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In line with trends in sport management education that have encouraged a transition from traditional forms of passive and depersonalized learning to active and motivated learning, this essay draws on theoretical and applied insight to provide sport management educators with actionable information related to gamification. In educational contexts, gamification involves using game elements such as narratives, teams, and badges in the classroom as a way to support students' intrinsic motivation and basic psychological needs (i.e., autonomy, competence, relatedness). This essay presents a case for gamification as a high-impact pedagogical approach that can help sport management educators replicate the global, complicated, and dynamic nature of the sport industry, thus creating more authentic, engaging, and influential experiences for students. Accordingly, this essay outlines gamification in education, discusses game elements and design, and provides a thorough description of a gamified sport psychology course. It concludes with future considerations and key takeaways for sport management educators.

The sport industry is at an inflection point where all major professional sport leagues in North America are struggling to attract the same avid fans, once a staple within the industry. Furthermore, not only are the number of avid fans decreasing, the average age of avid sport fans is increasing. In other words, the current state of the sport industry indicates that fans are decreasing in number while simultaneously aging out of traditional professional sports. The current study aimed to investigate the ability of a traditional sport, NASCAR (National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing) in this case, to utilize an esport, iRacing, to attract new and more diverse fans. Through a partnership with Zoomph, Twitter content was analyzed and revealed the shift from traditional racing to iRacing by NASCAR. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it assisted them in attracting new, more diverse fans whose sentiment on Twitter was positive. Overall, the current study demonstrated that traditional sport properties may be well served by tapping into the esport space in an authentic way to enhance their core product(s). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the COVID-19 outbreak, there emerged on social media an active cohort of sport celebrities, promoting through their messages virus-prevention behaviors. The study tested how people's intentions to adopt COVID-19 prevention practices were affected by their perceived credibility of sport celebrities, perceived social distance of sport celebrities, and identification with sport celebrities. The study also tested how the message's power style moderated those relations. The researchers selected four sport celebrities who were active on social media and applied powerful and powerless linguistic styles in developing their social media messages. College students (N = 284) were randomly exposed to one of eight stimuli and asked the questions in the self-administered online survey. The perceived credibility positively affected COVID-19 prevention intentions regardless of the message's power style. The perceived social distance was effective for intentions only in the powerless message. Identification with sport celebrities was effective regardless of the message's power style, with the powerless message being more effective than the powerful one. The study provides a theoretical perspective on how people utilize sport celebrities' characteristics as peripheral cues during health information processing. Also, the study offers practical implications for leveraging social media and sports celebrities to promote virus prevention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: This study investigates the relationship between Virtual Reality Exposure Therapy (VRET) and social anxiety in sport environments. Social anxiety is a mental health condition that manifests people's intense fear of being watched and judged by others and worrying about humiliation It is important to research potential tools like VRET that could help to mitigate the impact of social anxiety as people with social anxiety often avoid attending live events due to the venue's sensory stimuli and the social encounters they anticipate. VR simulation could allow socially anxious individuals to fully experience a sporting event simulation minus the anxiety induced by potential social encounters. VR's therapeutic effects on social anxiety should be explored when considering several findings of VR intervention to mental health. Aim: The study aims to assess the impact of exposing socially anxious people to a virtual sporting game by measuring their levels of social anxiety, team identification, and intentions to attend a live sporting event before and after the VR exposure. Due to VR's positive experience, social anxiety is expected to decrease. However, team identification and intentions to attend live sporting events are expected to increase because of VR's ability to develop sport fanship. Method: Fourteen students with symptoms of social anxiety participated in the study. To create the VR simulation stimuli, the researchers used six 360° cameras to record an NCAA Division-I women's volleyball game. Participants experienced the sporting event via VR simulation. Data were analyzed via one-group pre- and post-comparison. Results and Conclusions: Significant results were found for behavioral intentions of participants after experiencing the simulation. Social anxiety's difference was negative 0.22, t(13) = 3.47, p < 0.01. After watching the game in VR, the respondents' social anxiety decreased significantly. Team identification's difference was 0.53, t(13) = −3.56, p < 0.01. Lastly, event visit intentions' difference was 0.24, t(13) = −2.35, p < 0.05. Team identification and intentions to visit a sporting event rose significantly after viewing the game in VR. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fantasy sport has seen substantial growth over the last several decades, provoking research on how participation impacts the perceptions of teams and players. Following research in the field of economics, which has found that contexts promoting the assignment of economic value to humans result in dehumanization, the authors explored the dehumanization of professional athletes among fantasy football participants. Specifically, given that fantasy football requires participants to view players in terms of value in drafts, trades, and waiver claims, this should theoretically force participants to view them as commodities more so than humans. Across three implicit association test experiments and a qualitative study, the authors found fantasy football participants to be more apt to associate humanness with athletes on their fantasy roster(s) than non-fantasy-eligible athletes. Furthermore, qualitative insights indicate that participation in fantasy can serve to humanize players in a way that traditional sport consumption does not. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The dehumanization of professional athletes by sports fans has become a talking point for mainstream media, and fantasy sports participation is in the crosshairs. The social competition and romanticized ownership of the game spur strategy where participants theoretically utilize professional athletes in a mechanistic fashion, and as a result, may dehumanize them in the process. Previous work studying dehumanization in gaming has found outcomes related to moral disengagement and isolation. Recent research, however, found fantasy football participants actually humanize their own fantasy athletes over non-fantasy athletes. The current study looked to confirm the previous work and extend it to the context of fantasy baseball. Two samples of fantasy participants (football and baseball) were tested from a mechanistic dehumanization perspective. The results provide an opportunity for broadcasters, developers, teams, leagues, and even athletes to capitalize on the unique relationship between fantasy participants and professional athletes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Traditional team fandom is a vital component of contemporary spectator sport marketing and communication. However, fantasy sport has recently emerged as a potential threat to team fandom, particularly with regard to the interactivity provided by the virtual game. Research has found evidence that fantasy sport can be both a substitute and a complement to traditional team fandom. However, with limited control over traditional team outcomes and perceived control over fantasy team outcomes, interactivity has emerged as a potential differentiator between the two forms of fandom. Guided by the fantasy football participation and consumption model and endowment theory, the current study conducted an implicit association experiment on the interactivity and passiveness of contemporary professional sport fandom. These results were combined with self-report data to explore potential indicators of implicit bias. The experiment uncovered an association of interactivity to favorite team players and passiveness to fantasy team players. The post hoc examination of potential predictors found the drive to compete, and in-season game outcomes positively impacted the unexpected interactivity implicit bias. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]