The U.S. is on the soccer field: Our own triple-threat celebrity, Jennifer Lopez, performed at the opening ceremony; Facebook set up a special “Trending World Cup” news feed; Twitter predicts the most tweeted global event ever; Google search features a daily soccer doodle; and the U.S. is playing its first game in the tournament today.
The 2014 World Cup is more digital than any other soccer World Cup. At AVAST, we wanted to understand how people will watch and participate in the tournament this year. In a survey of more than 3,000 AVAST users in the U.S., we discovered mobile devices will play a big part: Two out of three American soccer fans will use their smartphone or tablet to enhance their World Cup experience.
Soccer news, live scores and vuvuzela sounds on smartphone
Highest priority for Americans is to stay on top of the game results with more than half the fans reporting they will check the live scores from their smartphone. One-third said they will read news about the games on their smartphone or tablet and one-fifth will live stream the games on their mobile device. Many will certainly be interested in the results as they placed a bet. The best strategies to bet on the winning team have been discussed and people are already well into betting fever. One out of ten survey respondents will use or have already used their smartphone or tablet to place bets.
There is even more that can be done on mobile. For six percent of respondents, collecting and trading stickers of the players has moved from the paper booklet to digital albums in the cloud. And what would a World Cup be without the famous BZZZZ vuvuzela sound? Cover your ears – this year you can expect to hear a cacophony of digital horns: One in 20 intend to use a mobile app to sound the vuvuzela.
Instead of just following the games, every eighth American fan wants to become a world champion themselves – and will play soccer games on their mobile device.
For all mobile activities, nearly half of Americans stick to the official FIFA apps, the majority mixes official with unofficial apps or only go for unofficial apps. It’s great for fans to have a wider variety of apps to choose from, but beware, we found some gaming apps that are fake, they won’t let you play and instead just want to collect your data and show you ads.
One out of five will live stream the games on smartphone or tablet
The majority of Americans will still watch the games the traditional way – eight out of ten – on the TV at home. However, digital sources are slowly taking over: 40 percent will watch the tournament on PC and on the smartphone and tablet 21 percent will watch.
Now who do Americans think will win?
Americans’ faith in their own team is low! Only eight percent think the U.S. team will win. Instead, all bets are on the World Cup host: One-third of Americans pick Brazil to take home the cup.
World Cup safety tips
At AVAST, we think we can all be winners if this will be a safe World Cup. Using your smartphone and tablet during and after the soccer World Cup, make sure you are protected:
- Only download apps from the official Google Play store
- Choose apps from official sources and read what others are saying about them
- Take a close look at the permissions an app requests and question if they are necessary for the apps’ functionality
- Use antivirus on your PC, smartphone, and tablet
- If live streaming the games on public Wi-Fi, make sure you are protected with a VPN solution encrypting your communications such as avast! SecureLine
