Women’s soccer and cricket are growing their audiences in Canada, according to new research, while sports betting is taking a hold with many Canadians following legalization.
The data comes from the latest update to Vividata’s Sports and Esports Database, covering sports, esports and sports betting in Canada. The database includes variables around fans and followers of over 55 pro men’s and women’s sports leagues in Canada and around the world. More data about sports betting is featured along with more than 60,000 consumer and media variables to provide in-depth consumer segments and audience profiles.
The soccer data shows that fans are mainly younger Canadians. Nearly eight million Canadian adults followed the FIFA Women’s World Cup, with nearly one in three fans under the age of 35 and three in five under 50.
Men 35 to 49 are 41% more likely to follow the Women’s World Cup than the average Canadian adult and 49% more likely to follow at least half the games played. But women under 35 showed strong interest in the game, with 27% of the segment watching the final match.
Canadians from Latin American, South American, East Asian and South Asian backgrounds are up to 50% more likely than average to tune in and up to 3.5 times more likely to follow the sport in a language other than English.
Over half of FIFA Women’s World Cup followers get their soccer news, highlights and scores from TV (51%). Women under 35, however, are just as likely to get news from social media, with Instagram (57%), Facebook (41%) and TikTok (30%) being the top platforms.
Cricket is becoming increasingly popular in Canada with nearly three million adults following professional cricket leagues and associations such as the International Cricket Council, Major League Cricket or Indian Premier League.
Of the Canadians that follow cricket, 44% identify as persons of colour, with South Asian Canadians making up 36% of all BIPOC cricket fans, making them nearly three times more likely to follow cricket than the average Canadian adult. A majority of Canadians that watch cricket in a language other than English (83%) watch it in either Punjabi, Hindi or Urdu.
Followers of professional cricket like its competitive nature (29%) and enjoy watching or following the sport with family and friends (24%). One in five say it’s a sport they grew up with. Gambling is also a key motivator to follow cricket with 11% saying they follow the sport to earn money from betting.
Watching matches online is the preferred channel for 86% of cricket fans, though that may shift as more broadcast options become available, as cricket fans are more than twice as likely to watch a match via pay-per-view or a subscription service than the average Canadian.
In terms of other pro leagues cricket fans are into, the NBA grabs their attention most, with 74% of cricket fans following the league at least occasionally. Given the similarities between baseball and cricket, it’s no surprise that MLB is a close second, with 73% of cricket fans tuning in.
Some of the findings of the sports betting segment of the Vividata release include the fact that 8.3 million Canadians of legal age placed a sports bet in the past year, with just over 1.3 million betting multiple times a week.
Fans of the NBA are the most likely to have placed a bet in the past year and are 72% more likely than the average Canadian. Fans of MMA are over two times more likely to have placed a bet in the past year.
Of those that placed sports bets online in the past year, 1.2 million placed a bet on Bet365, followed by ProLine+, FanDuel, DraftKings and BetMGM. Among frequent betters, FanDuel is nearly as popular as Bet365, reaching 24% of online betters wagering more than once per week, compared to the 25% that wager with bet365.
