Sky Sports are delivering a bumper year of sport for hotel bars in 2018 by serving up unrivalled live action over the course of the year.
As of Monday 29th January, there will be over 50 fixtures broadcast between now and the end of the season, plus a number of head-to-heads with the current top six, the Premier League is the number one footfall driver for pubs and bars showing Sky Sports. Coupled with the EFL, the Carabao Cup semi-finals and final, top flight action from SPFL matches including exclusive coverage of the Old Firm games, Sky Sports breadth and quality of football coverage continues to attract sports fans into pubs and bars.
And it’s not just football, other crowd pulling events in 2018 include England’s rugby union tour to South Africa during the summer. The rugby will culminate with the Autumn Internationals where England will play New Zealand for the first time since 2014. 2018 also sees the return of The Ryder Cup, a tournament which attracted over 300,000 out of home viewers the last time it was played[1].
The Super Bowl, Formula 1, International cricket, Super League and darts are among the other sports events shown on Sky Sports in 2018 along with several boxing bouts.
Boxing is becoming increasingly popular with pub customers regularly attracting over 600,000 in out of home viewers. The exception to this is the Joshua v Klitschko where the bout attracted over one million out of home viewers[2]. The fights in 2018 include George Groves v Chris Eubank Jr (17th February), which will be shown on ITV Anthony Joshua v Joseph Parker (31st March); the return of Amir Khan (21st April) Tony Bellew v David Haye (5th May) and action from Katie Taylor and Kell Brook.
David Rey, managing director of Sky Business said;
“With the unrivalled sports action on Sky Sports our goal is to help licensees position their businesses as the home of sport, the only place to watch and enjoy sport throughout the year. This year, our broadcasting schedule will help our customers boost their takings through a combination of our exclusive content, alongside free-to-air fixtures, creating a full day of unmissable events.
“Over 99% of sports fans would return to the same venue having watched live sport there[3], so building a reputation for showing a variety of content, and delivering it well, will help to boost business and increase sales.
“A very exciting and continued growth area for hotel bars in 2018 will be the extensive line up of boxing matches that will be shown on Sky Sports Pay Per View.
“To support our customers, we offer them more than just the ultimate in sports viewing; we help drive footfall through multiple-viewing cards, which allow venues to show up to three events at any one time as well as access to point-of-sale material to help promote forthcoming fixtures.”
Here’s a snapshot of what Sky Sports will be offering hotel bars in 2018.
Football
Showing three times more Premier League matches than any other broadcaster, join Sky for the second half of the Premier League season to see if anyone can stop Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City winning the title in style.
The race for top-four spots with City could go down to the final day of the season with Liverpool, Manchester United, Arsenal, Chelsea and Tottenham fighting for the three remaining places, Away from the Premier League, Sky brings live action from the Sky Bet EFL – including every play-off game – the Carabao Cup, La Liga, Eredivisie, MLS and much more.
Rugby Union
Rugby Union in 2018 for England is all about preparation for the 2019 World Cup in Japan. Live on Sky, England take on a summer tour to South Africa and an autumn international series that includes a mouth-watering clash with the world champion All Blacks. In addition to the England games, Sky will also be showing Ireland’s three-test series against Australia which take place on 9th, 16th and 23rd June.
The women’s international game is also broadcast on Sky with all the Red Roses’ Six Nations matches shown live.
Sky will also be broadcasting the very best from the men’s and women’s Sevens circuits, the brilliant attacking rugby from Super Rugby, plus the best from the Championship, Top 14.
Cricket
After the disappointment of the Ashes, England will look for revenge in a one-day international series against Australia at home, while they take on New Zealand, Pakistan and India in the three formats of the game.
Formula 1
Dedicated purely to Formula 1, Sky Sports F1 will be the only place to watch every F1 race live in 2018, as well as every practice and qualifying session. For the first time in Formula 1 history, the new F1 season will begin with two four-time world champions lining up on the grid as Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel prepare to do title battle again. The season begins in Australia on March 23rd.
Golf
The Ryder Cup returns to Europe and Sky Sports this September as Europe try to regain the trophy after the Americans ended a run of three consecutive defeats with a commanding victory at Hazeltine.
On top of that, Sky will show live coverage of the Majors including the Masters, the US Open, the Open from Carnoustie as well as WGC action, the PGA and European Tour and comprehensive coverage of the ladies’ game.
Rugby League
Defending champions Leeds kick off Sky Sports coverage of the 2018 Super League season in February and you’ll see all 12 teams in the first month’s live coverage. Yet again Sky will be bringing another Magic Weekend with all six matches being aired live from Newcastle for a fourth successive year.
Darts
Premier League Darts, the World Cup of Darts, the World Matchplay, the World Grand Prix and the Grand Slam of Darts will preclude the traditional end-of-year finale at the 2019 World Darts Championship. Who will emerge from Phil “The Power” Taylor shadow to challenge “Mighty” Michael van Gerwen?
NFL
2018 kicks off with the NFL hitting the business end of its season. All roads lead to Minneapolis in February for one of the greatest sporting events the Super Bowl. Sky Sports will be showing every play-off match live. Will Tom Brady appear in his eighth Super Bowl, and give the Patriots their sixth victory? Only time will tell.
Tennis
Sky Sports will continue to show the very best of the ATP Tour with the sport’s biggest names in action. Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal were the men to beat in 2017 but former World No 1s Andy Murray and Novak Djokovic will be looking to come back strong from injury.
And 2018 could be the year Masters champion Gregor Dimitrov emerges to break up the big four’s domination. Follow it all on Sky Sports Action.
[1] 324K people watched day one of the 2016 Ryder Cup out of home (Ipsos MORI Out of Home Viewing Panel Sept-Oct 2016)
[2] Haye v Bellew on Saturday 4th March 2017 attracted 636,000 viewers out of home and Mayweather v Pacquiao attracted 679,000 viewers out of home – Ipsos MORI Out of Home Viewing Panel 4 March 2017 and 3rd May 2015.
[3] Matchpint sports fan survey, July 2017
[1] 324K people watched day one of the 2016 Ryder Cup out of home (Ipsos MORI Out of Home Viewing Panel Sept-Oct 2016)
[2] Haye v Bellew on Saturday 4th March 2017 attracted 636,000 viewers out of home and Mayweather v Pacquiao attracted 679,000 viewers out of home – Ipsos MORI Out of Home Viewing Panel 4 March 2017 and 3rd May 2015.
[3] Matchpint sports fan survey, July 2017