While COVID-19 still revs with 300,000+ daily cases, the sports industry couldn’t sacrifice its own life for all the rest. Despite the tangible threat for the players to end up on a sickbed, global and domestic sports associations approved the season’s resumption.
Now, the industry’s position is still not a strong one, as it loses a large share of its revenue made from live sports events. Players compete on empty stadiums and comply with strict medical protocols imposed by health organizations. Some major events were entirely canceled, with the most notable ones being the 2020 Tokyo Olympics in Japan, Euro 2020, and Wimbledon.
This summer, though, the industry started to gradually come back to normal. Let’s check out how the most popular sports survive in the post-quarantine world.
Football (Soccer)
Starting from March 2020, almost all international and domestic football championships were suspended. In Europe, the exception was Belarus, where fans attended football matches without restrictions.
In May-June, most countries re-launched the tournaments. In this new reality, players competed on empty stadiums and didn’t shake hands with each other before and after the match.
However, it was reported that German football fans returned to stadiums from mid-September. The stadium fill rate is around 20%, while attendees have to consent to data collecting to track their COVID-19 status. Alcohol and standing places are banned by the end of October as well.
Speaking of losses caused by the outbreak, the most suffered industry’s revenue streams were facilities, commercials, and competition prizes. As for football stakeholders, the three most affected were football events (unsurprisingly), venues, and clubs. Overall, the leagues are predicted to lose up to 12B in annual revenue.
COVID-19 brought some new business opportunities to the industry, though. 89% of survey respondents believe that huge trends might be “phygital experiences” that combine physical and digital reality through AR and big data algorithms. This tech solution is mainly meant to entertain fans during the lockdown.
Among other business opportunities, people named the increase of safety measures on stadiums, eSports promotion, and non-live content production.
Basketball
NBA renewed their season in July-August with an interesting way to protect its players: NBA Bubble. This is an isolated location based in Walt Disney World near Orlando, Florida. 22 out of 30 NBA teams came there to finish the season and participate in the NBA playoffs.
All players, coaches, staff, etc. have been taking multiple tests for two weeks before entering the Bubble, and also passed the final test in Orlando. If someone were diagnosed with COVID-19 while being in the Bubble, they would be isolated in a separate building until full recovery. NBA Bubble is working: NBA reported zero positive coronavirus cases for the fifth straight week by the end of August.
The state of the industry’s revenue is much bleaker. The potential losses are estimated at $650M by the end of the year, with $400M lost on ticket sales.
Tennis
COVID-19 stirred the community with the cancellation of Wimbledon for the first time since World War Two. Other Grand Slam tournaments, notably the US and French Open, were re-scheduled for September.
Tennis is not a contact sport, so some players and experts believe that the risk of getting the virus from your tennis opponent is relatively low if you play outdoors.
This myth was destroyed after the notorious Adria Tour, an exhibition tournament organized by the world’s No.1 Novak Djokovic and held in June-July 2020. Many declined the offer to participate and criticized Djokovic for putting fellow players at risk amidst the pandemic. No social distancing nor safety measures were observed during the event. As a result, four players were diagnosed with the virus shortly after the exhibition, including Djokovic.
The official ATP and WTA tours renewed only at the very end of August, with the Western & Southern Open being a “warm-up” tournament before the US Open. The latter follows the safety approach similar to that of NBA Bubble: players can’t spend time in NYC as usual and instead are only shuttling between official hotels, practice, and matches.
The tennis industry was also hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite the significant losses, the US Open prize money comprises 93.3% of the previous period. The winners will earn $850,000 down, while the total US Open revenue will decrease by roughly 80%.
Sports Betting Sector
No sports events mean no betting on them. The online betting industry was predicted to fall back due to the cancellation or postponement of major sporting events, so the gambling industry would be kept afloat only thanks to online casino games offered by web-based casinos, most of which are also sports betting websites. Some of the casino games rose exponentially, mostly due to the population’s boredom and land-based casinos lockdown. For example, online slots play has quadrupled since February in the US. In Italy, online gambling revenues increased from €72M to €94M YoY as of March 2019-2020.
For the betting industry, the lockdown months were a complete downtime. Only the rapid rise of eSports bets popularity somewhat mitigated the losses of betting services. However, their contribution to the overall revenue was still too little, as eSports equates to around 3% of the whole online betting sector.
The arrival of summer changed things for the better. Thus, sports betting was up 22% from June, but not up to the pre-pandemic levels.
How Soon Will Big Sports Leave the Bubble?
The sports industry is on its way to recovery. According to experts, the full restoration and return to the pre-COVID revenues might take up to five years.
Sports teams are not likely to leave the bubble until the season 2021. But that’s if we take a mild-to-moderate scenario of pandemic unfolding this fall. Will it be small recurring outbreaks? Should we await a monster wave or a persistent crisis? These rhetorical questions leave the big sports fate in limbo.
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