The Canadian sports landscape is evolving rapidly. A record number of newcomers are bringing new sports traditions with them. Interest is growing in women’s professional sports, especially among younger generations. And the popularity of live sports streaming and sports betting are also forcing marketers to adopt new strategies to reach the vast sports audience.
Vividata’s Sports and Esports database, available through the Study of the Canadian Consumer (SCC), can help marketers and media planners connect and engage with sports consumers across the country –from casual followers to fever-pitch fans. It’s the most comprehensive dataset on sports fandom in the country, covering more than 55 professional men’s and women’s leagues, as well as individual sports teams, viewership trends and more.
With Vividata’s Sports and Esports database, marketers can evaluate sports fans against the more than 60,000 variables available within Vividata’s flagship survey, the SCC. The SCC spans product categories including auto, alcohol and finance and includes data on Canadians’ lifestyles, motivations and media habits. This gives marketers a “365-degree view of sports fans even outside of how they consume sports,” says Mike Fragomeni, director of insights and marketing at Vividata.
The major North American sports leagues, such as the National Hockey League, the National Football League and Major League Baseball, are the study’s main area of measurement, as they remain the top leagues drawing the largest audiences. However, the study also captures the undercurrent in sports that’s evolving fans’ interests and viewing choices.
In the coming years, sports marketers will have to evolve their game to reach and engage with the full spectrum of Canadian sports fans, as the population ages and becomes more culturally diverse, says Rahul Sethi, VP of research and development. “A lot of newcomers are younger as well, and they’re bringing with them an appetite for different sports and viewing preferences.”
Sports marketers should heed these changes, as old playbooks that cater to a traditionally white-male-domimated industry may not be as effective going forward.
For example, South Asians, one of the fastest growing groups in Canada, are nearly three times as likely than any other ethnic group to follow a professional cricket league. Overall, cricket has the most ethnically diverse fanbase in Canada, with around 50% identifying as Black, Indigenous or Person of Colour, according to the Sports and Esports survey. Cricket now has more Canadian fans than wrestling, rugby and lacrosse. And the sport may gain even more fans in 2024, when the Canadian men’s team participates in its first T20 World Cup – one of cricket’s most high-profile international tournaments.
Still, Fragomeni says Canadian media coverage of cricket events remains limited, pointing to a “missed opportunity” for media and brands. For example, the Indian team’s historic group-stage run during the 2023 Cricket World Cup made international headlines. “But if you were looking for news or even some association to that event here in Canada, it was very hard to find in traditional media outlets,” he says.
That may be one of the reasons why new Canadians are more likely to watch a combination of linear and streamed sporting events, according to Vividata’s study.
“If you want to bring these fans on to a more linear format, you’re going to need to introduce a lot of these sports that are non-traditional for North America,” says Fragomeni.
The growing popularity of women’s professional sports in Canada is another force shaking up the industry. And with the debut of the Professional Women’s Hockey League in 2024 – the first regular season game took place on New Year’s Day in Toronto – women’s hockey may soon see an upswell in support.
In a 2021 sports survey by Vividata, 71% of Canadian respondents agreed that women’s sports are on the rise. By 2023, the percentage had grown to 77%, according to the Sports and Esports survey. Over the same period, there was a similar jump of 6% in the number of Canadians who agreed that women’s and men’s sports should get equal attention. Notably, 70% of those (and 82% of those under the age of 35) who follow women’s pro sports said they would support a brand that promotes women’s professional sports.
Though Vividata has studied sports and sports fans for several years, changes were made to the 2023 survey to focus on emerging areas of interest to sports marketers, such as sports betting.
“We wanted to capture more granular behavior around sports betting, from the types of bets fans are making to frequency of betting and what platforms and brands Canadians use to place bets,” says Sethi. “One thing we’re noticing is that among a certain segment of the sports fanbase, betting is a big part of their sports experience.”
Vididata’s new survey also puts a greater emphasis on motivations that explain sports fans’ behaviours and preferences. As a company, Vividata wants to go deeper into understanding consumer mindset, says Sethi – a vision that is not limited to sports. In partnership with U.S.-based Research Measurement Technologies, it recently launched Drivers, a data set available through the SCC that dives into the subconscious motivations of Canadian consumers.
By combining the Sports and Esports survey with the SCC, Sethi says, “marketers can understand sports fans at a detailed level with regards to demographics, psychographics, consumer behavior and media behavior – everything that Vividata is known for.”
Learn more about the Vividata’s SCC/Sports and Esports here.
