Esports Sponsorships: The Double-Edged Sword Effect  of Having a Very Vocal Audience

Freitas, Bruno Duarte Abreu; Contreras-Espinosa, Ruth S.; Correia, Pedro Álvaro Pereira

http://hdl.handle.net/10400.13/5210

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Authors

Freitas, Bruno Duarte Abreu

Contreras-Espinosa, Ruth S.

Correia, Pedro Álvaro Pereira

Abstract(s)

Esports fans have been known for being heavy consumers of compet itive gaming content and for being digital natives who love to comment about esports on numerous social platforms. This has attracted various sponsors inter ested in capitalizing in this social buzz. However, there have been signs that this high vocality can in fact heavily damage several sponsors. Hence, this research aimed to determine if esports fans’ high vocality is a benefit and/or a risk to these sponsors. To achieve this, we adopted a qualitative exploratory design to interview, via digital platforms, 10 esports sponsorship experts. In total, we in terviewed two endemic and three non-endemic esports sponsors and five mar keting agencies with experience in esports sponsorships. They were sampled via a nonprobability purposive heterogeneous method and were reached via the companies’ website contact sections. Data were analyzed with the assistance of NVivo 10. The overall results showed that all experts agreed that this high vo cality can both benefit and damage esports sponsors. The uniformity in the an swers showed that this element is not a greater benefit or risk to a particular type of esports sponsor. Ergo we considered that the high vocality of esports fans is a double-edged sword. This study is necessary because, despite esports’ massive growth, this field has received scant scientific attention, with the spe cific areas of esports marketing and esports sponsorships being even more se verely overlooked. Besides, from a business standpoint, the findings are highly significant for every sponsor looking to better comprehend esports and its fan base

Keywords

Esports Sponsorships Consumer behavior Market analysis Marketing . Escola Superior de Tecnologias e Gestão Faculdade de Ciências Sociais

URI

http://hdl.handle.net/10400.13/5210

Citation

Freitas, B. D. A., Contreras-Espinosa, R. S., & Correia, P. Á. P. (2022, January). Esports Sponsorships: The Double-Edged Sword Effect of Having a Very Vocal Audience. In Videogame Sciences and Arts: 12th International Conference, VJ 2020, Mirandela, Portugal, November 26–28, 2020, Revised Selected Papers (pp. 1-15). Cham: Springer International Publishing.