Without a doubt, the leading place among the sports news sections belongs to football. The world’s most popular game has conquered billions of people, who are playing, supporting, and betting on it. Over the years, the infrastructure developed so much that every country has its national team, which is fed from the multiple local football divisions and appropriate teams. Logically, both domestic and international competitions have a huge fanbase, which requires regular football news and updates concerning the results.
The special attention belongs to European football, which is the strongest in multiple directions. Thus, top European national teams are always favourites in international competitions. At the same time, the English Premier League, Spanish La Liga, Italian Serie A, and German Bundesliga are the strongest club championships with the best players worldwide.
Interestingly, the attention to European football comes from all over the world, even from countries with underdeveloped regarded sports. For instance, India cannot boast about domestic football, but millions of fans are ready to follow top clubs, especially in the Champions League. Of course, some of the Indian football lovers are bettors who just make wagers on the top events, but it doesn’t mean they don’t like the game or don’t need the latest news about it.
A country with over a billion population has a high demand for sports news by default. When we talk about India, it has some specific aspects concerning the popularity of particular activities. Thus, the most popular game is cricket, which is a step ahead of football in both spread and popularity. We’ll talk about cricket’s popularity in more detail in the next section of this reading.
The talk about sports news popularity in India should also regard the financial issue. Millions of people don’t have access to clean water and electricity, but it doesn’t mean they are not interested in sports. For many of them, becoming a professional in some sports means status increase, which leads to a better life. Moreover, the lack of money and other opportunities doesn’t mean that poor Indians don’t make wagers just on the streets. It shows the power of sports competitions and initial human interest in them.
As a rule, the most regular visitors on the sports news websites are middle-class Indians, who know English and not only the Hindi language. They often use smartphones (just like the global trend dictates) and are able to make bets on online wagering platforms. For them, the latest updates concerning sports is the source of joy and leisure, while some of them use it as the source of information for making more precise wagers. This will be discussed in more detail at the end of this material.
Huge attention to the cricket news comes from the status of this sport in India. Even though both football and cricket came from Great Britain, the latter conquered the minds of the majority of Indians. At the moment, the Indian national cricket team is among the strongest in the world, while the local tournaments are broadcast all over the globe.
In such conditions, there are no doubts related to the popularity of the cricket news. The power of the IPL outshines other cricket events, so not only Indians open the news page every morning, but game followers on other continents. Although the period of IPL games lasts only two months, other events like T20 World Cup or Test Matches are also important for Indians.
The dominance of cricket over other sports in India has a logical appliance. Local bettors can be regarded as the experts in the bat-and-ball game and use the conditions. The only obstacle that exists is the unclear status of betting in the country, where only online wagers are possible. However, it allows punters to choose from the bookmakers’ variety. Thus, everyone can learn more about any proposition on the market and register on the website with the biggest bonuses, which can come up to 4 lakh rupees.
The digital era turned a lot of things upside down, but the issue of provocative headlines is one of the basic aspects of journalism. It can also be linked with human nature to pay more attention to rumours. The most popular and frequently read sports news sections are made by talented journalists, and they know how to attract more attention. There are a lot of techniques to make typical news in sports into a must-click headline. In fact, both sides enjoy the provocative elements in headlines.
Some types of news don’t require any provocative or creative headline, as the occasion is attractive itself. For instance, the headline about the live cricket score of the IPL final game can be written in a standard tone and still attract the massive attention of Indian fans. However, journalists can use provocative language before the match to receive more attention. In this case, writers can compose the title that the captain of the finalist’s team got into an accident or scandal. However, the headline doesn’t clarify if the captain is recent or the one who has been 10 years ago. As the attention to the final game is huge and captains play a significant role in the teams’ success, such a title will definitely grab more clicks.
Of course, the issue of provocative headlines can be annoying enough. Journalists can use such an approach too often, and so the readers can ignore such a news website after a few weeks or days. Nonetheless, one should understand that this tricky element has a huge entertaining background and is not only informative.
There is no clear and definite answer to this question. As a rule, sports fans read the news on specific websites, which comply with their feelings and imaginations of how a website should look like. Among the major elements that unconsciously influence the choice are the following:
- Number of posts or articles on the website (too many publications can be annoying and overwhelming, while the lack of materials can be boring)
- Materials are of optimal length (not too long and too short, for fast perceiving)
- Writing style fits readers needs (in terms of unknown worlds’ usage, artistic comparisons, and so on)
- News website UX and UI (the comfort of using the platform, including basic design)
- The activity of the community (how active is the fans’ community in the comments section, maybe blocked comments section to save time)
- Additional features (the presence of the blog, betting tips or predictions’ section, long-reads of former professional sportsmen)
In practice, most people don’t pay attention to these aspects when entering the latest sports news website. The process of perceiving or avoiding those elements goes unconsciously, and the user stays or leaves the platform after only a few minutes of browsing it. None can force users to visit his website, and the existing huge choice makes the process supernatural. So, just trust your gut feeling when visiting a sports news site.
Actual sports news plays a rather important role in successful betting. While the live scores watching games online are critical in understanding the real conditions of the teams or particular individuals, news updates form a general picture and whole background.
Let’s review a particular situation in football, in the English Premier League. If someone wants to make a bet on the match Manchester United against Liverpool, relying on the live football score cannot be enough. It’s better to take the following steps:
- learn a history of a contest as this match is one of the toughest rivalries in England
- evaluate teams’ shape
- review the situation with injuries and leaders’ fitness
- know the situation with fans pressure on the head coaches
- understand if the recent results are logical or accidental
- look at what stage and direction of the development the teams are
Interestingly, reading sports news every day helps to know all the aforementioned aspects without additional research. In other words, today’s information is vital in understanding the whole picture for bettors and making more precise wagers.
