This story from Yahoo seems like a stretch – Super Bowl slowdown costs U.S. employers $800 million. Here is the logic behind the number:
Assuming employees, for example, spend 10 minutes a day talking about the game, making bets, surfing the Internet or shopping for a new television, their bosses will lose some $162 million per day. In a five-day workweek, that adds up to $810 million, based on average earnings and expected viewership.
The Super Bowl talk definitely dominates the water cooler topics for a couple weeks so maybe they are accurate in their estimate. The game comes around every year so “lost productivity” seems a bit nonsensical – like saying we lose productivity each year on Independence Day.
I am curious as to what the dollar amount would be for NCAA basketball tourney. That tournament takes 3 weeks to complete and everyone who gambles on the brackets has to check scores online during the first 2 weeks since the games occur on Thursday and Friday. Many employees take those days off all together. My gut feeling is that more productivity is lost during that event than the Super Bowl.