This month saw a major milestone in UK Squash, both a major semi-finals and finals of a national Squash tournament were broadcast live on YouTube Live instead of the usual televised highlights.
Was it a success? Definitely, as the content was great and to any Squash fan young or old it must have been like receiving the best belated Christmas present ever, or birthday present.
In our previous blogs, when we talked about effective tactics to boost Squash participation, we suggested televised content as one – to our amazement, England Squash announced the semi-final and finals of the 2017 National Squash Championships would be streamed live on YouTube. This was a momentous milestone for the sport, not only for the U.K. Squash fan base but also for the global fan base of Squash.
Search Engine boost for Squash
YouTube, a Google-owned company, has made substantial developments with its video sharing platform and it was good to see Squash capitalise on it by broadcasting the semi-final and final National Squash Championships live on YouTube.
Being able to watch both the semi-finals and finals on the internet is going to make Squash even more popular. In fact, there was mention of the National Squash Championships in the major tabloids or a mention on television.
Having the National Squash Championships tournament on the YouTube Live platform with real-time content, rather than boring highlights, was an excellent tactic to boost the profile of Squash amongst the millennials and shows the substantial efforts being made in promoting the sport.
Continued global engagement with fans
Live streaming of a major UK Squash tournament on YouTube will have its considerable benefits, most importantly from a marketing perspective, it is would a great way to watch Squash in real time without no commercial breaks and it was a great way to engage the current Squash enthusiasts plus attract new audiences, who can engage in real-time conversations with one another.
Besides YouTube, let’s not forget there is also Periscope from Twitter, now this video streaming live tool has proven so useful for many local Squash clubs to broadcast their inter-club tournaments live to their followers in view to recruiting new members.
The future of live Squash events
To conclude, with the great technological advancements with TV in the form of smart TVs and smartphones – soon watching squash soon become accessible to all.
Whether other Squash associations will, follow suit is yet to be seen, but should they consider adopting this technique, it would be a great way marketing of the sport in terms of raising the profile of their national players.
Recently, the US-based Indoor Football League announced plans to collaborate with YouTube to LIVE to stream their 2017 season football matches. Whereas another US-based sport, the Verizon Indycar series, used the platform to show their pre-season testing live, with the content of interviews with the drivers and teams.
Having watched the final YouTube the real-time commentary was great and definitely worth a watch to fill your Sunday afternoon.
Final Thoughts
It is good to see UK Squash utilizing digital platforms for their tournaments, as nearly everybody can watch via their device.
Can this digital revolution contribute to the revival of Squash? Yes, as 2017 is certainly going to mark another year of growth in popularity, this will cascade to boosting junior Squash participation and influence sporting clubs with Squash courts to retain them.
From a business perspective, it will help promote the sport to new markets and much more.
Let’s hope the International Olympic Committee (IOC) was watching.
