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BUZZ REPORT 2021 The world's top-ranked events across ten markets - sport.yougov.com
2021
BUZZ REPORT
The world’s top-ranked events across ten markets

sport.yougov.com
BUZZ REPORT 2021 The world's top-ranked events across ten markets - sport.yougov.com
WELCOME
                           Welcome to the 2021 edition of our SportsIndex Buzz Report
                           – an expanded international report following on from seven years
                           of our annual UK buzz reports.

                           In a year that saw the COVID-19 pandemic wreak havoc              As you might expect, YouGov Sport’s Annual Buzz Report will
                           on the world and its sport schedules – leaving some of            therefore make different reading this year. This is also because
    Frank Saez
    Founder and            the world’s biggest events in its wake – both fans and            we have made changes to the scope of the report by including
    Managing Director      the sports industry have shown great imagination,                 data we now collect on leagues and events from around the
    YouGov Sport           fortitude and resilience in keeping sport alive.                  world. This year’s report takes a more global look at sport –
                                                                                             diving into the buzz around sport across ten different markets.
                           Despite the pandemic, sport did return, providing many
                           fans with a welcome break from the reality of isolation           We hope you will find this an insightful read about sport in a
                           and quarantine.                                                   turbulent and unexpected year.

                                                                                                  10 MARKETS
                             Keep informed
                              We regularly share industry insights from the data we          UK             Germany
                              draw from around the world every day. From tweets and
                              blogs right through to in-depth reports, you can find it all   US             India
                              on our site.
                                                                                             Australia      Japan
                              sport.yougov.com/insights
                                                                                             Brazil         Mexico
                                                                                             France         UAE
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BUZZ REPORT 2021 The world's top-ranked events across ten markets - sport.yougov.com
CONTENTS                                                                                     HEADLINES …
                                                                                                     AMERICAS
                                                                                                     EUROPE
                                                                                                     REST OF WORLD

                                                                                                     INTRODUCTION

                                                                                                     PERFORMANCE BY MARKET
                                                                                                     UK          GERMANY
                                                                                                     US          INDIA
                                                                                                     AUSTRALIA   JAPAN
                                                                                                     BRAZIL      MEXICO
                                                                                                     FRANCE      UAE

                                                                                                     CONCLUSION
    ALBUQUERQUE, NEW MEXICO | 15 FEBRUARY 2020: Kendell Williams competes in the Women's Long Jump
    during the 2020
    CONCORD,        Toyota
                NORTH            US | 11 Championships
                           USATF Indoor
                       CAROLINA,         OCTOBER 2020:    Description Convention Center.
                                                       at Albuquerque

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BUZZ REPORT 2021 The world's top-ranked events across ten markets - sport.yougov.com
US

    HEADLINES:
                                                                                                  NFL SHINES EARLY
                                                                                                  With Super Bowl LIV falling
                                                                                                  prior to the pandemic outbreak

    AMERICAS
                                                                                                  and restrictions, the NFL sets
                                                                                                  an early high-water mark to top
                                                                                                  our rankings. While it’s no
                                                                                                  surprise to see the NFL top any
                                                                                                  of our sports rankings, when it
                                                                                                  comes to Buzz, it is unusual to
                                                                                                  see every top-ten peak score
                                                                                                  laid down by the fifth month of
                                                                                                  the US sports calendar.

                                                                MEXICO
         The COVID-19 pandemic tore through schedules
         in 2020, leaving some of the world’s biggest           LIGA MX DOMINATES
         sporting events in its wake.                           Despite a strong showing by the
                                                                NFL, Liga MX, the country’s
                                                                premier football league,
                                                                comfortably tops our Mexico
                                                                rankings.
                                                                                                  BRAZIL

                                                                                                  BEAUTIFUL GAME
                                                                                                  With a late November surge,
                                                                                                  the Brazilian Série A overtakes a
                                                                                                  strong October showing by
                                                                                                  Formula 1 to take our 2020
                                                                                                  Buzz title.
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BUZZ REPORT 2021 The world's top-ranked events across ten markets - sport.yougov.com
GERMANY

    HEADLINES:                                                                                                             UP UP AND AWAY
                                                                                                                           The Vierschanzentournee
                                                                                                                           Four Hills ski jumping event

    EUROPE                                                                                                                 escaped the start of the
                                                                                                                           pandemic and out-scored
                                                                                                                           football’s Bundesliga to take
                                                                                        FRANCE                             our 2020 Buzz title in Germany.
                                                                                                                           A further ten football properties
                                                                                        TOUR ON TOP                        make the top 10.
                                                                                        2020’s Tour was a genuine
                                                                                        classic, with the winner being
                                                    UK                                  decided only on the final day of
                                                                                        general classification racing as
                                                    SIX IS FIRST                        the lead changed hands
                                                    A February kick-off helps the       between two countrymen.
                                                    men’s Six Nations Championship      This September excitement
                                                    to top our UK rankings for the      was enough to hold off a strong
                                                    first time after years of strong    October showing by the
                                                    showings in the top five. With      delayed French Open at Roland
                                                    strong appeal to even casual        Garros.
                                                    fans, European rugby’s top
                                                    national team competition
                                                    shows it’s mettle by posting top-
                                                    ten scores both pre and post the
                                                    shut-down period.
                                                                                          In March one of sport’s biggest events
                                                                                          – the pan-European UEFA Euro 2020 football
                                                                                          tournament – was delayed due to COVID-19.

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HEADLINES:                                                                           UAE

                                                                                         FIFA KEEPS IT

    REST OF WORLD
                                                                                         Despite diplomatic tensions,
                                                                                         public perception in UAE has
                                                                                         come through positively as the
                                                                                         FIFA World Cup tops our 2020
                                                                                         Buzz rankings with the FIFA
                                                                                         Club World Cup (hosted by
                                                                                         UAE in 2017 & 2018) not far
                                                                                         behind.

     INDIA                                             JAPAN                                                              AUSTRALIA

     IPL IS KING                                       LET THE GAMES BEGIN                                                JANUARY ACE
     Despite delay and a move to                       Prior to postponement, the                                         Australia’s top 3 Buzz scores
     Dubai, the Indian Premier                         Olympic Games posted                                               were posted in January, with the
     League records the highest                        Japan’s top Buzz score                                             Australian Open coming through as
     score across all our featured                     amongst a diverse collection of                                    the clear winner over two cricket
     markets to nudge the ICC                          international events. A 2021                                       properties. Strong showings by
     Cricket World Cup for top                         repeat title would be no                                           other sports as the country opened
     honours in India.                                 surprise.                                                          up in the Autumn are not enough to
                                                                                                                          dethrone the country’s signature
                                                                                                                          event.

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BUZZ REPORT 2021 The world's top-ranked events across ten markets - sport.yougov.com
ABOUT SPORTSINDEX
    SportsIndex is one of YouGov Sport’s signature
    capabilities. It operates in 34 markets across the world,
    tracking 200 key domestic and international properties                                                 FORMER
                                                                                                                     IMPRESSION

    across 30 sports. Twenty-one properties are tracked in                                                CUSTOMER                QUALITY

    every single market.                                                                      CURRENT
                                                                                                                                              VALUE
                                                                                             CUSTOMER
                                                                                             (FOLLOW /
    In every market, it takes a list of the leading sports properties – a mix of              SUPPORT)

    domestic and international events, competitions and leagues – and, from
                                                                                         PURCHASE

                                                                                                                     16
                                                                                                                                                      REPUTATION
    500,000 surveys annually, it measures the public’s perceptions of them.               INTENT

    Every day, and for every property on our list, we track 16 separate metrics,
    providing a treasure chest of data for sports marketers and administrators.    CONSIDERATION
                                                                                                                                                        SATISFACTION
                                                                                                                                                           (WORTH
                                                                                                                                                         FOLLOWING)
    SportsIndex gives our clients the capability to do everything from
    measuring the effect of yesterday’s news headlines to establishing a
                                                                                                                     METRICS
    season-on-season trend stretching back years. And because it operates           WORD OF MOUTH                                                     RECOMMEND
    internationally, users can track and compare properties across the world.

                                                                                          AD AWARENESS                                        INDEX

                                                                                                         ATTENTION                AWARENESS

                                                                                                                     BUZZ
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BUZZ REPORT 2021 The world's top-ranked events across ten markets - sport.yougov.com
WHAT’S A BUZZ SCORE?                                                          OUR DATA
    Our Buzz score is the difference between the percentage of respondents        The 2021 Buzz Report provides insight about all the sports events we
    hearing positive news and the percentage hearing negative news about an       monitor against just one of the 16 metrics we measure – ‘Buzz’.
    event in the previous two weeks. So, depending on what is going on, an
    event’s Buzz score can reveal whether conversations around a property are     Every day, we ask people this question...
    positive or negative at a point in time.
                                                                                  “Over the PAST TWO WEEKS, which of the following sporting events
    Buzz scores can range from +100 (where everyone we asked has heard            have you heard something positive/negative about?”
    something positive) to -100 (where everyone we asked has heard
    something negative). A completely neutral score, therefore, would be zero.    From the answers we collect, we derive a Buzz score for each event.
    A score of 45 would show positive sentiment towards a property, by a
    margin of 45 percentage-points.
                                                                                             Buzz score Men's Six Nations Rugby Championship during 2020
    For our Buzz rankings here, we look at the highest average Buzz score each
                                                                                     30.0
    property has scored each calendar month. Then we take the highest of
    those twelve scores and compare them with highest monthly scores of              25.0
    every other property we track in that market.
                                                                                     20.0

    We track up to 80 properties in each country but for the sake of this             15.0
    report, we display only the top ten in each market overall (domestic and
    international). In addition, we show a top five or top ten ranking for each      10.0

    market for those competitions hosted or held (in part or in their entirety)       5.0
    in each market over the year,
                                                                                      0.0
                                                                                         1 Jan   1 Feb   1 Mar   1 Apr   1 May   1 Jun   1 Jul   1 Aug   1 Sep   1 Oct   1 Nov   1 Dec

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BUZZ REPORT 2021 The world's top-ranked events across ten markets - sport.yougov.com
1
    INTRODUCTION

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BUZZ REPORT 2021 The world's top-ranked events across ten markets - sport.yougov.com
INTRODUCTION

     If there were ever any danger that sport had somehow                                                      The COVID-19 pandemic tore through schedules in
     become devalued by its ubiquity or its polish, then                                                       2020, leaving some of the world’s biggest sporting
     2020 was the year that taught every fan to be grateful                                                    events in its wake. Fans around the world eagerly
     for the role it plays in our lives.                                                                       anticipated the return of live action, and while some
                                                                                                               competitions have come back, there is no question that
                                                                                                               sport without fans is not quite the same.

 NEWCASTLE UPON TYNE, ENGLAND | 30 DECEMBER 2020: Sadio Mane of Liverpool heads towards goal during
 the English Premier League (EPL) match between Newcastle United and Liverpool at St. James' Park. The match
 was played without fans, behind closed doors as a COVID-19 precaution.

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The year began normally enough, with fixtures and events being fulfilled at
     a regular rhythm in the first few months of 2020. But come March, and in           Leagues began to focus on finding ways to get
     the space of seven days, the world was rocked by the delay of two of
     sport’s biggest events – the Summer Olympic Games in Tokyo and the                 fixtures fulfilled – even in the absence of spectators.
     pan-European UEFA Euro 2020 football tournament.                                   Broadcasters dug into their archives and leaned
                                                                                        heavily on documentary and conversational
     The postponements of these quadrennial giants were a wake-up call to
     those in the sports world not already standing to attention at the spread of       content.
     the coronavirus. They brought with them the realisation that, if events as
     rich and well-planned as these could do nothing to resist the march of the
     disease, then many others would go on to suffer the same fate.                  But even in the midst of a pandemic, sport did eventually return – both at
                                                                                     the grassroots and the elite level in many countries. From the Bundesliga to
     But while spring 2020 was sobering, organisers, broadcasters and fans           the IPL, versions of competitions returned to our screens, providing many
     were quick to focus on finding new ways to keep the home fires burning.         fans with a welcome break from the reality of isolation and quarantine.
     Leagues began to focus on finding ways to get fixtures fulfilled – even in
     the absence of spectators. Broadcasters dug into their archives and leaned      As you might expect, YouGov Sport’s Annual Buzz Report will make
     heavily on documentary and conversational content. Fans did whatever            different reading to previous years. But we have also made changes to the
     they could to fill the void that live sport left – at a time when many needed   scope of the report by including data we now collect on leagues and
     it the most.                                                                    events from around the world. So instead of being largely focused on the
                                                                                     UK, this year’s global report allows us to truly see what the world’s top-
                                                                                     ranked events are across ten markets. All data and rankings refer to the
                                                                                     calendar year 2020.

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2
     PERFORMANCE BY MARKET

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UK

 LONDON, ENGLAND | 23 FEBRUARY 2020: Manu Tuilagi of England breaks with the ball during the 2020 Guinness
 Six Nations match between England and Ireland at Twickenham Stadium.

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UK
     For the first time since we began our official Buzz                                       UK GLOBAL BUZZ RANKINGS 2021
     reports, the Six Nations Rugby Championship tops our                                                                                      MONTH      BUZZ
     UK ranking. And thanks to the disjointed nature of this
                                                                                     RANK                      PROPERTY
                                                                                                                                              ACHIEVED   SCORE

     year’s sporting calendar, it scored well enough to make                          1         Men's Six Nations Rugby Championship         February    24.6

     it into our top ten more than once.
                                                                                      2              English Premier League (EPL)              June      17.5

     The tournament’s resumption in October saw it score highly enough for
                                                                                      3               England Test Cricket Team               August     15.7
     a second, middle-table appearance, which we do not show.
                                                                                      4                       Bundesliga                       May       13.9
     For regular readers, the Six Nation’s triumph will come as no surprise. The
     property has been a perennial presence in the top five over the years and
                                                                                      5               Formula 1 British Grand Prix            August     13.8
     came close to topping it in 2017 when it was beaten by regular winner,
     Wimbledon.
                                                                                      6                     Tour de France                   September   11.9

     But the cancellation of the tennis tournament this year left a window of
                                                                                      7                      The FA Cup                       January    10.3
     opportunity for the Six Nations and it has comprehensively beaten its rivals,
     leaving the Premier League in second place by some distance.
                                                                                      8               England T20 Cricket Team               September    9.0

     But that’s not bad news for the league. Second place represents a high-          9               UEFA Champions League                   August      8.0
     water mark for the competition, which failed to make the top ten in two of
     the past three rankings. The very fact that it got games on, while other        10     The English Football League (EFL) Championship     June       7.5
     competitions found it too difficult, has helped the property achieve its best
     ever ranking.

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UK SPORT AND COVID-19

     It’s worth remarking, however, that despite their lofty positions neither the   An honourable mention must go to one such event here. Despite not even
     Premier League nor the Six Nations record higher scores than they did in        taking place, Wimbledon manages to rank 11th in our rankings this year. In
     2019. Overall, peak scores were down, perhaps reflecting the greater noise      any other year, this would represent a remarkable fall from grace from this
     created by events away from the sports field in 2020. In fact, almost every     solid-gold property but, in 2020, the fact that it remained part of the
     property in our top ten fits the mould of scoring less highly over the last     conversation at all is a genuine achievement.
     year.
                                                                                     Another notable accomplishment – and one which reflects the importance
     In a typical year, major annual, biennial and quadrennial tournaments           of sport to British popular culture – is the appearance of the Bundesliga in
     would make an appearance in a ranking like this. For example, in 2016, the      this year’s ranking. The German football league has never troubled the UK
     summer Olympic Games in Rio topped our table with a peak score of more          top ten before but as the first major European football competition to
     than 42 points. But the absence of these events has given a boost to the        return to regular play, it has charged into fourth place.
     leagues and contests which have been relatively easier to hold in this
     pandemic period.                                                                The EFL Championship also benefits from the sterling work it has done to
                                                                                     get the game back on again.

                                                                                     Meanwhile, the Tour de France continues its persistent argument for
         Bundesliga has never troubled the UK top ten                                consideration as a ‘major league’ event in the UK. It features in the top ten
         before but as the first major European football                             for the fifth consecutive year, no doubt buoyed by the one of the most
         competition to return to regular play, it has charged                       dramatic finishes in Tour history.
         into fourth place.

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UK YEAR-ON-YEAR PERFORMANCE

     So how does the performance of our UK top ten in 2020 compare to their                         UK YEAR-ON-YEAR PERFORMANCE
     2019 scores?
                                                                                                                                                        2019    2020
                                                                                      2020   2019
                                                                                                                         PROPERTY                       BUZZ    BUZZ
     Well, most scores are down overall – and that’s what we’d expect given the       RANK   RANK
                                                                                                                                                       SCORE   SCORE

     fact that so much else has been in the news in 2020, and that it’s possible       1      5           Men's Six Nations Rugby Championship         28.6    24.6
     that people had less appetite for sports news overall. When you take into
     account the fact that much of the sporting calendar was also – to one             2      8                  English Premier League                17.6    17.5
     extent or another – disrupted, it’s really no surprise to see many sports
     events struggling to build on 2019 scores.                                        3      7                    England Test Cricket                19.2    15.7

     But in actual fact, three of our properties managed to do just that in 2020.      4     N/A                        Bundesliga                     N/A     13.9
     The British Grand Prix, the Tour de France and England’s T20 cricket side
     all managed to generate more positive chatter than they did in 2019. It’s         5      11                Formula 1 British Grand Prix           11.9    13.8
     also likely that the Bundesliga would have seen gains had we been
     tracking the property in the UK in 2019.                                          6      12                 Tour de France, Cycling               11.6    11.9

     But no property in our top ten suffered catastrophic loss over the year – in      7     10                        The FA Cup                      13.1    10.3
     fact far from it. That’s a testament to the enduring interest of fans but also
     to skillful marketers and broadcasters – not to mention the playing and           8      18                   England T20 Cricket                  8.7     9.0
     coaching staff who made the events happen in the first place.
                                                                                       9      9                 UEFA Champions League                  14.0     8.0

                                                                                      10      14      The English Football League (EFL) Championship   10.6     7.5

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UK DOMESTIC RANKING

     Our ranking of only properties which have taken place domestically in the             UK DOMESTIC BUZZ RANKINGS 2021
     UK doesn’t look too different to our overall version. But climbing into the
     top ten comes Wimbledon and the England men’s national rugby team.            RANK                      PROPERTY
                                                                                                                                             MONTH      BUZZ
                                                                                                                                            ACHIEVED   SCORE

     Wimbledon was cancelled for the first time since World War II last year.       1         Men's Six Nations Rugby Championship         February    24.6
     And if you assumed that it was the announcement of this news in April that
     created the most Buzz, you’d be wrong. Instead, it appears that it was in      2              English Premier League (EPL)              June      17.5
     fact the sporting muscle memory of British fans that created the property’s
     peak score, when the tournament should have been taking place in July.         3                  England Test Cricket                 August     15.7
     Credit is due to the Wimbledon marketing team for bringing the property to
     life through Wimbledon Recreated, even when it wasn’t actually                 4               Formula 1 British Grand Prix            August     13.8
     happening.
                                                                                    5                      The FA Cup                       January    10.3

                                                                                    6                  England T20 Cricket                 September    9.0

                                                                                    7               UEFA Champions League                   August      8.0

                                                                                    8     The English Football League (EFL) Championship     June       7.5

                                                                                    9              Wimbledon Championships                    July      7.3

                                                                                   10       England Men’s National Rugby Union Team        November     6.2

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US

 KANSAS CITY, MISSOURI, US | 2 FEBRUARY 2020: Chiefs fans celebrate as the Kansas City Chiefs defeat the
 San Francisco 49ers in the Super Bowl LIV.

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US
     While it’s never necessarily a surprise to see the                               US GLOBAL BUZZ RANKINGS 2021
     NFL come out on top of a ranking of US sports, when                                                                       MONTH      BUZZ
     it comes to Buzz, it is unusual to see every top-ten peak
                                                                               RANK                 PROPERTY
                                                                                                                              ACHIEVED   SCORE

     score laid down by the fifth month of the US sports                        1        National Football League (NFL)       January    15.7

     calendar.
                                                                                2                   NASCAR                      May      14.3

     By the time Super Bowl LIV had been won by Kansas City Chiefs on 2nd       3     National Basketball Association (NBA)   February   12.6
     February, health officials in China had already confirmed that a novel
     coronavirus emerging in Wuhan could be transmitted between humans.         4         Major League Baseball (MLB)           May      12.3
     The rest of the year was history – in more ways than one.
                                                                                5       NCAA Division 1 College Football      January     9.7
     Nevertheless, the peak Buzz score that the NFL recorded in January was,
     with the help of Kansas City Chiefs’ star quarterback Patrick Mahomes,     6      NCAA Division 1 College Basketball     January     8.9
     significantly higher than it managed in the previous year.
                                                                                7        National Hockey League (NHL)         February    8.6

                                                                                8           Summer Olympic Games              January     7.9

                                                                                9                     XFL                     February    7.6

                                                                               10              Special Olympics                 July      7.5

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NASCAR’s peak score, which propels it to second in the US rankings, was        The NBA also recorded its peak score early in the year. That’s pretty usual
     amongst the latest to be recorded – well into pandemic chaos. Its score of     for the league, which tends to record a high in February, but we’d also
     14.3, just 1.4 points below the NFL, was achieved in May – as the Cup Series   expect to see another peak some time during or after the play-offs in
     returned after a two-month hiatus.                                             May/June. In the absence of anything resembling a regular season, then,
                                                                                    third place is still a good performance for the league.
     And amid strong political and cultural undercurrents, NASCAR made
     significant policy changes to its events that may have factored into the       Hot on its heels, just 0.3 points below, is Major League Baseball. Its season
     positive conversations occurring around the sport. In response to protests     was also heavily impacted by the pandemic, shrinking from 162 to just 60
     erupting across the nation to the killing of George Floyd, a black man who     games, played between July and September. And while its peak 2020
     died at the hands of police, NASCAR relaxed its rules barring kneeling         Buzz score is significantly lower than its 2019 marker, its ranking is still
     during the national anthem and banned Confederate flags from its events.       respectably high.

                                                                                    College sport performs pretty well in 2020, despite it being a highly
                                                                                    challenging 12 months for the NCAA and its schedulers. Even though
          Amid strong political and cultural undercurrents,                         basketball’s season was completely wiped out, it still manages to generate
          NASCAR made significant policy changes to its                             enough Buzz to make it into sixth place – but that’s a legacy of early-year
                                                                                    optimism more than excitement about anything that took place on the
          events that may have factored into the positive                           court. Any madness around March had much more to do with coronavirus-
          conversations occurring around the sport.                                 related cancellations than it did with basketball in 2020.

                                                                                    The same early-year optimism may account for the Summer Olympics’
                                                                                    presence in the US top ten. Its peak score was recorded in January, well
                                                                                    before any serious commentary around its postponement.

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US DOMESTIC RANKING

     Just like in the UK, domestic sport is what dominates Buzz in the US. But             US DOMESTIC BUZZ RANKINGS 2021
     removing international or overseas properties does leave room for a couple
     of other sports properties to climb into the top ten. In this case, it’s the   RANK                  PROPERTY
                                                                                                                                     MONTH      BUZZ
                                                                                                                                    ACHIEVED   SCORE
     Harlem Globetrotters and the PGA Men’s Golf Tour who see
     the benefits.                                                                   1         National Football League (NFL)       January    15.7

     The Globetrotters lost legend Curly Neal in 2020 but that was after the         2                    NASCAR                      May      14.3
     team’s peak score was recorded in February. It was June before the PGA
     Tour recorded its peak score – as the property returned from a                  3      National Basketball Association (NBA)   February   12.6
     coronavirus-enforced hiatus. The Charles Schwab Challenge was the
     tournament which got the ball rolling again and it’s likely to be no            4          Major League Baseball (MLB)           May      12.3
     coincidence that the eagerly-awaited event coincides with the Tour’s high-
     water mark for the year.                                                        5        NCAA Division 1 College Football      January     9.7

                                                                                     6       NCAA Division 1 College Basketball     January     8.9

                                                                                     7         National Hockey League (NHL)         February    8.6

                                                                                     8                      XFL                     February    7.6

                                                                                     9              Harlem Globetrotters            February    7.5

                                                                                    10              PGA Men's Golf Tour              June       7.4

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AUSTRALIA

 MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA | 1 FEBRUARY 2020: Sofia Kenin of the United States celebrates winning championship
 point during her Women's Singles Final match on day thirteen of the 2020 Australian Open at Melbourne Park.

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AUSTRALIA
     By the end of 2020, Australia looked to have the                                       AUSTRALIA GLOBAL BUZZ RANKINGS 2021
     pandemic under control, having enjoyed long periods                                                                                  MONTH      BUZZ
     with no new cases from November onwards. But for the
                                                                                     RANK                     PROPERTY
                                                                                                                                         ACHIEVED   SCORE

     rest of the year, the pandemic wreaked havoc on the                              1               Australian Open (Tennis)           January    35.4

     country’s sporting calendar, just as it had around the
                                                                                      2                   Big Bash League                January    22.2
     rest of the world.
                                                                                      3                   Cricket Australia              January    21.8
     Just sneaking under the wire, however, were three of Australia’s sporting
     highlights – the Australian Open (tennis), the Big Bash (domestic cricket)       4           Australian Football League (AFL)       October    21.4
     and some of the international summer cricket season.
                                                                                      5         State of Origin Series (Rugby League)   November    21.0
     It’s no coincidence that these major events/sports, untarnished by any
     virus fears, make up the top three for Buzz in the country for 2020. What’s      6                    AFL Women's                    March     19.8
     notable, however, is just how much noise the Australian Open creates
     among Australians. It scores more than 13 points higher than its nearest         7          Women's Big Bash League (WBBL)         November    12.5
     rival, the Big Bash League, which is then closely tied with third, fourth and
     fifth positions. Truly, the Open wins this one in straight sets.                 8                  ATP Men’s Tennis                January    12.2

     Australia’s ranking is also notable for the inclusion of two women’s leagues     9            English Premier League (EPL)         February    12.0

     in the top ten. AFL Women’s comes in 6th, in only its fourth season, and
     that’s despite the season being abandoned in March.                             10                    Formula 1 (F1)               September   11.6

     Meanwhile, the Women’s Big Bash League, played entirely in Sydney in
     October/November, moves into seventh position for 2020.
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AUSTRALIA DOMESTIC RANKING

     Because Australia’s sporting focus is so local, the domestic table for the          AUSTRALIA DOMESTIC BUZZ RANKINGS 2021
     country shows only one new entrant – the Brisbane International.
                                                                                                                                        MONTH      BUZZ
                                                                                  RANK                      PROPERTY
                                                                                                                                       ACHIEVED   SCORE
     The tennis tournament, part of the WTA Tour, takes place in January as a
     prelude to the Australian Open and attracted a strong field in 2020, with     1                Australian Open (Tennis)           January    35.4
     Karolína Plíšková defeating Madison Keys in a tight final. That was enough
     to see it just nudge out other candidates including Supercars, Netball        2                    Big Bash League                January    22.2
     Australia and NRL Premiership from the top ten. They all came within
     0.3 points of the Brisbane International.                                     3                    Cricket Australia              January    21.8

                                                                                   4            Australian Football League (AFL)       October    21.4

                                                                                   5          State of Origin Series (Rugby League)   November    21.0

                                                                                   6                     AFL Women's                   March      19.8

                                                                                   7           Women's Big Bash League (WBBL)         November    12.5

                                                                                   8                   ATP Men’s Tennis                January    12.2

                                                                                   9                    Formula One (F1)              September   11.6

                                                                                  10                 Brisbane International            January    10.9

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BRAZIL

 SAO PAULO, BRAZIL | 15 JANUARY 2020: Rony of Palmeiras and Kannemann of Gremio fight for the ball during the
 match as part of Brasileirao Series A 2020 at Allianz Parque.

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BRAZIL
     Brazil’s top domestic football league, Série A,                                        BRAZIL GLOBAL BUZZ RANKINGS 2021
     comfortably beats off all opposition to come top of the                                                                                  MONTH      BUZZ
     country’s Buzz rankings for 2020.
                                                                                     RANK                     PROPERTY
                                                                                                                                             ACHIEVED   SCORE

                                                                                      1             Brazilian Championship Série A           November   44.7
     Formula 1 makes its highest appearance across all our rankings, as well as
     recording its highest score. Although Brazil supplies no current Formula 1       2                     Formula 1 (F1)                   October    38.4
     drivers, it has long been a source of some of the very best, including
     Nelson Piquet and Ayrton Senna, and the sport enjoys a dedicated fanbase.        3               UEFA Champions League                   January   24.4

     Brazil is also the country with the most football properties in its top ten –    4             Brazilian Championship Série B           November   24.0
     seven in all. Noise is generated from its three biggest domestic leagues, as
     well as the Champions League, the World Cup, England’s Premier League            5                    FIFA World Cup                     January   22.5
     and Spain’s La Liga.
                                                                                      6             English Premier League (EPL)              January   17.0
     Notably, Brazil is the only one of our selected markets where volleyball
     makes an appearance in the top ten. Its Superliga comes seventh in our           7           Brazilian Volleyball Super League           March     14.5
     ranking – that’s despite the 2019/20 season being cancelled in the wake
     of the coronavirus pandemic.                                                     8     National Basketball Association (NBA-American)    January   14.4

                                                                                      9             Brazilian Championship Série C           October    13.8

                                                                                     10                   La Liga (Football)                  January   13.1

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BRAZIL DOMESTIC RANKING

     Five new properties make our domestic-only ranking in Brazil.                         BRAZIL DOMESTIC BUZZ RANKINGS 2021

     The first of them is the World Surf League, which recorded its peak Buzz       RANK                   PROPERTY
                                                                                                                                     MONTH      BUZZ
                                                                                                                                    ACHIEVED   SCORE
     score in January, before the global pandemic had been declared. That was
     just before the league reached Pernambuco for its February leg of the           1          Brazilian Championship A Series    November    44.7
     competition.
                                                                                     2                 Formula One (F1)            October     38.4
     Other multi-competition events that regularly visit Brazil also made it into
     the top ten. The men’s and women’s professional tennis tours both hold          3          Brazilian Championship B Series    November    24.0
     events in Brazil under normal circumstances and both recorded peak Buzz
     scores in October. That’s not when we’d normally expect to see these            4         Brazilian Volleyball Super League    March      14.5
     peaks – for example, the Rio Open takes place in February.
                                                                                     5          Brazilian Championship C Series    October     13.8
     The Brazilian Basketball Championship also makes it into the top ten
     – in seventh place, beating out esports.                                        6                World Surf League             January    11.7

                                                                                     7         Brazilian Basketball Championship    March      9.1

                                                                                     8                     Esports                 October     6.9

                                                                                     9                ATP Men’s Tennis             October     6.7

                                                                                    10              WTA Women’s Tennis             October      4.1

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FRANCE

 MERIBEL, FRANCE | 16 SEPTEMBER 2020: Supporters of the Tour de France cycling event cheering Sepp Kuss
 and Primos Roglic in the Col de la Loze.

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FRANCE
     The Tour de France makes three appearances in our                                 FRANCE GLOBAL BUZZ RANKINGS 2021
     multi-market top tens but the property ranks highest in                                                                      MONTH      BUZZ
     its home country. In a year relatively starved of stand-
                                                                                RANK                   PROPERTY
                                                                                                                                 ACHIEVED   SCORE

     alone events, Le Tour racks up a Buzz score of 40,                          1                 Tour de France               September   40.0

     almost three points more than its closest rival, the
                                                                                 2       French Open / Roland-Garros (Tennis)    October    37.1
     French Open (tennis).
                                                                                 3            UEFA Champions League              August     26.2
     2020’s Tour was a genuine classic, with the winner being decided on the
     last day of general classification racing and the lead changing hands       4         Six Nations Rugby Championship       February    20.3
     between two countrymen. That all this should happen in a sporting year
     beset by the coronavirus no doubt made Le Boucle even more appealing        5            Coupe de France (Football)         January    16.9
     to the French public.
                                                                                 6                  Formula 1 (F1)              December    16.3
     In 2020, the UEFA Champions League also created plenty of Buzz, as
     French champions Paris Saint-Germain made it all the way to the final in    7                 Ligue 1 (Football)            January    13.2
     Lisbon, only to be defeated by Bayern Munich. Their run, and the noise
     created by it, shows that little beats having a domestic interest in a      8              Winter Olympic Games             January    13.0
     competition.
                                                                                 9             Summer Olympic Games               March     13.0

                                                                                10                  Top 14 (Rugby)              December    11.1

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The Six Nations Rugby Championship makes its second appearance of this               FRANCE DOMESTIC BUZZ RANKINGS 2021
     review – and demonstrates to those unaware just how much cut-through
     the sport can earn among Gallic audiences. It helped that France were         RANK                    PROPERTY
                                                                                                                                      MONTH      BUZZ
                                                                                                                                     ACHIEVED   SCORE
     runners-up in the tournament with the highest try scorer in the shape of
     Charles Ollivon and the most tries overall. The country’s domestic league      1              Tour de France (Cycling)         September   40.0
     – Top 14 – also makes it into the top ten.
                                                                                    2        French Open / Roland-Garros (Tennis)    October    37.1

     FRANCE DOMESTIC RANKING                                                        3             UEFA Champions League              August     26.2

                                                                                    4          Six Nations Rugby Championship       February    20.3
     When we filter only for competitions held or hosted domestically in France,
     the ranking looks only a little different.                                     5                 Coupe de France                January    16.9

     In slides the Coupe de la Ligue, a football cup competition which played       6                  Formula One (F1)             December    16.3
     out its last final in 2020 – the tournament has now been suspended to
     address fixture congestion. In tenth, we see UEFA’s Europa League, despite     7                      Ligue 1                   January    13.2
     the fact that there was no French club participation in its latter stages.
                                                                                    8                   Top 14 (Rugby)              December    11.1

                                                                                    9                 Coupe de la Ligue              January    10.2

                                                                                   10               UEFA Europa League              December    9.6

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GERMANY

 ARMISCH-PARTENKIRCHEN, GERMANY | 1 JANUARY 2021: Severin Freund of Germany competes during the
 competition at the Four Hills Tournament 2020 in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany.

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GERMANY
     Once again, in Germany it’s an event which escaped the                                   GERMANY GLOBAL BUZZ RANKINGS 2021
     start of the pandemic which records the highest score for
                                                                                                                                    MONTH      BUZZ
     the year. In this case, it’s Vierschanzentournee (the Four                        RANK                  PROPERTY
                                                                                                                                   ACHIEVED   SCORE

     Hills Tournament, a German/Austrian ski jumping event)                             1             Vierschanzentournee          January    19.1
     which tops the ranking. The event narrowly beats perennial
     favourite, the Bundesliga, into second place – there’s only                        2              Bundesliga (Football)      February    18.9

     0.2 points between them.
                                                                                        3            UEFA Champions League         August     12.2

     As we note earlier, the Bundesliga got its show back on the road sooner            4                 Formula 1 (F1)          December    12.0
     than most other football leagues but that won’t have made much
     difference to German football fans, who tend anyway to be devoted to               5              DFB-Pokal (Football)       February    11.2
     their domestic league rather than any of its competitors.
                                                                                        6                Tour de France           September   11.1
     It’s another football property, the UEFA Champions League, which comes
     third. Buzz around the event would have been boosted by Bayern Munich              7         German Women’s Football Team     October     9.2
     storming to victory in the final.
                                                                                        8              Handball-Bundesliga         January     9.1
     In fact, football provides six of the top ten properties for Buzz in Germany in
     2020, with two of those being women’s properties – the women’s national            9          Frauen-Bundesliga (Football)   September    7.4
     team in seventh and the women’s Bundesliga in ninth.
                                                                                       10             UEFA Europa League           August      6.8
     Formula 1 and the Tour de France also provide strong performances in a
     difficult year.

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GERMANY DOMESTIC RANKING

     Only the Tour de France drops out of Germany’s top ten to make way for a             GERMANY DOMESTIC BUZZ RANKINGS 2021
     domestic-only ranking.
                                                                                                                                           MONTH      BUZZ
                                                                                   RANK                      PROPERTY
                                                                                                                                          ACHIEVED   SCORE
     The property that replaces the Tour is the IBU Biathlon Weltcup (or World
     Cup). The season takes place between November and March and was                1                  Vierschanzentournee                January    19.1
     concluded a little over a week early in 2020, thanks to the pandemic.
                                                                                    2                      Bundesliga                    February    18.9
     Two of the host locations were in Germany in early January and that helps
     the property break into our top ten here ahead of other events like the FIS    3                UEFA Champions League                August     12.2
     Ski Jumping World Cup.
                                                                                    4                      Formel 1 (F1)                 December    12.0

                                                                                    5                       DFB-Pokal                    February    11.2

                                                                                    6       Deutsche Frauen Fußball-Nationalmannschaft    October    9.2

                                                                                    7                  Handball-Bundesliga                January    9.1

                                                                                    8               Frauen-Fußball-Bundesliga            September   7.4

                                                                                    9                  UEFA Europa League                 August     6.8

                                                                                   10                  IBU Biathlon Weltcup               January    6.5

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INDIA

 DUBAI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES | 10 NOVEMBER 2020: Trent Boult of Mumbai Indians celebrates the wicket of
 Ajinkya Rahane of Delhi Capitals during the final of season 13 of the Dream 11 Indian Premier League (IPL) between
 the Mumbai Indians and the Delhi Capitals held at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium.

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INDIA
     Nothing was ever likely to shift the IPL from its perch at                          INDIA GLOBAL BUZZ RANKINGS 2021
     the top of the Buzz rankings in its home country in this                                                                    MONTH      BUZZ
     urban representative sample – not changing to a new
                                                                                  RANK                  PROPERTY
                                                                                                                                ACHIEVED   SCORE

     title sponsor, not switching the date, not even moving                        1           Indian Premier League (IPL)      October    54.4

     it out of India.
                                                                                   2             ICC Cricket World Cup          January    46.3

     Its Buzz score is the highest for any property in any of the markets in
                                                                                   3                FIFA World Cup              February   27.0
     this report – and by some distance. Brazil’s Série A is the only one to
     come close (in Brazil), with a score almost ten points less than the IPL’s
                                                                                   4              Pro Kabaddi League            February   23.1
     (54.4 vs. 44.7).
                                                                                   5              Indian Super League           January    20.1
     Only the ICC Cricket World Cup came close to the IPL in India and it is a
     measure of the esteem in which the tournament is held that Indians were
                                                                                   6                  Asian Games                March     16.0
     still hearing positive conversations from it several months after it had
     ended. India, by the way, made the semi-final of the event. Had they
                                                                                   7       Wimbledon Championships (Tennis)      March     14.1
     made the final, who knows how highly it would have scored?
                                                                                   8      World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE)   January    13.8
     Two other home-grown properties appear in the top five for India. PKL
     (or Pro Kabaddi League) comes in fourth, while the India Super League                      Commonwealth Games               March     13.8
                                                                                   9
     (football) is in fifth. The ISL concluded just before the pandemic struck,
     while the PKL was cancelled altogether.                                                    Australian Open (Tennis)        January    12.6
                                                                                  10

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INDIA DOMESTIC RANKING

     India’s domestic ranking sees two additional properties make it onto the                                                         INDIA DOMESTIC BUZZ RANKINGS 2021
     domestic version of the ranking.
                                                                                                                                                                          MONTH      BUZZ
                                                                                                                               RANK                 PROPERTY
                                                                                                                                                                         ACHIEVED   SCORE
     Although by our rules the IPL was, strictly speaking, a UAE-domestic
     property in 2020 (see the UAE section), we also count it here as an Indian                                                 1          Indian Premier League (IPL)   October    54.4
     property – first of all to give some context to other events but also because
     it is, in spirit, very much an Indian event.                                                                               2             Pro Kabaddi League         February   23.1

                                                                                                                                3             Indian Super League        January    20.1

                                                                                                                                4                   I-League             January     4.4

                                                                                                                                5          Karnataka Premier League       March      3.8

     Note: Editorial changes applied to this section from the first release. Please contact us is you would like to discuss.

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JAPAN

 TOKYO, JAPAN | 25 MARCH 2020: Women walk past adverts for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics following the
 announcement that the games will be postponed to 2021 because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

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JAPAN
     It is little wonder that there has been plenty of noise                           JAPAN GLOBAL BUZZ RANKINGS 2021
     about the Olympic Games in Japan over 2020 – the                                                                              MONTH      BUZZ
     year the event was due to have taken place in Tokyo.
                                                                                RANK                   PROPERTY
                                                                                                                                  ACHIEVED   SCORE

     What is more notable is that so much of the noise was                       1             Summer Olympic Games               January    24.3

     positive that the summer Games tops Japan’s Buzz
                                                                                 2                 US Open (Tennis)              September   21.4
     rankings for the year.
                                                                                 3           Nippon Professional Baseball           July     19.4
     Assuming the event goes ahead as planned in 2021, we would expect this
     to be the first of two years where the Games top our ranking.               4                Rugby World Cup                 January    17.8

     The US Open makes it into second place, easily beating the tournament’s     5       Japan Professional Football League         July     12.2
     performance at home in the US, where it scored 5.1 and came 15th. And
     that’s likely because, while the deepest an American player went was the    6              Winter Olympic Games              January    11.0
     semi-finals, Japanese number one, Naomi Osaka, won the tournament,
     picking up the third Grand Slam win of her career.                          7           Major League Baseball (MLB)          August      9.5

                                                                                 8       National Basketball Association (NBA)   February     9.0

                                                                                 9             Australian Open (Tennis)           January     8.8

                                                                                10                 FIFA World Cup                  May        8.6

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The Rugby World Cup, hosted by Japan at the end of 2019, left enough              JAPAN DOMESTIC BUZZ RANKINGS 2021
     lingering Buzz in the country for the tournament to make fourth place in
     our 2020 rankings. Although the hosts were knocked out in the quarter-     RANK                   PROPERTY
                                                                                                                                MONTH      BUZZ
                                                                                                                               ACHIEVED   SCORE
     finals, they gave a good enough account of themselves to make a
     significant success of the event.                                           1             Summer Olympic Games            January    24.3

     Two domestic leagues (the J-League in football and Nippon Professional      2           Nippon Professional Baseball       July      19.4
     Baseball) make the top ten but US exports like the NBA and MLB are also
     popular. They come in seventh and eighth despite their changed              3         Rugby World Cup (Rugby Union)       January    17.8
     schedules.
                                                                                 4        Japan Professional Football League    July      12.2

     JAPAN DOMESTIC RANKING                                                      5            LPGA Women’s Golf Tour           October    4.4

     Only one additional property makes it onto the domestic version of the
     ranking – and that’s the LPGA Women’s Tour.

     That’s despite the Japanese leg of the Tour – the Toto Japan Classic –
     being cancelled in 2020 due to the pandemic. Nevertheless, it made
     sufficient positive noise to appear in our top-five ranking.

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MEXICO

 LEON, MEXICO | 13 DECEMBER 2020: Players of Leon celebrate their championship after defeating Pumas UNAM
 in the final second leg match between Leon and Pumas UNAM as part of the Torneo Guard1anes 2020.

40   SPORT.YOUGOV.COM 2021 Buzz Report Return to CONTENTS PAGE
MEXICO
     Liga MX, the country’s premier football league,                                       MEXICO GLOBAL BUZZ RANKINGS 2021
     comfortably ranks first in our Buzz ranking for Mexico. It                                                                       MONTH      BUZZ
     outscores its nearest rival, the NFL, by almost eight
                                                                                    RANK                   PROPERTY
                                                                                                                                     ACHIEVED   SCORE

     points.                                                                         1                Liga MX (Football)              January   39.5

                                                                                     2          National Football League (NFL)       February   31.8
     Like many other countries, top scores for properties in Mexico were
     recorded disproportionately in pre-pandemic months. Only one property
                                                                                     3            UEFA Champions League              February   28.6
     (Formula 1) laid down its highest score after March – its score has probably
     been boosted by the performances of Racing Point driver and Guadalajara
                                                                                     4                 FIFA World Cup                 January   28.0
     native, Sergio Pérez, who won his first F1 race in 2020.
                                                                                     5       National Basketball Association (NBA)   February   26.9
     Six of Mexico’s top ten are football properties, with La Liga and the
     UEFA Champions League creating plenty of noise among the locals. But
                                                                                     6                 La Liga (Football)            February   26.9
     American sports are also well represented with NFL, NBA and NASCAR in
     the top ten and MLB finishing 11th position.
                                                                                     7                  Formula 1 (F1)               December   26.7

                                                                                     8         Mexican National Team (Football)       January   14.8

                                                                                     9             Summer Olympic Games              February   14.4

                                                                                    10                     NASCAR                     March     14.1

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MEXICO DOMESTIC RANKING

     Because so few Mexican properties feature in the top ten, our domestic                 MEXICO DOMESTIC BUZZ RANKINGS 2021
     top five features a couple of new entries.
                                                                                                                              MONTH      BUZZ
                                                                                     RANK                PROPERTY
                                                                                                                             ACHIEVED   SCORE
     Most notable among them is the Mexican Baseball League. The League
     suffered its first cancellation in 95 years in 2020 – needless to say thanks     1                  Liga MX             January    39.5
     to the effects of the pandemic. Yet it still mustered enough positive chatter
     to make it into our top five ranking.                                            2              Formula One (F1)       December    26.7

     We’ve included esports here because they’ve scored highly in Mexico and          3            Mexico National Team      January    14.8
     it’s useful to see this generic category of competitive gaming in the context
     of other properties. Interestingly their peak score was in January, before       4           Mexican Baseball League     July      13.4
     the pandemic took hold. As we’ve written before, interest in esports has
     climbed significantly in Mexico in recent times.                                 5                  Esports             January    11.7

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UAE

 ABU DHABI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES | 13 DECEMBER 2020: Max Verstappen of Red Bull Racing and
 The Netherlands during the F1 Grand Prix of Abu Dhabi at Yas Marina Circuit.

43   SPORT.YOUGOV.COM 2021 Buzz Report Return to CONTENTS PAGE
UAE
     While diplomatic relations between the two countries                                  UAE GLOBAL BUZZ RANKINGS 2021
     have been better in the past, that’s not enough to                                                                        MONTH      BUZZ
     distract UAE residents from the positive Buzz created
                                                                                    RANK               PROPERTY
                                                                                                                              ACHIEVED   SCORE

     by Qatar’s FIFA World Cup, which will take place in                             1              FIFA World Cup           February    32.2

     2022.
                                                                                     2           FIFA Club World Cup          January    27.7

     The tournament comfortably beats out FIFA’s Club World Cup, which was           3        Indian Premier League (IPL)     October    22.0
     also due to be hosted in Qatar in 2020 but has now been delayed until
     February 2021.                                                                  4               Formula 1 (F1)           January    21.9

     The UAE itself hosted the country’s third buzziest property – the Indian        5        English Premier League (EPL)     June      21.7
     Premier League. The League was moved to the UAE to avoid lockdown
     restrictions in India.                                                          6         UEFA Champions League         September   19.8

     While the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix took place in December, it was Buzz left         7                  La Liga               October    19.5
     over from the 2019 edition of the event which puts Formula 1 into fourth
     place. Formula 1 is in a tightly-ranked group which also include the English    8              Dubai Marathon            January    18.1
     Premier League, the UEFA Champions League and La Liga.
                                                                                     9           ICC World Twenty20             July     17.4
     They are followed by the only home-grown event in the top ten - the Dubai
     Marathon. Having said that a number of others, including the Dubai World       10           ICC Cricket World Cup       February    17.4
     Cup, the Dubai Tennis Championships, the Arabian Gulf League and the
     UAE Tour all fall just outside the top ten.

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UAE DOMESTIC RANKING

     Of those properties which were held in the UAE, it’s the Indian Premier             UAE DOMESTIC BUZZ RANKINGS 2021
     League which comes out on top with a score of 22.0 points. As we mention
     earlier, the event moved temporarily to the UAE in 2020 to avoid COVID       RANK                 PROPERTY
                                                                                                                              MONTH      BUZZ
                                                                                                                             ACHIEVED   SCORE
     restrictions and it looks like even if the move disappointed many Indians,
     it created plenty of noise in the UAE.                                        1          Indian Premier League (IPL)   October     22.0

     Dubai-based events then make up the next three highest properties. The        2               Dubai Marathon            January    18.1
     Dubai Marathon, Dubai World Cup (equestrianism) and the Dubai Tennis
     Championships all make a splash with their annual events.                     3         Dubai World Cup (Equestrian)    January    14.0

     There is little to separate them from the Arabian Gulf League, the UAE’s      4         Dubai Tennis Championships     February    12.6
     premier domestic football competition. The League, which along with the
     Arabian Gulf Cup, represents the highlight of the country’s soccer scene      5          UAE Arabian Gulf League       December    12.3
     sees off competition from the highly-regarded AFC Champions League.
                                                                                   6          Arabian Gulf Cup (Football)    January    12.2

                                                                                   7              UAE Tour (Cycling)          May       11.9

                                                                                   8           AFC Champions League         February    11.9

                                                                                   9             Abu Dhabi Marathon          January    11.2

                                                                                  10            Abu Dhabi T10 Cricket        August      8.1

45   SPORT.YOUGOV.COM 2021 Buzz Report Return to CONTENTS PAGE
3
     CONCLUSION

46   SPORT.YOUGOV.COM 2021 Buzz Report Return to CONTENTS PAGE
CONCLUSION
     Buzz scores can vary significantly from country to                                                      A number of factors may contribute to these disparities
     country. The average top ten score in Mexico, for                                                       – and the picture is particularly complex during this
     example, is 24.5. Yet in the US that average drops to                                                   pandemic – but there are also lots of interesting
     just 10.5. The highest score for an overall winner is in                                                parallels to be drawn across these diverse markets.
     India (the IPL with 54.4), while the lowest is in the US
     (NFL with 15.7).

 DARMSTADT. GERMANY | 23 MAY 2020: A general view of the empty stands, with photos of fans on seats during
 the second Bundesliga match between SV Darmstadt 98 and FC St. Pauli at Merck-Stadion am Boellenfalltor.

47   SPORT.YOUGOV.COM 2021 Buzz Report Return to CONTENTS PAGE
Formula 1 features in seven of our market rankings

                                                                                                                             38.4

     One of the most striking commonalities is the performance of football. Only                                                                                                  26.7
     the US doesn’t feature a soccer property in its top ten. Across the rest of                                                                                                            21.9
     the markets, football properties fill 35 of the 90 slots available.                     13.8
                                                                                                                                       16.3
                                                                                                                  11.6                            12.0

     And yet it is not a football property which crops up most often in our top               5                    10         4          6          4                              7          4
     tens – that honour falls to Formula 1. The motor sport features in seven of
     our market rankings, making it the most consistently buzzy property among                UK        US      Australia   Brazil    France Germany        India     Japan     Mexico      UAE

     them. But football competitions are close on its heels. The UEFA
                                                                                          Formula 1 did not feature in the top 10 rankings of the US, India, Japan. Rank shown in white circles
     Champions League makes six appearances while the FIFA World Cup
     makes five.

     Behind them come the English Premier League and the NBA, both with              Every market has its own favourite homegrown properties yet in each, the
     four appearances. The Summer Olympic Games, which organisers might              noise of an overseas or international property also breaks through. But at
     have expected to see at or close to the top of every ranking this year,         the same time, there are poles at either end. Americans are most likely to
     features in just three top tens. But that’s not bad for an event which didn’t   notice Buzz about domestic competitions and UAE residents are most
     take place and just shows that even when an event is postponed or               likely to hear noise about sports events from outside their borders.
     cancelled, it can make a lot of noise.
                                                                                     Finally, it is worth making an observation or two about the effects of the
     Another commonality is the split between domestic and international             coronavirus pandemic on these figures.
     sports in each of our rankings.
                                                                                     It is unlikely to be a coincidence that across our ten market rankings, seven
                                                                                     of our first-place scores were recorded before the pandemic took hold in
          Americans are most likely to notice Buzz about                             March. Similarly, 57 of our 100 ranking slots were taken by scores recorded
                                                                                     in the first three months of the year. In short, there was less Buzz around in
          domestic competitions and UAE residents are most
                                                                                     the rest of the year.
          likely to hear noise about sports events from
          outside their borders.                                                     Again, that’s likely to be due to a mix of factors.

48   SPORT.YOUGOV.COM 2021 Buzz Report Return to CONTENTS PAGE
First of all, the sporting calendar was dismantled by the pandemic – there
                                                                                                                    was simply less sport taking place after March. Secondly, there was a lot of
                                                                                                                    other noise for sports events to cut through following the declaration of the
                                                                                                                    pandemic, not least the fact that the virus was beginning to claim lives
                                                                                                                    around the world. Thirdly, people may simply have been less receptive to
                                                                                                                    sports news – it may have mattered to them less than usual, given
                                                                                                                    everything that has gone on in 2020.

                                                                                                                    The big question for sport going into 2021 is whether it can prove resilient
                                                                                                                    enough to reclaim its place in the lives of the global population. The data
                                                                                                                    we collect from around the world provides a pretty clear answer – that the
                                                                                                                    sector is tightly woven into the fabric of popular culture.

                                                                                                                    Yet as leagues and institutions get back to business, it’s critical to identify
                                                                                                                    and evaluate their positioning among fans and in places around the world.
                                                                                                                    Many things will likely change in the sporting industry but tracking the
                                                                                                                    effects of these transformations can help brands and fans stay connected
                                                                                                                    to one another.

 SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA | 1 MAY 2020: Five-time world champion rower, Australian Paralympic Erik Horrie, trains in his
 backyard gym in isolation at his home.

49   SPORT.YOUGOV.COM 2021 Buzz Report Return to CONTENTS PAGE
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Scores show average data from January 1, 2020 to December 31, 2020.

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