What helped basketball grow in popularity in the last couple of years?
Some sports are becoming more popular every year, whereas others are struggling because people lose interest in them
The good news is that basketball falls into the first category because it is one of the fastest-growing sports in the world. You are probably interested in learning what has helped it reach this point, so let’s dive in.
Sponsorship deals
When most people hear about basketball, they automatically think of the NBA. The latter is undoubtedly the world’s most successful and prestigious basketball league, and every top-tier player wants to go there.
Considering the millions of people who watch those matches, it is no surprise that big companies decide to advertise a lot of money, including sports betting sites. In fact, if you learn more about the best basketball betting sites, according to the bookmaker experts at Nostrabet, you will see that many of them invest heavily in sports, the NBA, and several other big leagues. Many people are against it, but those types of businesses have a crucial role in modern sports, and soccer is a really good example.
The sponsorship deals increase basketball’s popularity because the advertising campaigns reach out to a lot of people who were not interested in it before. If we put those sites we’ve mentioned aside, you can also find loads of other big brands that associate themselves with the sport.
Social media
The effect of social media in the last couple of years has changed a lot of industries, including sports. Even though basketball has not been affected as “hard” as, let’s say, boxing, there is no arguing that the different platforms have made the sport a lot more popular.
If we look at Instagram, for example, we can see that there are loads of posts about some of the basketball legends. This includes Jordan, LeBron, and more. Those posts reach out to many people, some of whom decide to learn more about these athletes. One thing leads to another, and the next thing you know, many people start watching basketball.
One thing we expect to see in the future is basketball games organized by celebrities. If we go back to boxing again, we can see that the likes of Jake Paul have “revolutionized” the sport, and it became a lot more popular than before.
Basketball is growing in Europe
No one can deny that basketball is one of the most popular sports in the world, but it has way more fans in North America than anywhere else. This is true even today, but the sport has many new fans in places like Europe.
There are many reasons why basketball is a hit option in certain European countries. One of them is because of the many EU players that moved to the NBA. In fact, some experts even said that this was one of the reasons why the big NBA teams decided to acquire those players in the first place.
There are many examples of such players, one of which is Alexander Vezenkov, who used to be a part of Olympiacos. The Bulgarian became the best basketball player in Europe, which ultimately led to a transfer to the USA.
Technology also has a role
The last reason why we believe basketball has become a lot more popular than before is technology. Since everyone has a smartphone and even more devices, people can follow the action on their mobile phones. We have access to all of the information we want from the palm of our hands, and we can even follow the different basketball games in real time.