Hockey in the UK: How Popular Is It?

Around 140,000 individuals play regularly in the club system with an estimated 15,000 playing at university/college. England Hockey has a membership comprising clubs (800+), counties (45) and Areas (8). Over 15,000 coaches, umpires and officials are supported and developed by England Hockey.

Even in the UK, where field hockey has a long university tradition, it’s not among the most popular sports. Also, knowing that British men’s and women’s field hockey teams have won three and one Olympics golds, respectively, one might think that Britons are into this sport. However, if you take a look at sports TV programmes or visit the most popular sport-related websites, you’ll see that field hockey is nowhere near football or cricket. For most Brits, going through a reviewed UK betting sites list is the farthest they get in terms of both online and offline field hockey activities, but it’s still not a popular sport to bet on compared to football or horse racing.

Given that ice hockey isn’t particularly well-facilitated at the grassroots level and isn’t as encouraged as sports like football and rugby, it is surprising to see it suddenly clock in as the most-watched indoor sport in Britain, per the Guardian, and the third-most-popular winter sport, as of late 2018. Ice hockey in the UK has earned a lot of attention of late, with the premier story being the Great Britain team making it to the top flight of World Championships ice hockey in 2018. The EIHL, however, has become one of the most accessible top-flight sports leagues in Great Britain. After looking at all of the ways that people can engage with and follow the exciting sport of ice hockey in the UK, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that it’s becoming more popular.

As of June 2023, only 5% of 8,230 consumers in the UK show an interest in ice hockey. You would expect that percentage to be much higher for a sport with deep roots in UK history.

Now we see that the popularity of ice hockey among spectators and bettors in the UK has increased dramatically. And the popularity of hockey in the UK is steadily growing again. The national team sensationally made its way to the Ice Hockey World Championship, which was held in 2019. The UK guaranteed their participation in the championship, taking first place in the first division tournament in 2018. EIHL is actively promoting ice hockey through television channels. EIHL actively promotes itself on the Internet and such popular social networks as Instagram, Twitter and Facebook, gaining tens of thousands of subscribers. Thanks to all these factors, ice hockey is rapidly gaining popularity in the UK.