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The Business of Festive Fixtures 🎄
Check out the can't-miss numbers behind the Christmas & Boxing day fixtures + get info on snowball fighting league, Christmas football jersey, the NFL-Netflix deal, the darts arena & more.
Pre-match briefing
Welcome back to our final newsletter of the year (because who wants to spend their New Year’s Eve reading a newsletter?!)
Our scout has been doing some digging as usual, so look out for the Scout’s Overview section in which we’ll uncover the following:
Athlete of the week: Rickey Henderson
Venue of the week: Alexandra Palace
Kit of the week: Napoli Christmas Kit
Sport of the week: Yukigassen
Kick-off
🌲 The numbers behind the Christmas & Boxing Day fixtures
Christmas fixtures are full of action-packed games. From the NBA’s iconic Christmas Day matchups to Premier League Boxing Day fixtures, holiday sports have become a lucrative tradition.
The most recent example is the NFL, which sold the global broadcasting rights for two Christmas games to Netflix for approximately US$150 million. It’s not crazy when you see that last Christmas, the NFL recorded close to 30 million viewers for its three games across CBS, Fox, and ESPN, so Netflix will be crossing its fingers that its coverage of the league will up the numbers this year.
Other sports have seen similar success, the NBA, for instance, rakes in millions from its annual showcase, with Christmas Day becoming one of the most-watched days of the NBA's regular season, with 2011 its best year, when the five games averaged 6.3 million viewers.
Elsewhere, in cricket, Boxing Day test matches are iconic fixtures. Last year, viewership for the Australia vs Pakistan match crossed 5.5 million viewers with Australians averaging a daily peak audience of 850,000 viewers. In-stadium attendance crossed 65,000 fans. This year with Australia hosting India, all records are on track to be broken.
But we have to give credit to football and the UK, where the Christmas and Boxing Day sports traditions began back in 1889. Since then, it has become a cornerstone of English football culture with most matches reaching 100% stadium occupancy despite the chilly December weather.
So, while we unwrap gifts and feast on holiday treats, the sports world unwraps billions of dollars in fan engagement, media rights, and merchandise sales.
Scout’s Overview
📡 🚨 Weekly Sports Radar: Yukigassen
Imagine turning your childhood snowball fights into a full-blown championship with referees, strategies, and 90 pre-made snowballs. Yukigassen, meaning "snow battle" in Japanese, is an organized snowball fighting sport that began in 1988. Each game is played between two teams of seven on a rectangular field with snow walls, with a match consisting of three 3-minute sets.
The aim of the game is to eliminate the opposing team by throwing snowballs at them or capturing their flag. To win, a team can eliminate all opponents, capture the opposing flag, or have the most players remaining when time runs out. The sport has now spread worldwide, with notable tournaments held in Japan, Finland, Norway, Russia, Canada, and Armenia.
Athlete of the week: Rickey Henderson | Venue of the week: Alexandra Palace |
 |  |
Rickey Henderson was a professional baseball player, widely regarded as one of the greatest leadoff hitters and base stealers in history. He passed away last week. RIP Legend. Fun fact: He was born on Christmas day! | Alexandra Palace is a historic sports venue in North London, famous for hosting the World Darts Championship and other sports events such as ice skating, indoor tennis, and cycling. Fun fact: It was the site of the world’s first public television broadcast in 1936. |
🧤 Fit Check: Napoli’s Christmas Kit (2022)
Keeping up with the festive spirit, here’s our favorite Christmas kit worn by SC Napoli for a friendly match in 2022. Napoli were so inspired by Christmas that they gifted the opposing team 3 goals!
From the bench
🗞️ In case you were injured:
Netflix purchased the US broadcasting rights for the next two FIFA Women’s World Cups. So now Netflix has NFL, football, WWE, and boxing in its sports streaming portfolio
Darts player Christian Kist hits first 9-darter in almost 2 years at the Ally Pally
🎯 In over-time:
What da heckkkkk - my brother’s reaction when he watched this stunner
Tiger Woods’ son, Charlie Woods, hit his first hole-in-one, and he’s just 15
📊 Analyst’s corner:
The total cost to watch every single NFL game this season without cable has hit $2,500, excluding the cost of ongoing internet service.
The NFL's and Netflix deal is projected to generate $185 million in combined advertising revenue
We hope you have a wonderful break and we will see y’all next year in The Gameplan. If you enjoyed reading The Gameplan, consider forwarding it to your friends & family! If you have some ideas, email us at [email protected].
Signing out,
Wasay (brother #2)
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