Women’s football world cup could boost beer sales by 3m pints

06-Jun-2019 - Last updated on 07-Jun-2019 at 11:18 GMT

Cashing in: the Women's World Cup presents a great opportunity for pubs, according to the BBPA (image credit: TuiPhotoengineer/gettyimages.co.uk)

The Women’s World Cup could drive beer sales over the next month (7 June to 7 July) in pubs by three million pints if the Lionesses reach the final of the competition, the British Beer & Pub Association (BBPA) has predicted.

The trade body is backing the Change the Channel campaign, which is urging venues to back women in sport and broadcast the Women’s World Cup.

BBPA said 8.7m people in the UK are keen to watch women’s sports, creating a huge opportunity for licensees. Particularly as the games will be broadcast on the BBC, so pubs that don’t have Sky Sports or BT Sports subscriptions can still show it.

Economy boost

If England make it to the final of the competition, sales of the extra three million pints predicted by the BBPA would provide up to £9m to the economy.

Timings of the group stages mean Argentina and Japan will plan in the evenings and Scotland at the weekend.

BBPA chief executive Brigid Simmonds said: “When it comes to watching England at the World Cup, only being at the game itself can compare to being in the pub.

“By switching the station to the Women’s World Cup, pubs will be doing their bit to promote women’s sport."

Great chance

She added: “With 8.7 million people in the UK keen to watch women’s sport, it will also be a great chance for pubs to get customers through the door.”

Molson Coors on-trade category controller Mark Bentley: “The Women’s World Cup kick-off is set to continue a stellar year for English football and women’s sport as a whole. Interest in the game is rapidly growing – with a threefold increase* in engagement over the last year, underlying a watershed moment for women’s sport in this country.

"Anecdotally we’re hearing from customers that more people are expected to watch the Lionesses fixtures in the pub than the Cricket World Cup, so this year’s tournament is set to be a big moment for the sporting community and an opportunity to achieve a significant win for the on-trade.”

This follows research from Nielsen, which found 314 million people across the globe are interested in women’s football.

It also found that women’s football fans are more likely to be female than the average football fans but that 54% of women’s football fans are male.

In the UK, 44% of all conversations surrounding football on Facebook in the UK were driven by women, and 40% on Instagram.