April 13, 2005

According to Juniper Research, mobile sports services, including text-based sports bulletins and news, video clips or match highlights and even streamed video of key sporting events will be a very hot sector this year.

Revenues worldwide are expected to double this year, reaching $1.3 billion, Juniper says.

Soccer-mad and mobile-ready Europe currently accounts for much of this total, but Asia and North America's many sports fans are expected shake up the geographic makeup of the market.

By 2009, North America will account for 26% of worldwide mobile sports revenues, compared to just 1% in 2004.

Even today, mobile users are tapping their devices for sports. According to a poll by M:Metrics, sports scores and sports news are the second most popular type of information content accessed by US mobile subscribers, tied with national news behind weather.

A number of vendors are rolling out new sports services for mobile users. "Sports services — even news alerts — are a comparatively recent phenomenon in the US," says Juniper's Windsor Holden.

"However, operators are rapidly building up extensive portfolios of sports services: Verizon now offers content from Fox and ESPN, Sprint from CBS, Sports Illustrated and MLB."

Asians will also flock to mobile services in great numbers. Of the 210 million mobile sports users worldwide projected by Juniper for 2009, over one-half — 120 million — will be in Asia.

Source: eMarketer