Sports translation: these are the most popular sports around the world

Before you consider sports translation, and if you’re in the sports betting business to begin with, it pays to know which sports capture the most interest of people around the world. With a global audience at your fingertips, you have to consider which sports will get the maximum number of people interacting with your site.

The content you provide, navigation of your site and the events you promote most heavily are just a few of the key marketing decisions you need to make – and understanding which sports to prioritise is vital. So here’s a quick rundown of the most popular sports in the world to consider before you kick off operation: sports translation.

How did we rank these sports in order?

We chose to go for global viewer rating wherever possible with this list, but even this approach isn’t particularly reliable – especially with so much sports streaming going on these days. So take this list into consideration, but keep in mind it’s almost impossible to get accurate figures for viewer ratings.

#one: Football

Topping the list of world’s most popular sports is football with more than four-billion fans around the globe. The FIFA World Cup is the most watched sporting event in the world – and by quite some distance. Around 3.9 billion people tuned in to watch the 2014 Word Cup at some point throughout the competition while 700 million people watched Germany beat Argentina in the final.

#two: Cricket

Cricket comes in at second with more than two-billion followers – mostly across the Indian subcontinent, Australia and, of course, Great Britain. India and Pakistan, which together make up a fifth of the world’s entire population, are major forces behind the sport’s popularity while Bangladesh, New Zealand, South Africa and the Caribbean are key players also.

#three: Basketball

When we think of basketball, NBA is the first name that comes to mind but the sport is hugely popular in much of Europe and parts of South America and Asia, too. Spain, Greece, Turkey, Italy, France, Argentina and China all have their own professional leagues and the sport continues to grow. As things stand there are more than one-billion followers of the sport and the NBA alone generates more than $4.75 billion in revenue each year.

#four: Tennis

Tennis is the world’s most popular individual sport, dominating the months of May and June with a big helping hand from Wimbledon – by far the sport’s most popular event. More than one-billion people switch on to watch the competition at some point over the two weeks and 17.3 million tuned into BBC One in the UK alone for the 2013 final.

#five: Rugby

With at least 300 million fans around the world rugby is rapidly growing in popularity, largely thanks to an impressive 2015 World Cup in England followed by the sport returning to the Olympic Games in 2016.

#six: Formula 1

Now for the world’s most popular motorsport, Formula 1. Roughly 550 million people watch the likes of Lewis Hamilton and his competitors take to the track throughout the season and the sport’s nature of travelling around the world is no doubt part of its global appeal.

#seven: Boxing

Global viewing figures for boxing are difficult to calculate but an estimated 300 million people around the world tuned in to watch Floyd Mayweather beat Manny Pacquiao in 2015 alone. Fights of this stature are rare in the sport but this year’s Wembley bout between Anthony Joshua and Wladimir Klitschko was tipped to generate “unprecedented levels” of global reach. None of this can be confirmed, though, because Sky Sports closely guards its viewer figure for pay-per-view events.

Other global sports worth looking at

There are plenty of other major sports that didn’t quite make the top seven that you might want to consider for your sports translation needs:

• NFL: This might not be the most global of sports but it is the biggest sport in the US, which is a sizeable audience
• Baseball: More global than many people realise, baseball is a big deal in parts of Asia – especially in Japan and Korea, which both have their own professional leagues
• Golf: Another sport that’s growing globally is golf and Asia once again is driving much of the popularity
• MMA: Mixed Martial Arts is growing at such a rate many predict it could rival boxing in the near future
• Athletics: A truly diverse and global sport, athletics spans a wide range of events with the most popular being the 100m sprint
• Volleyball: With more national federations than any other sport (200) volleyball is a big deal all over the world

Of course, popularity doesn’t necessarily mean these are the most popular sports for betting. Don’t worry, though, because we’ll be back very soon with a follow-up article highlighting the sports that get people opening their wallets the most.