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Hitwise Intelligence - Robin Goad - UK

Analyst Weblog

Category Archives: Sport

Wimbledon serves up opportunity for 3D TVs

June 20, 2011

Today sees the start of Wimbledon and with conversation around the office turning to strawberries, cream, and how long it will take Andy Murray to disappoint us all for another year; I thought it would be nice to look at... Continue reading...

Tweet Posted by Robin Goad at 03:00 PM | (1) | (0)
In Categories Sport | TV

London 2012 Ticket site receive 13 times more traffic than Ticketmaster

April 27, 2011

The deadline for UK applicants to order tickets for the London 2012 Olympics was supposed to pass at midnight last night (26 April) but such was the overwhelming demand for tickets that the organisers were forced to extend the deadline... Continue reading...

Tweet Posted by Robin Goad at 02:24 PM | (1) | (0)
In Categories Olympics | Retail | Sport

Grand National 9% more popular with online gamblers in 2011

April 11, 2011

This weekend there was plenty of sporting drama to enjoy with another tense week in the Premier League, the conclusion of the Masters and the Grand National at Aintree. With such a feast of sporting activity it’s not surprising that... Continue reading...

Tweet Posted by Robin Goad at 01:49 PM | (1) | (0)
In Categories Fast moving search terms | Gambling | Sport

Super Bowl bigger than Six Nations in the UK

February 15, 2011

In the last few weeks there has been a glut of exciting sport, with Andy Murray reaching the final of the Australian Open, a record goal scoring weekend in the football Premier League, the start of the Six Nations rugby... Continue reading...

Tweet Posted by Robin Goad at 04:23 PM | (1) | (0)
In Categories Demographics | Mosaic lifestyle | Sport

Transfer deadline day: Torres and Sky Sports the big winners

February 02, 2011

On Monday there was a flurry of online activity as football fans across the country checked for the latest updates on the final day of the January transfer window. Among all the hype and rumours of big money transfers one... Continue reading...

Tweet Posted by Robin Goad at 10:57 AM | (2) | (0)
In Categories Football | Sport

2010 Online: the year in review

December 21, 2010

I can scarcely believe that a whole year has passed since I was sitting here writing the 2009 review, but 12 months to the day here we are, and it’s been another fascinating year in the digital world. Once again... Continue reading...

Hitwise reveals Middle Britain online

December 15, 2010

Earlier this week Experian revealed the real Middle Britain to bring sharp classification to what has previously been an overused and woolly term. Using Experian’s consumer segmentation tool Mosaic, some 13.1 million people were identified as Middle Britain in the... Continue reading...

Cheryl Cole most searched for celebrity online

October 28, 2010

Celebrities – from the A-list Hollywood star to the Z-list Big Brother housemate, we’re obsessed with them, and no-one seems to attract more public attention currently than the nation’s favourite Geordie, Cheryl Cole. We monitor over 50 million search terms... Continue reading...

Chile Miner Rescue Coverage: The BBC vs Sky News

October 15, 2010

There was a spur of optimism to the news on Wednesday evening as the 33 miners in Chile who had been trapped for 69 days underground were finally rescued. The live broadcast of the event made the rescue all the... Continue reading...

Thomas Cook capitalises on Ryder Cup travel traffic

October 14, 2010

Last Friday Thomas Cook made the announcement of a proposed tie up with The Co-operative Travel, bringing together two of the UK’s biggest multi-channel travel companies. According to the Financial Times, the merger will give Thomas Cook a 34% market... Continue reading...

Tweet Posted by Robin Goad at 12:39 PM | (0)
In Categories Search | Sport | Travel

Singapore GP excites F1 fans but not internet searches

September 24, 2010

This Sunday’s Grand Prix in Singapore could be a decisive race to separate the top five drivers all in contention for the F1 Championship title. As it stands, Australian Mark Webber leads the pack with 187 points, but Lewis Hamilton... Continue reading...

Tweet Posted by Robin Goad at 02:08 PM | (2) | (0)
In Categories Automotive | Sport

Fulham and Heineken big search terms ahead of Champions League clash

September 14, 2010

The preliminary rounds of the Champions League are over and the tournament proper starts in earnest tonight, with Manchester United taking on Rangers and new boys Tottenham travelling to Germany to face Werder Bremen. The chart below shows how searches... Continue reading...

The Physio Room: content is king

August 24, 2010

Looking through this week’s list of fast moving websites, one that jumped out at me was The Physio Room, which last week ranked 15th in our Health and Medical category and was also the 12th most popular Sport and Fitness... Continue reading...

1 in every 100 UK Internet searches Sky Sports related

August 16, 2010

Although the lower leagues had already kicked off earlier in the month, the football season truly got underway this weekend with the first Barclays Premier League matches. As you would expect, UK Internet visits to key football related websites increased... Continue reading...

Budweiser tops the Experian Hitwise World Cup Brands Index during week 2

June 22, 2010

Budweiser, an official FIFA World Cup sponsor and sponsor of the USA team, was the brand that made the most of its World Cup involvement last week. UK Internet searches for Budweiser increased by 25% between the week ending June... Continue reading...

South African Airways and beer companies biggest beneficiaries of World Cup sponsorship so far

June 15, 2010

Every week during the World Cup we’ll be publishing the Experian Hitwise Brand Search Index, our way of measuring a selection of brands’ sponsorship activities. The Index is based upon the volume of UK Internet searches for multiple variations of... Continue reading...

Rio Ferdinand the most searched for footballer in the UK; Cristiano Ronaldo the most popular around the world

June 11, 2010

Last week 1 in every 155 search terms typed into a search engine in the UK were World Cup related. However, this number refers only to terms containing variations on the phrase ‘world cup’; there are obviously lots of other... Continue reading...

Flag searches reflect the patriotic mood

June 03, 2010

You can’t have failed to notice the number of flags flying in the UK over the last few weeks. Many of those hanging from cars, pubs and windows across the land are England flags, but other nations are represented as... Continue reading...

World Cup 2010 searches and Panini football stickers

June 01, 2010

The World Cup is nearly upon us and, as you would imagine, the Internet is starting to go mad for it. Last week (w/e 29/05/10) UK Internet users searched for nearly 25,000 terms; a few were related to other events,... Continue reading...

UK Internet visits to skiing and snowboarding websites up 18.5% year on year

January 22, 2010

The recent heavy snow and cold weather may have caused travel chaos in some parts of the UK, but it clearly has also served to remind people of the pleasures of winter sports. For the week ending 9th January 2010,... Continue reading...

Last minute surge in online retail traffic before VAT increase

January 04, 2010

The UK VAT rate returned to 17.5% on January 1st and, as a result, UK Internet searches related to the change also increased. As the chart below illustrates, searches for our “VAT Increase” portfolio (which includes terms such as ‘vat... Continue reading...

Liverpool beach ball searches

October 19, 2009

As you might expect, following Darren Bent’s freak beach ball goal for Sunderland against Liverpool on Saturday, UK beach ball-related internet searches shot up. As the chart below illustrates, the breadth of searches for the term ‘beach ball’ (which measures... Continue reading...

Tweet Posted by Robin Goad at 11:50 AM | (0)
In Categories Fast moving search terms | Football | Search | Sport

Ukraine vs. England: a success for online video and Bet365

October 12, 2009

By most accounts, the screening of the Ukraine vs. England football match online was a success. The live video stream picked up an estimated audience of half a million and there were few technical complaints. The website that screened the... Continue reading...

The importance of photo searches

September 29, 2009

Whilst looking through this week’s list of fast moving search terms, one term that caught my eye was ‘great north run photos’. As the chart below illustrates, searches for the term spiked last week (w/e 26/09/09) in line with the... Continue reading...

Ashes success boosts BBC Sport, Sky Sports and cricket websites

August 24, 2009

UK Internet traffic to Cricket websites shot up over the weekend as England regained the Ashes from Australia. As the chart below illustrates, UK Internet visits to our Cricket category reached their highest level for three years yesterday. Unfortunately I... Continue reading...

Tweet Posted by Robin Goad at 11:15 AM | (1) | (0)
In Categories BBC | Demographics | Sport

Local Internet data: Liverpool example

June 15, 2009

Last month I had the pleasure of speaking at the Digital Editors Network forum, an event organized by Francois Nel from the Journalism Leaders Program at the University of Central Lancashire (UCLAN). One of the topics that came up during... Continue reading...

ITV.com traffic reaches record high thanks to Britain’s Got Talent

June 01, 2009

The Britain’s Got Talent final attracted 19.2 million viewers on Saturday night, making it the most watched non-sporting television programme since 2003. The ITV show, which was won by dance troupe Diversity rather than favourite Susan Boyle, picked up almost... Continue reading...

London Marathon: 2010 searches overtake 2009

May 07, 2009

As you would expect, UK Internet traffic to the official London Marathon website spiked last week and was up 25% on the previous year. Searches for the race also increased, but I was surprised to see both ‘london marathon 2009’... Continue reading...

BBC F1 and the new England Kit

March 30, 2009

The Formula 1 season kicked off this weekend, with Jenson Button pulling off a surprise victory for the new Brawn team. This year the UK television coverage has returned to the BBC after more than a decade with ITV. In... Continue reading...

Celeb and entertainment searches dominate Google News

March 26, 2009

Last week we revealed that Twitter had overtaken Google News in the UK. However, although everyone’s favourite micro-blogging service receives more UK Internet visits, Google News remains the greater source of traffic for News and Media websites. As the chart... Continue reading...

TV and Games are UK's most searched for subjects

March 09, 2009

For our second guest posting on the UK blog, I’d like to hand over to Richard Seymour, Hitwise UK Client Intelligence Analyst, to take us through some of the research he has carried out recently on UK Search Engines. For... Continue reading...

Snow and football transfers

February 03, 2009

Yesterday was the busiest ever day for weather websites in the UK. As the chart below illustrates, websites in our Weather category picked up 1.6% of all UK Internet visits, equivalent to 1 in every 63. And once people discovered... Continue reading...

Tweet Posted by Robin Goad at 03:30 PM | (0)
In Categories Football | Sport | Travel | Weather

Twitter traffic increases 10-fold in a year

January 21, 2009

Following Heather’s post yesterday on Twitter overtaking Digg in the US, here is some UK data on the most talked about website of the moment: UK Internet traffic to the site has increased 10-fold over past last 12 months. For... Continue reading...

Healthy New Year? Gym traffic up, diet searches down

January 05, 2009

Happy New Year! Many readers - including the lucky ones who got a Wii Fit for Christmas - will be hoping for a healthy new year, and they’re not alone. It’s the time for New Year’s Resolutions, and getting fit... Continue reading...

Pre-Christmas peaks in online retail traffic

December 16, 2008

In our retail webinar last week I noted that UK pre-Christmas Internet traffic to Shopping and Classified websites has already started to decline from its peak on Sunday November 30th. As the data in the chart below illustrates, the week... Continue reading...

Top Ski Resorts

September 24, 2008

UK Internet searches for ski holidays started to take off at the start of September and, if historical activity is anything to go by, they will continue increasing until Christmas, before gradually declining into virtual hibernation by April. One of... Continue reading...

Tweet Posted by Robin Goad at 10:21 AM | (3) | (0)
In Categories Search | Sport | Travel

Fast moving search terms: LHC, big bang, Andy Murray and XL

September 15, 2008

The 10 fastest moving search terms in the UK last week were: 1. large hardron collider 2. hurricane ike 3. lhc 4. xl 5. big bang 6. tour of britain 7. itv f1 8. andy murray 9. black hole 10.... Continue reading...

Fast moving search terms: Google Chrome, cautious investors, football and flooding

September 08, 2008

The 10 fastest moving search terms in the UK last week were: 1. google chrome 2. man city 3. bestival 4. environment agency 5. chrome 6. manchester city 7. burghley horse trials 8. nsandi 9. ns&i 10. setanta sports The... Continue reading...

Fast moving search terms: Strictly Come Dancing, Pierrepoint, Most Haunted

September 01, 2008

The 10 fastest moving search terms in the UK last week were: 1. strictly come dancing 2. us open 3. bournemouth air show 4. www.bebo.co.uk 5. most haunted live 6. albert pierrepoint 7. most haunted 8. you tube.com 9. euromillions... Continue reading...

Olympics winners: sports sites, bike retailers and sportswear manufacturers

August 29, 2008

Following the success of Team GB in Beijing, we were curious to see who else benefited from the Olympics hype. As the chart below illustrates, the most clear online winners were sports websites, both information and retail sites. UK Internet... Continue reading...

Olympics – Aussies vs. Poms and most searched for athletes

August 21, 2008

I must admit that I wasn’t very excited about the Olympics before it started, but like lots of other Brits I’ve become a shallow fair weather fan following the success of Team GB. Apologies to our colleagues in Melbourne and... Continue reading...

Tweet Posted by Robin Goad at 10:00 AM | (0)
In Categories Olympics | Search | Sport

Fast moving search terms: Olympics, BBC iPlayer, UCAS and fantasy football

August 18, 2008

The 10 fastest moving search terms in the UK last week were: 1. ucas track 2. bbc olympics 3. fantasy premier league 4. dream team 5. michael phelps 6. tom daley 7. the sun dream team 8. joules 9. last... Continue reading...

Football: transfers and fantasy

August 12, 2008

Never mind the Olympics, football websites remain the post popular sport sites in the UK, currently accounting for a third of visits to our Sports category. As you can see from the chart below, by last week traffic had already... Continue reading...

Fast moving search terms: Olympics, celebrities and exams

August 11, 2008

No prizes for guessing what event dominated the fast moving search term list in the UK last week. Here’s the top 10. 1. beijing 2008 olympic games 2. olympics 3. craig jones 4. morgan freeman 5. olympics 2008 6. bernie... Continue reading...

Fast moving search terms: British Gas fallout, Beatrix Potter and diamond geezers

August 04, 2008

The 10 fastest moving search terms in the UK last week were: 1. beatrix potter 2. diamond geezer 3. southern electric 4. play.com uk 5. bbc cricket 6. u switch 7. carol vorderman 8. racing post 9. currys uk 10.... Continue reading...

Euro 2008 and British Football fans

June 11, 2008

Most of the rest of Europe is in the grip or football fever, but how excited is the UK considering that none of the home nations are taking part? ‘euro 2008’ was the most popular search term sending traffic to... Continue reading...

Chelsea: flowers or football?

May 29, 2008

Flowers were more popular than football in the UK last week, as the Champions League final in Moscow coincided with the annual Chelsea Flower Show in London. Searches for ‘chelsea flower show’ tripled during the week ending 24 May and... Continue reading...

Tweet Posted by Robin Goad at 03:35 PM | (0)
In Categories Football | Search | Sport

Yahoo! and Microsoft: UK perspective

February 05, 2008

Following on from Bill’s and Heather’s posts, I wanted to share some UK data on the proposed Yahoo! and Microsoft deal. First up: webmail services, and as the chart below illustrates, Microsoft has a dominant market share with its Hotmail... Continue reading...

Football: transfer traffic and the Kevin Keegan effect

January 21, 2008

We’re currently in the middle of a seasonal peak in traffic to our Sports – Football category. As the chart below illustrates, football (soccer) websites are receiving their highest level of traffic since the season started last summer, and slightly... Continue reading...

Top Ski destinations

January 18, 2008

There were worries that recent storms in Scotland might cause the snow to melt too quickly for the country to have a viable ski season this year. However, looking at Hitwise data this doesn’t seem to have deterred ski enthusiasts... Continue reading...

Tweet Posted by Robin Goad at 02:49 PM | (0)
In Categories Search | Sport | Travel

Child benefit chaos, football failure

November 22, 2007

Yesterday we left work wishing for two things: an English football victory; and that today would provide us with some interesting data about the impact of the Revenue and Customs child benefit crisis on the government and banking sectors. By... Continue reading...

Israel football searches

November 20, 2007

Thanks to Israel’s unexpected victory over Russia on Saturday, the England football team now only need a point against Croatia to qualify for next year’s European Championships. With England fans praying for a favourable result at the weekend, searches for... Continue reading...

Tweet Posted by Robin Goad at 05:00 PM | (0)
In Categories Football | Sport

Lewis Hamilton searches

October 19, 2007

We’ve talked about the rugby quite a few times, and the less said about the football the better. So I’ll finish off what has become Hitwise Sport Week with Formula 1, the other great British hope this weekend. Formula 1... Continue reading...

Tweet Posted by Robin Goad at 02:00 PM | (0)
In Categories Search | Sport

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... Continue reading...

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

Rugby succcess boosts sports retail

October 08, 2007

The Rugby World Cup has managed to knock football off the back pages a few times over the last month, particularly this weekend. Unsurprisingly, searches for ‘rugby’ have increased by 250% since the beginning of September, with specialist rugby sites... Continue reading...

Tweet Posted by Robin Goad at 10:30 AM | (0)
In Categories Shopping and Classifieds | Sport

Searches for 'fantasy football' up 94% on last year

August 15, 2007

After a 3 month summer break the English Premier League kicked off on Saturday, and last week Hitwise revealed that Liverpool FC's official website was the most visited club website in the UK. With football fever back in full swing,... Continue reading...

Tweet Posted by Robin Goad at 12:01 PM | (0)
In Categories Sport

Robin Goad

Research Director, Hitwise UK.