TheFork: sport in restaurants conquers Italians
Football and sports are also increasingly seen outside the home: the number of Italians who prefer to experience the matches at restaurants, between conviviality and good food, is growing. This is confirmed by data from TheFork, one year after the launch of the partnership with Sky Business, which allows users to easily find and book the ideal restaurant to follow the sport… at the table.
Today there are more than a thousand restaurants bookable on TheFork that offer Sky soccer and sports through Sky Business, with concrete results in terms of performance: in fact, these establishments record a +15% increase in bookings compared to those that do not broadcast sporting events.
From the point of view of gastronomic offerings, five main types emerge among the restaurants that offer Sky: Italian cuisine (22%), pizzerias (17%), Mediterranean cuisine (11%), meat restaurants (8%) and fish restaurants (5%). In particular, it is the pizzeria that stands out as the ideal context for match viewing, thanks to the winning combination of pizza and sporting event, perfect for an informal, shared experience. The data on spending is also interesting: looking at the spending recorded on TheFork PAY, there is a trend toward a slightly higher average receipt in restaurants equipped with Sky Business than in those that do not broadcast sporting events, suggesting a positive impact of the sports offer on the overall experience and consumption. A clear signal of how sports, experienced outside the home, is not only entertainment but also a real business driver for the restaurant industry.
In the coming months, in the venues with Sky Business, fans can enjoy a wide range of sports programming: in addition to the grand finale of the football season between Serie A and UEFA Champions League, not to be missed is the great tennis with Sinner and the other Azzurri protagonists in the ATP and WTA 1000 in Madrid (from 22/4) and Rome (from 6/5) and then in Wimbledon (from 29/6) and US Open (from 30/8). Italians are also protagonists in motorsports: Kimi Antonelli leads the Formula 1 standings, while Marco Bezzecchi leads the MotoGP world championship, with all Grand Prix live on Sky. And in Sky’s Italian summer there is also space for the new Rugby Nations Championship (from 4/7), the European Swimming Championship (from 31/7), the European Athletics Championship (from 10/8), the European Women’s Volleyball Championship (from 21/8), the World Women’s Basketball Championship (from 4/9) and the European Men’s Volleyball Championship (from 10/9).
