The 2020 NFL Draft Gave Us Real Sports & We Tuned In and Bet Big!

By Ricard Jensen and Ryan Dastrup

Shaking Up Sports!

               The biggest takeaway from this weekend’s three-day National Football Draft spectacular is it shows how much of an appetite the public has to watch real sports!

               The NFL Draft was the first and only event since the coronavirus pandemic broke out that actually directly affects the sport landscape. Avid fans, who live and die with the fortunes of all 32 NFL teams, turned out in huge numbers to watch the event on linear television broadcasts from ABC, ESPN, and the NFL Network.

               ESPN proclaimed the draft was the most-watched ever and set new all-time highs for media consumption. They report that more than 55 million viewers tuned into the TV broadcast on ESPN and the NFL Network, a boost of 35% compared to the 2019 draft. To provide some perspective, the first day of NFL Draft attracted 15.6 million viewers per day; the 2019 NBA Finals averaged 15.1 million viewers per day and the 2019 World Series averaged 14 million viewers each game with a peak of 23 million viewers for game 7. 

               People weren’t tuning into the event just to watch; a large number of people bet on the event and some of them won big! The NFL drew big interest in wagering from avid fans; the games are only played once a week and point spreads and injury reports are readily available. Combine this with the fact that there was a paucity of sports to bet on and the fact that wagering on the draft was recently made legal in several states and the perfect storm was created. The overall handle (the total amount bet) for the 2020 draft was a staggering 12 times higher than last year’s event, and more than 200 prop bets were offered by some casinos. For example, a $20 bet on who would draft Oklahoma quarterback Jalen Hurts earned a lucky gambler $3,000.

               It’s not just the linear TV numbers that impress; draft-related coverage also performed superbly on social and digital media. Nielsen’s weekly Social Content Ratings show the draft bludgeoned the competition, drawing in a massive 29.9 million interactions; the vast majority of these were on Instagram (20 million) followed by 8.2 million on Twitter and 1.67 million on Facebook. In contrast, the second most-high rated event of the week was ESPN’s documentary series “The Last Dance” which only garnered 4 million interactions. Another big social media success was The NFL Draft-A-Thon Live fundraiser; it averaged 5.4 million viewers each day (46.7 million total minutes viewed) and raised more than $6 million for coronavirus sufferers. The Draft-A-Thon was broadcast over Twitch, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, TikTok, Reddit, and TuneIn.

               So, why did the 2020 NFL Draft attract our eyes, hearts, and wallets?

               First and foremost, the NFL had already been riding a crest of popularity coming into the draft as fans anxiously wanted to know who legendary quarterback Tom Brady and other stars would sign with in free agency. April 2020 polling data from YouGov Sport suggests the NFL was the second most-talked about sport in the United States in April 2020; nearly 20% of those surveyed said the NFL generated more conversations than any sport except Major League Baseball, whose season is expected to start soon.

               The second factor is that sports fans were starved for real, meaningful sports content. Since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, the only sports-related offerings on TV consisted of viral or simulated quasi-sports programming, including NASCAR’s simulated races, esports tournaments conducted by Major League Rugby and Major League Soccer, the EA Sports NFL Madden Challenge, and the-ill-fated ESPN NBA Horse Tournament. The only other choices were to tune into obscure international live sports (professional soccer in Belarus and pro baseball played in South Korea before empty stadiums. These ideas are innovative and creative and should be applauded and they offer a fun substitute for watching historic re-runs and highlights, but they’re not the real thing. The most successful of the lot, Fox Sports NASCAR esports series, attracted 1.3 million total viewers.

               So, what is the take-home message? When real sports return, fans will tune in once again! Offer your sports over traditional TV and streaming platforms. Incorporate social and digital interaction. And have sponsors and advertisers create engaging content that provides value and entertainment to fans.

If that happens, the real sports world may return to some sense of normalcy sooner than ever!

Note: To learn more, contact Dastrup at rwdast@gmail.com or Jensen at Ricard.Jensen@utsa.edu