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About Justin Aucoin

Justin Aucoin is the Content Director for the SportsTV Guide, The Rail Media and NextRestaurants. He oversees the day-to-day content creation operations of all three websites. When not writing about the restaurant industry, he enjoys fencing and writing historical adventure tales.
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Which Sports Do Americans Follow?

For years, we’ve been saying the number one reason why sports fans come to visit your bar is to watch sports. But which sports? Unless you’ve polled your own guests or done some sales vs. games analysis, you’re probably running more on gut instinct. Instinct is good, but instinct backed with some data is even better. Recently, Statista ran a survey with American sports fans on what professional sports they follow. Mind you, what the national average is might not match up with what happens locally, so definitely do your own due diligence, but this info is a nice starting point. You will find more infographics at Statista Football is King Unsurprisingly, football remains America’s favorite sport to watch, dominating the survey with 75% favorability among the survey participants. And while just having the games available to show will bring [...]

By |2022-08-31T09:48:47-04:00August 31st, 2022|Guest Management, Sports Bar Management|0 Comments
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3 Ways Sports Bars Can Shore Up Their Slow Nights

With the end of the NBA Finals and NHL Stanley Cup Finals comes a dearth of mainstream sports to show. Sports bar operators are basically down to just baseball for nightly and weekend events, plus golf and tennis on the weekends. As a result, the summer can be a little slow for sports bars. But it doesn’t have to be. It just takes a little thinking outside the box and a little research. In this post, we’ll look at three ways to minimize sports bars' slow nights, plus how to market these ideas to make sure guests come visit. Show Non-Mainstream Sports Since the summer tends to be low on traffic-driving gimmes like the NFL and NBA, sports bar operators need to look outside the norm to bring in new sports fans and get regulars back during the off season. [...]

By |2022-07-20T10:35:31-04:00July 20th, 2022|Sports Bar Marketing|0 Comments
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Look Beyond the NFL to Win Over Guests & Fans

The recent AFC and NFC Championship Games saw an unequal pair of teams emerge victorious, as tens of millions of Americans watched the San Francisco 49ers and the Kansas City Chiefs book their ticket for Super Bowl LIV at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens, Florida on February 2. While the 49ers are Super Bowl regulars with six appearances and five wins, the Chiefs have only made it to the Super Bowl two times, with their last appearance (and only win) dating back to 1970. While baseball is often referred to as “America’s pastime,” the NFL has long surpassed the MLB as the nation’s favorite professional sports league. For several reasons, including first and foremost its better suitability for television, football flew by baseball as Americans’ favorite sport to watch in the 1960s and hasn’t looked back since. If anything, [...]

By |2022-06-07T13:19:32-04:00January 23rd, 2020|Alternate Sports Programming|0 Comments
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The Gap Between Sports Bars & Showing Women’s Sports

According to a Nielsen research study, 84% of sports fans are interested in watching women’s sports. But are sports bars taking advantage of that fandom? We polled our subscribers of The Daily Rail newsletter and the SportsTV Guide (all sports bar & restaurant owners, operators and managers), to find out that answer. Most Sports Bars Show Women’s Sports The good news is that sports bar operators and owners are taking advantage of the women’s sports fanbase. The majority of sports bar operators (82%) said they show women’s sports at their bar or restaurant. How often varies greatly in the industry, however. A third of sports bars reported showing women’s sports several times per week while another third said they only show women’s sports a handful of times per year. Fewer than a quarter of sports bar (22%) reported that they [...]

By |2022-06-07T13:38:33-04:00June 26th, 2019|Alternate Sports Programming, Guest Management, Sports TV News|0 Comments
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The OTT Sports Program Provider Directory

In a previous post we talked about why sports bars need to show sports programming only available on OTT services. In short: if you're looking to stand out from every other sports bar that shows what's on ESPN, Comcast, Fox, etc. then you need to look for different and interesting content that sports fans can't get anywhere else. That means OTT sports program providers. Sports bars looking to dip their feet in the OTT sports content waters have a lot of options to choose from. Depending what your bar’s specialty is might sway you one way or another, but here are some of the more mainstream players and what they provide. Amazon Prime Launched: N/A Cost: $99/annual for Amazon Prime, $8.99/month for Prime Video Amazon is a relatively new player in OTT sports but is quickly making waves. Amazon Prime subscribers [...]

By |2022-06-08T09:26:45-04:00May 24th, 2018|Alternate Sports Programming, Online Sports, Sports Bar Technology, Sports TV News|0 Comments
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Why Sports Bars Need OTT Sports Programming to be the Best

There are a lot of sports bars in the US, so sticking out as being different and the best can be pretty challenging. Most often, operators look toward doing something crazy or fancy with their beer and food menus. And often this is can create a fantastic little niche for many locations. But there are more and more bars out there with a beer list the length of War and Peace. And frankly, if you’re a tried & true sports bar, your guests are coming to your location for one reason beyond all others – to watch sports. So, it would stand to reason that you’d want to give your guests the best possible viewing experience. Be it from the best TV screens, personal audio, a fantasy sports-friendly atmosphere, etc. But sports bar operators would also be wise to create [...]

By |2022-06-08T09:28:21-04:00May 24th, 2018|Alternate Sports Programming, Online Sports, Sports Bar Management|0 Comments
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6 Infographics to Get You Ready for the 2018 World Cup

The 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia is just a few short weeks away. If you haven't yet, you should be marketing the World Cup to your guests right now to build up anticipation. To get your sports bar ready, here are six infographics detailing what you and your guests can expect from the World Cup this year. Share 'em with your staff so they continue to be sports experts for your guests, and share 'em on your website and social media to garner up some conversation with guests and soccer fans. 1. The 32 Teams That Reached The 2018 World Cup It's been a long road but World Cup qualifying has ended and we now know all 32 soccer teams who will compete at the 2018 World Cup in Russia. Peru and Australia were the last two teams to [...]

By |2022-06-08T09:32:41-04:00May 11th, 2018|Sports Bar Marketing|0 Comments
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It’s Time for Sports Bars to Score with Fantasy Baseball

Pitchers and catchers are about to report, which means two things – we still have a month and a half left of winter (ugh) and baseball is around the corner (yay!). And that means another prime marketing opportunity for sports bars -- fantasy baseball. We know. When most of us think of fantasy sports, we probably just think of football. But sports bars shouldn’t just limit themselves to the gridiron. Fantasy baseball is also a huge pastime for fans, and operators would be wise to at least look into how they can leverage themselves as the place to be for draft day. “At no point has any sports bar ever marketed me from a fantasy angle,” said Rob Cressy, founder of Bacon Sports and Cress Media, which specializes in sports content marketing. “It’s such a big opportunity, too. Speak the [...]

By |2022-06-08T09:40:41-04:00February 20th, 2018|Guest Management, Sports Bar Marketing|0 Comments
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What to Know About the 2018 Winter Olympics in PyeongChang

With the 2018 Winter Olympics starting this week, we peeked around to find some interesting stats surrounding the Winter Games. This year’s Olympiad is being held in PyeongChang, South Korea. Sure, it’s in the shadow of the crazy that is North Korea, but there are some really interesting facts surrounding this these games. This infographic covers our favorites. If you are rooting for the USA, then you’ll have to hope we have a lot of Norwegian immigrants on our team, because Norway leads all medal winning countries by 70. The USA is second followed by a few more of those cold weather countries. One thing this year’s won’t be is expensive. Korea is shelling out a paltry $10 billion which is only 20% of what was spent on Sochi. But that’s not all that Vladmir Putin’s teams got wrong. The [...]

By |2022-06-08T09:43:54-04:00February 2nd, 2018|Sports TV News|0 Comments
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A Look Into America’s Unofficial Holiday — the Super Bowl

When Super Bowl LII is kicked off on Sunday, February 4, more than a hundred million Americans will be watching. Can Tom Brady carry his Patriots to yet another victory or will the Philadelphia Eagles finally get their hands on the Vince Lombardi Trophy impotenciastop.com? As the following infographic nicely illustrates, it is not only the biggest game of the year, but also a, albeit unofficial, national holiday. Super Bowl LII Infographic You will find more infographics at Statista  

By |2022-06-08T13:12:39-04:00January 30th, 2018|Sports Bar Social Media|0 Comments
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5 Alternative Sports TV Content Sports Bars Should Show

Football. Basketball. Baseball. Hockey. Soccer. Every sports bar worth its salt shows these games. Your loyal patrons and irregular guests expect you to be showing these sports on the regular every day and night of the week. So how do you stand out? You could give your guests a superior guest experience through technology or your atmosphere. That’s something we’ve harped on a ton in the past couple of years. Another way is to show alternative or “off-beat” sports programming on some of your TVs. This does a few things: It positions you as the sports expert in your neighborhood. Opens up your venue to a whole new group of fans & potentially regular clients. Opens your traditional guests into new sports they might love (and then come back to watch). Shows that you really care about sports entertainment and [...]

By |2022-06-08T13:23:12-04:00October 26th, 2017|Alternate Sports Programming, Online Sports|0 Comments
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Are You Making These Three Social Media Mistakes?

The basics of social media marketing is easy. You create some content, load it to your preferred social media platform, hit publish, and let the hits come on in. Right? Right. Also, not right. While posting on social media is super easy, building a solid foundation and strategy for that simple task takes a little more effort. It’s also a make or break aspect of your social media efforts. Yet, many sports bars and sports-themed restaurants overlook it or flat out get it wrong, according to Rob Cressy, founder of Bacon Sports. And they’re getting it wrong because they’re failing to realize who their true competitors are on social media. And spoiler, it’s not other restaurants. “[Sports bars] are competing with the attention of Buzzfeed, Barstool Sports, Donald Trump, cat videos,” Cressy said during the “All Sports are Social” session [...]

By |2026-08-03T14:46:05-04:00September 18th, 2017|Sports Bar Marketing, Sports Bar Social Media|0 Comments
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