The number one reason why sports fans visit a bar is to watch live sports.
That idea is simple enough and one our industry understands. The tricky bit is making the right connections with fans. It’s getting in front of them in an efficient way, relieving pain points or barriers to visiting, and showing them that our bar is the best place to watch live sports.
To do that in an informed manner, it helps to be armed with some data.
Kantar did a study recently that looked at how sports fans make decisions on where they watch live sports. What makes them choose the couch or your barstool?
There’s four major points:
Let’s take a look at the numbers and what it means for bars looking to attract sports fans.
While it’s extremely easy for fans to choose to stay home to watch the game (and many do), there’s still a large swath that’ll choose the bar instead.
Nearly a third of fans (31%) report watching games at a bar or restaurant.
That’s not an insignificant figure.
Perhaps somewhat surprisingly, Gen Z is the cohort most likely to hit up a bar for the game. Despite being known for their digital tendencies, they lead the charge in terms of watching games at a bar (23%) or restaurant (21%).
Younger generations are also driving the most spending at sports bars, too. According to Market Intello, fans 25-40 years old (which includes Gen Z and Millennials) contributed 52.6% of global spending at sports bars in 2025. They also visit an average of 3.2 times per month during peak sports seasons.
Many of these fans also prefer going to bars in groups of three or more. If the average spend, per head, is $30, you’re looking at $90+ per game from that trio or roughly $4,680 per year, assuming they visit regularly.
That’s all if you capture just one new fan who brings two friends. If you can capture a few new fans who bring friends, that number jumps up astronomically.
Lesson learned: Sports fans don’t want to stay home. They want to watch at a bar. Give them a reason to choose your bar and to bring friends. Make sure you’re investing in sports. Not just the content that you show, but also how you present sports in your marketing – including your website and socials.
One would expect that die hard sports fans would turn to their local sports bars to catch games, but it’s not just them. Casual fans also prefer to leave their nest to catch live sports.
In fact, casual fans are most likely to watch sports events outside their home, including bars or restaurants (42%).
Compare this to just 4% of diehard fans who report mainly watching games outside their home.
That’s right. “Filthy casuals” are far more likely than diehard fanatics to visit your bar to catch the game.
But so what?
Here’s the thing. Many of them are unlikely to have a home base sports bar that they visit and know will have their game. Instead they’re going to hop online and do some research to find which bar to go to.
That means they’re going to use search or AI. They may even use Google Maps if they’re already out and about. They’re also going to check out your website.
You need to make it easy for them to choose you over other bars in the area.
That means you need to pop up at the top of search (and AI summaries) to start. That means you need to list what games you’re going to have playing on your TVs listed on your website, so they know for sure to visit you.
That sounds like a lot of work – and can. But FANZO makes it all easy.
Just a few minutes of prep a week syncs your live sports schedule embedded onto your website. It helps you get found in search and the FANZO app, plus it lets fans know what you’re showing and when.
Lesson learned: Casual fans treat live sports as social events. They want to watch the game and have an experience with other people. Give them a reason to choose your bar. Be easily found when this cohort is researching a place to watch live sports.
As noted above, casual fans don’t want to just watch the game. They want an entire sports viewing experience. They want to be part of a social moment with friends, family, and other fans.
That’s true of all fans. And that’s not just us conjecturing. It’s in the data.
According to sports fans, atmosphere is the most important element in decision making. Half of respondents (50%) report it as their top factor for choosing a bar, outranking convenience (44%) and price (43%).
So how can you give them what they crave?
It starts with your website.
78% of fans check a bar’s website before visiting for the first time.
“If they don’t take sport seriously online, I don’t believe they take it seriously in venue,” one fan said.
Your website is your bar’s first impression.
If you’re looking to score more sports fans, you need to show them you take live sports seriously. That means posting photos of fans enjoying games at your game – and video fan reactions, too, if you got ‘em.
Posting your weekly TV game schedule wouldn’t hurt either.
Sports fans may even look up your profile on FANZO or Yelp to check reviews. So make sure your profiles are updated with the latest information, have photos of fans celebrating at your bar, and list what games you plan on showing each week.
Lesson learned: Fans want more than just a big screen TV. They want an entire viewing experience. They want to feel like they’re part of a shared moment with other fans. Atmosphere is the ticket but you need to communicate that with them online first.
Major sporting events are also a great opportunity to capture new fans to your bar.
According to the study, 73% of consumers are willing to try new restaurants during major sports events.
That means when events like the Super Bowl, World Cup, Kentucky Derby, and Olympics are happening, sports fans are on the hunt for a new location and a new viewing experience.
As noted before, many will turn to search, AI, or Google Maps to find the right spot. Others will turn to FANZO.
FANZO is the world’s number one bar finder. Last year, we helped more than 6 million fans hook up with local bars to watch live sports and create lasting memories. And we saw a huge influx of fans looking for a place to watch games during the World Cup.
“FANZO saw online searches for bars showing live sport grow 302% in host cities during the World Cup, and 125% in U.S. cities with no official activity at all — even with almost every match free on Fox and Telemundo,” CEO Leo MacLeose wrote on Sportico. “Chicago, with no games, no teams hosted, basically fewer reasons to expect an outsized swell in interest, still saw bar searches nearly quadruple over that period.”
Those are some unreal numbers – and ones no bar owner should ignore.
The question is, as always, when fans hit up the internet to find a place to watch their game, will your bar be the one they find first? A FANZO profile helps you get in front of fans looking for a place to watch the games.
Lesson learned: Have a plan for big sporting events. Make sure you’re getting found by fans looking for a new place to watch the game. You want to be at the top of the list when they search for queries like “best bars to watch the Super Bowl near me.”
While some fans might hit up a bar spontaneously, a lot, lot more are planners.
78% of sports fans say they would go out more often if it were easier to plan ahead for major events.
That’s a damning figure.
It shows that there’s a pain point that our industry is failing to relieve. Fans want to plan their sports viewing outing, but it’s hard to plan when there’s no information online.
The upside is that there's a huge opportunity for sports bars that can make planning easier.
To help fans plan to watch the game at your bar, list what games you’re planning to show on your website.
It’s that simple. If they see that you are going to show the game they want to watch, they’re likely to show up. If they don’t see it (or any sports TV info), they’re going to simply move on.
FANZO’s web integration makes this a breeze. It’s as simple as copy-pasting a few short lines of code and then updating your FANZO profile every week. Your schedule updates automatically. It saves hours of work while making sure fans know exactly what will be on your TVs, so they can plan their visit.
You can go a step further and help your existing guests and social media followers plan their next visit, too.
For your social followers, you can post professional looking graphics to your social accounts automatically each week. Let them see what your weekend lineup is like or what the marquee game you plan on showing.
For your current, in-house guests, there’s FANZO’s digital signage – a dynamic, professional expression of your sports schedule on your screens. Your current guests already visiting you are a captive audience; might as well convince them to come back again for your next big event.
It all works off the same process as the web integration. Selecting your games on your FANZO profile syncs across every marketing solution FANZO has to offer. A small amount of prep for exponential impact.
There’s not a good reason to not let fans know what you’re showing – and FANZO makes it easy to do so across marketing channels.
Lesson learned: Fans want to plan ahead but most bars fail at making this easy. The best way to help them plan ahead is by listing what games you’re going to show on your website, social media, digital signage, email marketing, and FANZO profile. Such a simple step will make fans’ lives easier and more likely to choose you for their next outing. It helps you lower the barrier for choosing your bar over staying home or choosing a competitor.
The numbers don’t lie:
FANZO is uniquely situated to help you with all of this.
From getting you discovered in search to letting your online visitors know what games you’re showing to making reservations, FANZO is your bar’s wingman through the entire “fan searching” process.
If you’re interested in learning more about how FANZO can help improve your discoverability and reachability with sports fans, shoot us an email and we’ll set up some time to chat.
