In ongoing news, Elon Musk is setting his sights on clearing fake/spam accounts off Twitter, but how could this affect Texas’ biggest sports teams online?
By running a fake follower audit, Gambling.com reveals which teams are at the most significant risk and have the highest percentage of fake followers.
The Dallas Cowboys could lose the most followers, with an estimated 1.89 million at risk.
Photo: TechCrunchIn April, Elon Musk stated he would “die trying” in the fight to eradicate Twitter from spam accounts. With Musk’s recent acquisition of Twitter, there has been continuing news surrounding the plans, but how could this affect Texas’ biggest sports teams’ social media profiles?
Using SparkToro’s fake follower audit, the guys at Gambling.com have ranked which Texas sports teams could be the worst hit.
The Cowboys Set to Take the Biggest Hit on Twitter
With the highest overall follower count, it’s the Cowboys who are set to be the most affected by Musk’s crackdown on fake accounts.
With a fake follower percentage of 43.9%, the Cowboys could see a decline in around 1.89 million followers on Twitter, leaving them on a slightly less impressive 2.42 million.
The table below shows each team in order of the number of followers potentially lost:
| # | Team | Number of Followers | Fake Follower Percentage | Number of Fake Followers |
| 1 | Dallas Cowboys | 4,309,000 | 43.9% | 1,892,000 |
| 2 | San Antonio Spurs | 3,525,000 | 40.6% | 1,431,000 |
| 3 | Houston Rockets | 3,240,000 | 40.0% | 1,296,000 |
| 4 | Houston Texans | 1,955,000 | 50.7% | 991,000 |
| 5 | Dallas Mavericks | 2,153,300 | 38.2% | 823,000 |
| 6 | Houston Astros | 1,794,000 | 44.6% | 800,000 |
| 7 | Texas Rangers | 1,444,000 | 43.9% | 634,000 |
| 8 | Dallas Stars | 1,115,000 | 44.2% | 493,000 |
While it makes sense that teams with a higher following are likely to lose more followers from Musk’s plans, where does each team rank based on their percentage of fake followers?
Coming at the top is the NFL’s Houston Texans. Whilst they are 4th in line for the number of fake accounts (991,000), they sit top of the scoreboard with a grand total of 50.7% of fake followers.
Out of the eight teams, it’s only the Dallas Mavericks who don’t creep into the 40% mark, with their fake follower percentage scoring 38.2%.
The table below shows each team in order of their percentage of fake followers:
| # | Team | Number of Followers | Percentage of Fake Followers | Number of Fake Followers |
| 1 | Houston Texans | 1,955,000 | 50.7% | 991,000 |
| 2 | Houston Astros | 1,794,000 | 44.6% | 800,000 |
| 3 | Dallas Stars | 1,115,000 | 44.2% | 493,000 |
| 4 | Dallas Cowboys | 4,309,000 | 43.9% | 1,892,000 |
| 5 | Texas Rangers | 1,444,000 | 43.9% | 634,000 |
| 6 | San Antonio Spurs | 3,525,000 | 40.6% | 1,431,000 |
| 7 | Houston Rockets | 3,240,000 | 40.0% | 1,296,000 |
| 8 | Dallas Mavericks | 2,153,300 | 38.2% | 823,000 |
So, how would each team’s follower number change if plans go ahead?
| # | Team | Number of Followers | New Follow Number |
| 1 | Dallas Cowboys | 4,309,000 | 2,418,000 |
| 2 | San Antonio Spurs | 3,525,000 | 2,094,000 |
| 3 | Houston Rockets | 3,240,000 | 1,944,000 |
| 4 | Dallas Mavericks | 2,153,300 | 1,331,000 |
| 5 | Houston Astros | 1,794,000 | 994,000 |
| 6 | Houston Texans | 1,955,000 | 964,000 |
| 7 | Texas Rangers | 1,444,000 | 810,000 |
| 8 | Dallas Stars | 1,115,000 | 622,000 |
Methodology
To collect the data, Gambling.com ran the Twitter accounts of Texas’ major league sports teams through SparkToro’s fake follower audit tool. This took a sample of 2,000 random followers and ran diagnostics found to strongly correlate with these types of fake followers (bots, spam accounts, inactive users, propaganda, or other non-engaged/non-real users).
Data accurate as of 9th November 2022.
Featured Image: TechCrunch
