hair-brained ideas to bring fans together (even when they couldn’t be physically together) emerged. 

In a world of winners and losers, a few key trends stand out:

1. Getting closer to the action

Bringing fans closer to the action through digital attendance has been one of the success stories of lockdown. 

The NBA’s efforts - powered by Microsoft and sponsored by Michelob Ultra - are perhaps the best in class example, rewarding fans with virtual courtside seats as LeBron James inched closer to GOAT status in the Orlando bubble.

There are two things at play here. 

First, while you might not be physically together, the sense of togetherness you feel as you see others living the same emotional rollercoaster is real. Second, the elevated status you get from being seen in a courtside seat only the rich and famous could previously afford is dynamite.

It’s by no means the only successful example. CrowdAmp - a product from UK start up Filmly and global marketing agency Wasserman - caught our attention at this year’s US Open tennis major.  

More than 30,000 fans from 130 individual countries and 4,000 cities sent in reaction videos which were then played on screen in the stadium and replicated across social media. It’s estimated that the American Express sponsorship was amplified by a factor of 10 through the activation. 

2. Safe spaces away from home

One of the more surprising findings from our surveys is that there is no such thing as a ‘stay-at-home’ sports fan. Of those that previously watched sport in a pub or bar at least once a month, 70% have a Sky Sports subscription at home. 

So why did they go to the pub? 

“For big games” said one, “for a sense of occasion” said another, and “to watch it with friends” suggested a far from unique third. 

As lockdown eased in July and August, however, fans had new elements of their experience to think about - a desire to book ahead, a requirement to ‘pay at table’, or simply a hope that “my table will be in front of the screen”. 

For the most part innovation in these areas was good for fans, operators, technology companies, and the brands supporting them, In the few weeks pubs in the UK were reopened, booking requests for sports pubs on MatchPint were 243% higher than before lockdown. 

The trend is unlikely to go quickly but will vary significantly across demographics. 1 in 3 18-34 year olds say they will visit the pub more often after lockdown, while 62% of those nervous about visiting a pub suggest health and safety is their primary concern.

3. Home in all but name

It’s at home that we’ve seen the wildest innovation and creativity, and perhaps the greatest opportunity for brand disruption. 

From takeaway pints and renovated garden sheds, to team themed nights and online viewing parties, however, the trend is consistent: it’s about elevating the experience from run-of-the-mill to something special - something you’d proudly share with others. 

One brand owner recently suggested to us that sports events at home might all start looking a bit more like Super Bowl in the future - big delivery orders, a specially ordered keg in the kitchen, and everyone decked out in team merch. 

Given only 16% of fans suggest their home is the best place to watch sport there's a lot of room and opportunity for brands to innovate here.

So whether it’s bringing the pub or even the stadium into the home, or simply delivering the perfect seamless viewing party, expect lots of action here from drinks brands, food delivery, and maybe even your local pub in the coming months. 

Sometime's, it will just be about making the home experience a little more social, as Guinness are encouraging rugby fans to do this weekend:

4. Make it mean more

Betting, and gamification more broadly, can hardly be deemed a new trend, in a season when Fantasy Football players topped 7M. Nevertheless, more than 71% interviewees said social competition between friends had significantly improved their sports experience in 2020. 

Whether it’s fantasy football, prediction games, or sports quizzes, the thirst for connecting with friends ‘beyond the 90 minutes’ has only grown stronger when starved of the togetherness we once took for granted.

“The first thing we did when German football returned in May was set up a sweepstake between friends: all we could think about was who would score, who would win, and which of us would top our self-made prediction league. It was just a bit of fun really, but it also gave us all an excuse to watch the game together.”

Harry, 24 years old, London

As European gambling markets come under siege and face greater regulation, expect to see these inherently social and financially-free games continue to evolve.

Growing further apart

Not all efforts have been successful though. 

Who can forget the infamous cardboard cutout idea which saw the likes of Dominic Cummings, Harold Shipman, and even Osama bin Laden take their seats in sports stands around the world.

Or the efforts from brands to jump on the zoom quiz bandwagon, just as publican enthusiasm for them was flagging badly, resulting in some laborious content and tech breakdowns. 

More recently, the Premier League’s efforts to reclaim lost revenue by making additional games available via pay per view have been given short shrift by fans. Perhaps paying ￡14.95 for a mid-table slog you can’t even enjoy with your friends is the limit to football’s global commercialisation efforts. 

Just 11% of our audience even considered purchasing one of the games.

As an aside, perhaps this suggests that scrapping the long hated ban on televising 3pm Premier League matches might not backfire as feared - people aren’t watching the games at home alone; nothing will ever beat social connection in the stands.

Back to the future?

So what will happen next summer, when Covid is (for the most part) under control and the rearranged European Championships and Summer Olympics roll round? Will it simply be a case of back to normal - packed stadiums, pubs and fan zones - or will some of these trends continue, perhaps evolve?

Might we see Deliveroo offering the Emirates Experience - a pie and a pint for Arsenal fans in their living rooms? Might fans in pubs be upgraded to courtside seats for getting top marks in the pre-match quiz? Or perhaps Christiano Ronaldo will be green-screened into a bar in Lisbon where an adoring 26 year old fan can ask him the post match questions as if they were Oprah Winfrey and President Obama?

How has Covid impacted your sports viewing and what trends do you think are here to stay?

How will the social viewing experience evolve, revert, or change completely over the coming months?

And how badly do you want that green screen tech to get you back in the stadium?