Cricket, indeed, is India’s favourite game and those who love it don’t want to miss a chance to enjoy the game. When India plays international matches, most Indians are updated with the live scores, irrespective of the format and irrespective of where they are. It does not matter whether they are at work, at home, travelling or stationary, healthy or sick, busy or free. They will ensure that they are updated about the scores.
Why Is It Important for Fans to Keep Updated with Live Scores?
- Some fans do so because they like to keep track of various records being made and broke, stay updated with the statistics of the various players and generally know all about the cricketing trends. They like to get this information first hand.
- There are others who want to be alive with the excitement of the match. Such people go to watch the matches live in the stadium or sit glued to the TV and watch it happening right in front of their eyes.
- There is another category who are interested in knowing the updates but are happy to know the scores in the exciting parts of the match. They update themselves from time to time by checking the scores, either through live streaming or updates on the cricket websites.
- The last but certainly not the least is the category that keeps themselves updated with the details and score of the match so that they can keep their anticipation of winning their wager alive. This is the category of bettors who place their bets either with a bookie or those who are comfortable with it do so online.
How Do Fans Keep Themselves Updated?
Depending on the resources available and the situation, the fans use varying means to keep updated with what’s going on in a cricket match by:
- Being present in the stadium where live action is taking place
- Watching live broadcast on TV; often, these turn into special occasions where many interested friends gather and enjoy the match as a group
- Viewing live streaming of the match
- Listening to the live commentary
- Reading the live updates on cricketing websites
- Peeking into their phones from time to time to see the latest scores
Variation of Involvement with the Game Format
- Test Matches
Though the test match is the oldest format and was once very popular, now its spectators are the really serious fans of cricket. They pay attention to all the details of the match. The popularity has gone down for a few who are interested in a more fast-paced match and quicker results. These not-so-interested ones keep track of the fall of the wickets and the scores at the end of the innings. They are interested in knowing whether or not a team declares the innings, is there a follow on, will there be a result or will it be a draw. The records and milestones are recorded in the memories of the fans and the match gets documented with a record against its name.
- One Day Matches
These have been and still are highly popular for their optimised format. The match is neither too short nor too long and gives enough excitement to players and viewers to last through the majority of the day. These are the matches where the records are made and broken often and each is remembered very vividly by most of the ardent cricket fans. Others take time out and keep refreshing their memories. These matches are often seen to gather maximum crowds in the stadiums and broadcasters and organisers enjoy good revenue collection. Bookies and betting websites also see massive collections for the matches played in this format.
- T20 Matches
This, being the newest entry, has shown massive gains in its popularity. The records created in these games are fairly fresh and new records are created more frequently. Since these matches are of fairly short duration, often you can enjoy two matches in a day, provided the tournament has at least 4 teams playing. These are also popular because the timings of these matches are more convenient, especially when being played in India. Weekends see a lot of crowd in the cricket stadiums and it is rare to see an empty or even half-empty stadium. This format is also very popular among the betting community as the stress lasts for a much shorter while and the returns are quicker.
Formation of Leagues
The number of cricket matches played during the year has seen a surge since the advent of T20 cricket leagues. Many leagues have been formed across the cricketing world and smaller ones within each country. Hence, you can see T20 league matches being played at the regional level, state level, national level as well as international level. The increased number of matches certainly spells out better opportunities for all the stakeholders, including the players, the organisers, sponsors, advertisers, broadcasters and spectators/viewers. Not just these, there are indirect beneficiaries, such as food vendors, restaurants and food delivery businesses that enjoy a surge in business when the cricket matches are being played.
Opportunities for Marketing
The marketing department of every business is a group of people who are highly interested in the scheduling and results of the match. They may or may not enjoy the game of cricket, but their interest levels are high. They have to evaluate the benefit of every match and plan their advertising campaigns. A cricket match is a fantastic opportunity to reach their customers and they would want to maximise these by picking the best slots available.
As we have seen, the game of cricket brings joy to different kinds of people and the list also includes the bettors. These again can be of varied kinds, including the time-pass bettor, the gut-feel better and the analyst bettor. They also enjoy the game, but when you have invested money on a betting site, you would want to get the best results and that keeps you on tenterhooks till the match is over. Their involvement can be considered as high as those of the players as both of them have a lot at stake at the beginning of the match and the results cannot be delivered till the end of the match.
