Vilnius, 23 April 2010 – According to a survey commissioned by MasterCard, title sponsor of the MasterCard Baltic Basketball League (BBL), basketball can be expected to remain the leading sports in Lithuania for many more years. 60 percent of young Lithuanians under the age of 25 say they are most interested in basketball, with 56 percent of the population between 26 and 35 years and 53 percent of the overall population sharing the same view. Following in the second place – with a huge margin - is football, ahead of figure skating and athletics.

“We see that a new generation of Lithuanians are excited about basketball, which means that the sport's prospects are very good", said Carlos Rodriguez, General Manager for MasterCard in the Nordic and Baltic region. “We are looking forward to bringing many more priceless moments to our partners and our cardholders as the title sponsor of the Baltic Basketball League – such as the Final 4 of the MasterCard BBL today and tomorrow here in beautiful Vilnius”.

The survey was conducted by "Spinter studies" and is based on 1004 respondents aged between 18 and 75 years.

What is a sport as a spectator, you are most interested in? (Survey participants answered in percentages)

• Basketball     53.4%

• Football     8.6%

• Figure skating     3.5%

• Athletics     3.1%

• Dance     1.6%

• Motoring     1.4%

• Boxing     1.2%

• Tennis     1.2%

• Swimming     1%

• Is not interested in sport     9.9%
  

Not surprisingly, among young Lithuanian males basketball comes out strongest (60.3 %), ahead of football (15.6 %), motor sports (2.5 %) and boxing (2.3 %), while women are more fascinated by skating (6.4 %), athletics (4.9 %), dance (3 %), tennis and swimming (1.5 %), gymnastics and cycling (1.1 %). Women were in the majority among those not interested in any sport (14.7 %). The country's urban and rural populations are markedly different when it comes to their favourite sports.

The study also showed that the main reason for Lithuanians to follow a certain sport is its popularity (25 %). 17 percent of respondents are encouraged by good achievements of local athletes, while another 14 percent admire certain star athletes. 13 percent are interested in a certain sport, because they are engaged themselves or have formerly practiced it, while 12 percent are attracted to a certain sport through friends or relatives.

While 53 percent of respondents said they were not doing any sports activities themselves, among the most popular sport was jogging (11.7 %), sports club attendance (11.6 %) and swimming.

36 percent of respondents mentioned dedicating up to 1 hour per week for their favourite type of sport. 22 percent indicated sacrificing 1-2 hours for this purpose while 21 percent admitted that their favourite sport takes more than 2 hours of their week.

The majority of respondents answered spending up to 100 litas for sport per month while 14 percent indicated a sum of 100-300 litas.

Contacts:

Bernhard Mors, MasterCard Europe Communications; +32 498 58 50 57, bernhard_mors@mastercard.com

Inese Mikelsone, BBL Marketing Director; +371 29196624, inese@bbl.net

About Baltic Basketball League

Baltic Basketball League (BBL) was founded on the 26th of November 2004 by the Estonian and Latvian Basketball Associations and the Lithuanian Basketball League.
BBL’s first season was opened by the three leaders of the Baltic States:
President of Latvia, Mrs. Vaira Vike-Freiberga,
President of Estonia, Mr. Arnold Rüütel,
Prime Minister of Lithuania, Mr. Algirdas Brazauskas
The idea was to create a professional league that guarantees high level international games for clubs:
- League motivates clubs to reach higher sportive and organizational level.
- League and club sponsors are visible to a bigger market.
- League helps to reinforce position of basketball as the Nr. 1 Sport in Baltic.
- Pioneers of global sports thinking in Baltic States.
- In 2009, MasterCard joined BBL as title sponsor

BBL by years:

• 2004/2005 10 best teams played in the first season.
• 2005/2006 Already 24 teams participated in the 2nd season.
• 2006/2007 17 best teams from Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania.
• 2007/2008 10 teams - in SEB BBL Elite division, 11 teams - in newly created Challenge cup (League investment in new basketball talents development).
• 2008/2009 10 teams - in SEB BBL Elite division, 16 teams - in Challenge Cup (one team from Sweden)
• 2009/2010 10 teams - in MasterCard BBL Elite division, 15 teams - in Challenge Cup (one team from Sweden)
For more information go to www.bbl.net

About MasterCard Europe

MasterCard Europe is the entity responsible for managing MasterCard Worldwide’s business in Europe, for Europe. With headquarters in Waterloo, Belgium, MasterCard Europe works in 51 European countries, stretching as far afield as the eastern border of Russia. Through its network of local offices, MasterCard Europe can understand and meet the diverse needs of customers in the very different types of markets throughout Europe, enabling people to do business in their own way in their own language.

About MasterCard Worldwide

MasterCard Worldwide advances global commerce by providing a critical economic link among financial institutions, businesses, cardholders and merchants worldwide. As a franchisor, processor and advisor, MasterCard develops and markets payment solutions, processes over 22 billion transactions each year, and provides industry-leading analysis and consulting services to financial-institution customers and merchants. Powered by the MasterCard Worldwide Network and through its family of brands, including MasterCard, Maestro and Cirrus, MasterCard serves consumers and businesses in more than 210 countries and territories. For more information go to www.mastercard.com