Acceptance of Digital Sports: A Study Showing the Rising Acceptance of Digital Health Activities Due to the SARS-CoV-19 Pandemic

In pandemic times, the possibilities for conventional sports activities are severely limited; many sports facilities are closed or can only be used with restrictions. To counteract this lack of health activities and social exchange, people are increasingly adopting new digital sports solutions—a behavior change that had already started with the trend towards fitness apps and activity trackers. Existing research suggests that digital solutions increase the motivation to move and stay active. This work further investigates the potentials of digital sports incorporating the dimensions gender and preference for team sports versus individual sports. The study focuses on potential users, who were mostly younger professionals and academics. The results show that the SARS-CoV-19 pandemic had a significant negative impact on sports activity, particularly on persons preferring team sports. To compensate, most participants use more digital sports than before, and there is a positive correlation between the time spent physically active during the pandemic and the increase in motivation through digital sports. Nevertheless, there is still considerable skepticism regarding the potential of digital sports solutions to increase the motivation to do sports, increase performance, or raise a sense of team spirit when done in groups.

Sports related concussion: an emerging era in digital sports technology

Sports-related concussion (SRC) is defined as a mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) leading to complex impairment(s) in neurological function with many seemingly hidden or difficult to measure impairments that can deteriorate rapidly without any prior indication. Growing numbers of SRCs in professional and amateur contact sports have prompted closer dialog regarding player safety and welfare. Greater emphasis on awareness and education has improved SRC management, but also highlighted the difficulties of diagnosing SRC in a timely manner, particularly during matches or immediately after competition. Therefore, challenges exist in off-field assessment and return to play (RTP) protocols, with current traditional (subjective) approaches largely based on infrequent snapshot assessments. Low-cost digital technologies may provide more objective, integrated and personalized SRC assessment to better inform RTP protocols whilst also enhancing the efficiency and precision of healthcare assessment. To fully realize the potential of digital technologies in the diagnosis and management of SRC will require a significant paradigm shift in clinical practice and mindset. Here, we provide insights into SRC clinical assessment methods and the translational utility of digital approaches, with a focus on off-field digital techniques to detect key SRC metrics/biomarkers. We also provide insights and recommendations to the common benefits and challenges facing digital approaches as they aim to transition from novel technologies to an efficient, valid, reliable, and integrated clinical assessment tool for SRC. Finally, we highlight future opportunities that digital approaches have in SRC assessment and management including digital twinning and the “digital athlete”.

Recontextualizing Barstool Sports and Misogyny in Online US Sports Media

This critical qualitative case study interrogates the roles Barstool Sports and its founder, Dave Portnoy, serve in reaffirming the narrative power of conservative cultural ideology in mainstream US sports media. Portnoy’s targeted harassment of female journalists is analyzed as examples of how the outlet alienates critics of heteronormative, hypermasculine discourse within relevant cultural arenas in digital sports media. To examine how the company deflects criticisms of misogyny, we explore Barstool Chicks—an alternative version of the company’s website targeting female audiences. Resultantly, Barstool and Portnoy undermine the potential for feminist-driven narratives in sports media and contribute to the normalization of repressive conditions within cultural industries that perpetuates the continued dominance of conservative ideology.

Towards a theory of well-being in digital sports viewing behavior

Purpose Social television (Social TV) viewing of live sports events is an emerging trend. The realm of transformative service research (TSR) envisions that every service consumption experience must lead to consumer well-being. Currently, a full appreciation of the well-being factors obtained through Social TV viewing is lacking. This study aims to gain a holistic understanding of the concept of digital sports well-being obtained through live Social TV viewing of sports events. Design/methodology/approach Focus group interviews were used to collect data from the 40 regular sports viewers, and the qualitative data obtained is analyzed thematically using NVivo 12. A post hoc verification of the identified themes is done to narrow down the most critical themes. Findings The exploration helped understand the concept of digital sports well-being (DSW) obtained through live Social TV sports spectating and identified five critical themes that constitute its formation. The themes that emerged were virtual connectedness, vividness, uncertainty reduction, online disinhibition and perceived autonomy. This study defines the concept and develops a conceptual model for DSW. Research limitations/implications This study adds to the body of knowledge in TSR, transformative sport service research, digital customer engagement, value co-creation in digital platforms, self-determination theory and flow theory. The qualitative study is exploratory, with participants’ views based on a single match in one particular sport, and as such, its findings are restrained by the small sample size and the specific sport. To extend this study’s implications, empirical research involving a larger and more diversified sample involving multiple sports Social TV viewing experiences would help better understand the DSW concept. Practical implications The research provides insights to Social TV live streamers of sporting events and digital media marketers about the DSW construct and identifies the valued DSW dimensions that could provide a competitive advantage. Originality/value To the best of the authors’ knowledge, the exploration is the first attempt to describe the concept of DSW and identify associated themes.

Phygitally Yours: Examination of Virtual Reality Experiences in Digital Sports and Recreational Games

<em><span lang="EN-GB">The demand for, and investment in digital virtual reality (VR) games, both by companies and consumers, are increasing day by day. Accordingly, understanding the experiences created by VR within the scope of phygital marketing is important in terms of contributing to virtual experiential marketing, marketing communication, recreation and similar fields. The concept of phygital, expresses the integral wholeness of the digital and physical. And ‘Phygitally Yours’ refers to individuals who can live in their own phygital worlds in today's technologies. The aim of this study was to examine the experiences created by digital games involving sports and recreational content within the scope of phygital marketing. Eight individuals who did not have any prior VR experience played digital games with sports (Grand Turismo Sport) and recreational (VR Worlds) content using VR glasses. Subsequently, in-depth interviews were conducted. The data were analysed using the content analysis method, and thematic codes and concepts were revealed and interpreted. As a result of the research, it was determined that the participants' first VR experience of digital games involved the dimensions of sense, interaction, pleasure and flow, with the following codes emerging: perfect holistic effect, showroom feeling, understandable, competition, magic, gorgeous, dilemma, and place independent behaviour.</span></em>

Use of Digital Media for Home-Based Sports Activities during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Results from the German SPOVID Survey

Health authorities recommend digital tools for home-based sport and exercise routines to stay active and healthy during the COVID-19 pandemic. The study investigates the prevalence, duration, most popular activities, and social selectivity of home-based digital sport and its contribution to overall levels of sporting activity during the pandemic. It is based on cross-sectional survey data (n = 1508), representing the population >14 years living in Germany. Data collection took place in October 2020, using computer-assisted web interviewing. Results show that overall, 23% of respondents used digital media for sports activities at least one time during the COVID-19 pandemic. Numbers increased during the lockdown and decreased afterwards. People engaged in a variety of fitness workouts, most frequently practiced with the help of publicly accessible fitness videos from video-sharing platforms. Digital sports practitioners are younger, better educated, and financially better off. Females are overrepresented. Individuals engaged in digital sports achieved 30 min/week more sports activity during the pandemic compared to individuals solely involved in offline sports. Hence, home-based digital sports activities were a popular means to stay active, particularly in the period of the lockdown. Strong social disparities indicate that the possible health benefits of digital sports only reach out to particular population groups.

Towards a “Digital” Sports Journalism: Field Theory, Changing Boundaries and Evolving Technologies

Long trivialized as the “toy department,” sports journalism nevertheless represents an enduring, and vital subfield within journalism. As with many niches of journalism, sports journalism has needed to adjust to changes resulting from the technology of the field. In particular, digital sports journalism faces pressure from adjacent fields, represented in team and player media, which perform many of the same tasks historically attributed to sports journalism. Through the lens of field theory, the present study reports on long-form interviews with 47 sports journalists who self-defined their work as digital journalism. This study argues that the perception of insurgents—team media that prior research demonstrated is often seen as a part of the field—has caused digital sports journalists to view their work as economically vital to the individual newsroom, but not topically essential to the journalistic field at large.