Smart Sports Fans: Factors Influencing Sport Consumption on Smartphones

Sylvia Chan-Olmsted and Min Xiao

Smartphones are playing pivotal roles in sports fans’ media consumption journey. However, what motivates sports fans to use smartphones for sports; what are some of the behavioral factors that influence sports consumption on smartphones; how smartphone use for sports is related to other media usage; and how fandom interacts with motivational and behavioral factors still remains unclear to academic scholars. An online survey (n = 646) was conducted to uncover the factors influencing sports consumption on smartphones. The results revealed that the motivator of acquiring information related to the sports, the behaviors of basking in reflected glory (BIRGing), as well as social sports participation, and the usage of websites, streaming videos, social media, radio, newspaper, and fantasy sports are factors that influence the consumption of sports on smartphones.

DOI: http://doi.org/10.32731/SMQ.284.122019.01