A fact not many thinks about is that the more people bet on sports the more likely they are to watch that particular or other sports on TV. The question is how the gambling industry and the TV sports broadcasters can turn this information and stats of the gambling effect to their advantage. In 2019, according to the global predictions by Deloitte, over 60% of men between the ages of 18 to 34 in North America will bet on sports and follow sports events on television, while the more they watch the more bets will be placed and that leads to more TV sport following.

How Sports Betting Matters to the Broadcasting Industry

Most of the discussions focus on Canada and the United States, due to these being part of the recent surveys done by Deloitte, although it has a similar effect on sports betting and TV sports betting on an international scale.

The Strength of TV Sports & Influence on Sports Betting

The younger generation worldwide was less traditional TV, time-shifted or live TV across all devices, although sports remains relatively popular. The main reason is that younger men are placing bets on sports and watches the matches on television. In the USA it is predicted that around 40% of all men between the age of 25 up to 34 years of age are following their favourite sports on TV. Compared to the age of men between 16 to 34 in the UK of which watches at least 42% fewer minutes of TV programs discovered during a survey in 2018 when compared to 2010. The same decline was seen among all genders in the US between the age of 18 years old to 34 years old in traditional TV.

2019 Predictions by Deloitte

Deloitte Global just released its 2019 predictions and according to it, 80% of all US persons between the age of 18 years to 34 years old will watch some TV in the year ahead, women in the age group are 80% while men are 85%. Based on the down-year trend across multiple years the amount of time spent watching television is decreasing per day. In 2018, TV watching was an activity enjoyed for around 120 minutes or two hours daily and it is predicted that it would decline on average by 10 minutes per day.

Sports Watching on TV

The predictions for TV sports watching according to Deloitte Global is that US men between the ages of 18 years of age to 34 years of age, in 2019 will decline by 5% up to 7.5% in 2019 when compared to last year. Which means men between the age of 18 up to 24 will watch more than 11 hours of sport every week in 2019 and men in the age group 25 up to 34 will enjoy 16 hours of sports TV. The predictions also include that 30% of viewers between the age of 25 up to 34 will fall into the super-fan category and enjoy 21 hours of TV per week while the 20% Super-super-fans will watch five hours of sports a day or 35 hours per week.