The start of the year led to a lot of disruption on many of our favourite sporting events, and even in the summer where many were finding an opportunity to start to return there were further disruptions as uncertainty around whether or not there would be future postponements or cancellations that could cause other delays – fortunately some of the fastest growing sports in the US were also able to continue throughout this period of time have also been able to continue without much disruption and have been able to compliment other sectors that have relied on the continued efforts – areas such as betting were heavily impacted by these cancellations as players turned to alternatives such as online gambling here for their primary form of entertainment, but the events that continued to run certainly provided some stability.
UFC/MMA – Las Vegas had been the home of the UFC and the biggest MMA fights in the world, and it certainly provided the perfect backdrop for one of the fastest growing sports in the world and certainly in the US. Although the fights weren’t able to take place within the US for the better part of the year only returning recently, many events were able to continue elsewhere as Abu Dhabi became the new home for the UFC and continued to provide entertainment for the growing US audience as many of the bigger sporting events were still on hold – and with the earliest events in the year capturing more viewers than any event previously, the numbers do more than speak for themselves. Although the sport has been around since the 90’s, it has only been the past decade or so that has really helped MMA get the kickstart it needed, and the pandemic certainly brought more eyes to the sport.
Esports – Attitudes across the US toward gaming have been changing steadily over the past two decades – the widespread use of mobile devices has meant gaming could come to the everyday player with no requirement for any expensive equipment. The issues faced in regular sporting events certainly allowed more casual viewers to try viewing esports, however, as there had been little disruption and continue to upwards trend that esports has found in recent years. With big organisations making their own steps toward this space as the NBA had heavy investment into its own NBA2K esports league and provided some familiarity for new viewers – trends are certainly working more in the favour of esports too as our lives become more reliant to online platforms and streamed content is certainly a huge part of the esports growth.
(Image from cnbc.com)
Other more regional specific sports such as Lacrosse are also finding a bit of a resurgence, as one of the US’s oldest sports the renaissance of the sport is certainly helping, however this is something that finds little attention outside of the US unlike previous examples, and may not have the same opportunities to grow quite as quickly or quite as large as other growing sports operating in the same space.
