Sport is a competitive business. I’m not just talking about the rivalry on the field, the court, the rink or the pitch, either. Not at all. Though the sporting contests represent the true competition, every sport has another agenda: ensuring that it nurtures and entertains existing supporters, attracts new ones, and beyond that, becomes more commercially viable as part of that growth process. Cricket is no different in this respect, but it is experiencing a resurgence that is perhaps not reflected in or enjoyed by any other sport at present.
Beyond what happens on the cricket pitch, and the product is the most important of course, there is a global growth and evolution that is reflected in augmented popularity. This is not just in traditional markets such as India, Australia, New Zealand, England and other nations known for playing, loving, and dominating the sport. For any sport to be a commercial success, breaking new markets can be key, and it is not always easy with so many sports competing for attention, money, time and popularity.
It goes beyond that in terms of geography, but also in terms of commercial revenue streams. Take online gaming and gambling, for example. Many of the slots you may encounter will be football themed, basketball based, or soccer related. But when exploring sports slots further, for example, you may well now see cricket alongside the others, a cachet that may not seem much to sum, but represents how cricket is seeping into the mainstream consciousness off as well as on the field. So how well is cricket really doing? Is it challenging the established big money sports and seeing popularity rise exponentially? Let’s discuss that in more detail.
Making Waves, Making Money, Making Cricket Globally Popular
When you’re looking to engage a new audience for your sport, you have to make a splash. To employ cricketing parlance, you have to hit your marketing drive for six. If we take it as read that cricket is a global sport, that does not necessarily mean that it cannot seek to enjoy more global popularity. Two things play a major part in this are money and new markets. In some ways, it’s a chicken and egg situation: growth bring in more money and allows greater expansion and investment, but to get more money you may need to have more growth and generate more revenue. Quite the conundrum.
As the Indian Premier League has shown, making money and bringing in whole new audiences can be achieved. Even though cricket was almost a sporting religion already, India used this new format to advance global exposure and drive popularity. Thankfully, for all the franchises, sponsors, and players involved, not only did it make waves, but it also made money. And plenty of it. With this, the ability to bring in more star players, paying over a million dollars for some big names, and make it the premier T20 competition in more than name only became a reality.
Alongside new audiences, be they in person attendees, online watchers, or television network viewers, cricket is using other strategies to make money and challenge other sport behemoths such as soccer and various US sports. Whether it is the development and creation of EA Sports cricket games or the emergence of cricket specific betting apps, marketing is key, and the money is there to be made. While not alienating existing fans, cricket is evolving. It is becoming a commercial giant that is challenging orthodox forms of the sport and, in making sometimes controversial changes, it is attracting the attention of advertisers, sponsors and, perhaps most importantly in the long term, new cricket supporters.
Cricketing Conquests: New Markets And New Revenue Streams
So, having reached a new and continually growing audience, how else are local, national, and global cricketing organizations and teams furthering the sport beyond traditional boundaries? Well, one thing that is happening is the game being played in genuine, professionally staffed leagues in places such as previously unheard of cricket markets including the USA and Canada, though other markets may be harder nuts to crack, of course. But new markets are also the gateway multiple new revenue streams.
An increasing number of cricket betting and information apps can now be found, as can channels dedicated to the sport. Both of these signal new revenue streams, both of these are designed to deliver more entertainment to cricketing markets new and old. But can cricket make conquests that will rival other sports, or is the global fanbase already strong enough to be considered a sporting giant in both fiscal and popularity metrics?
By way of a direct answer to my own article headline, I do believe and enthusiastically assert that cricket is indeed scaling new financial heights and gaining even greater popularity. It is in a great state of health as a sport, and a very strong position commercially and financially. From hundreds of thousands of fans attending IPL games to the new crowds enjoying the newly minted English Hundred competition, global fans are loving the game, and the game is loving the fact that they are.
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