There was once a time when you had little choice but to support your local football team. Those who lived in thriving footballing cities like Manchester and Liverpool were lucky, but people from areas like Cornwall didn’t have much to choose from.
Thanks to the live-streaming of matches, though, that all changed. Now with internet streaming platforms spreading like wildfire, it’s easy for fans from anywhere to connect with any team they fancy. In fact, recent research has found that sports fans have driven global growth in streaming services.
Live Streaming Is a Huge Platform
Live-streaming has blown up over the last ten years, and it’s arguably one of the greatest inventions of the internet age. It first emerged at online casinos, where studios used it to bring real world table games to players in their homes.
Now, sites like Paddy Power Live Casino have evolved to cater for the growing demand of games in this format. The titles have spanned beyond the casino classics and there are now game show-style offerings, such as Mega Wheel and Deal or No Deal Live.
After starting out at online casinos, live streaming spread to a greater number of people when Facebook introduced it in 2017. Since then, football teams have adopted it when broadcasting their own content. It’s also a popular option for content creators who report on the sport. The great thing about live streaming is that it’s still evolving, and it’s set to get even better as new technological upgrades come in.
Fans Can Engage Easily on the Streams
Watching football live on television was the first step towards making it more accessible to millions around the world. But the introduction of live streaming has made it possible for people from different geographical locations to experience the community aspect of following a club. Now, according to a study from Kantar, more than half of households watch sports online thanks to mainstream and independent streaming services. Major companies like Amazon Prime have helped with this.
Now, when people watch live streams of football matches, they can share their opinions in real time using the live chatrooms. Along with being able to debate certain aspects of the team, people can learn tactical insights from this sort of discussion. There are even ways to gamify the football viewing process, with clubs sometimes running interactive polls. For example, viewers may be able to vote on who they think will score next or what the final result will be.
Commenters Run Live Streams on YouTube
Platforms like YouTube have brought about new ways for people to engage with football, and there are various experts on there who report about their respective clubs. These people also use live streaming to host discussions and answer questions about tactics and transfers in real time.
This has led to wider communities that span beyond clubs. For instance, the Fantasy Premier League offering has boomed in recent times thanks to YouTube experts helping people with their decisions in the game. They use live streaming as well, and it allows them to help people with their team selections before a gameweek starts.
Live streaming has been a gamechanger for football, allowing people from all over the world to feel as though they belong to local football club communities. The platform is likely to continue having a great impact on the sport for many years.