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Hitwise Intelligence - Robin Goad - UK

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Rugby searches overtake football following England's semi-final victory

October 15, 2007

Following the England rugby team’s semi-final victory over France this weekend, last week there were more UK Internet searches for the term 'rugby' than the term 'football' for the first time in 2 years. There has been a six-fold increase in the number of UK Internet searches for ‘rugby’ since the World Cup started at the beginning of September and, for the week ending 13th October, there were 10% more searches for 'rugby' than 'football'. The official Rugby World Cup homepage received 44% of all traffic from the term 'rugby' last week, while the Planet Rugby portal was the second most popular site. The website, which has seen its market share of all visits increase by 165% since the start of September, received 11% of all visits from the search term.

Jonny Wilkinson is the most popular England player online, and last week there was a 250% increase in searches for the star kicker. 27% of UK Internet users searching for 'jonny wilkinson' went to Wikipedia but, surpisingly, the second most popular recipient of traffic from the term was Women Republic . Wilkinson’s appeal with female fans is clear: the proportion of female visitors to our Rugby Union category has increased from 41% before the world cup to 44% during the last 4 weeks, while the terms 'jonny wilkinson pictures', 'jonny wilkinson topless' and 'jonny wilkinson girlfriend' all appear in the top 10 searches containing the words 'jonny wilkinson'.

However, despite the massive growth in searches for 'rugby' as a result of the word cup, overall, football remains the more popular sport in the UK. Last week there were over 8 times as many UK Internet visits to Football sites compared with Rugby Union sites, even with the World Cup boost. The loyalty of football fans at the club level ensures it remains the most popular sport in the UK. Three of the top 5 football sites in the UK are club homepages, while the Rugby Union category is skewed in favour of sites dedicated to the international game. These are more prone to fluctuations based on seasonal factors and the success (or otherwise) of the UK national teams.

Posted by Robin Goad at 12:00 PM | (0) | (0)
In Categories Search | Sport | Women

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