FiT Publishing

In-game promotions are a marketing mainstay designed to entertain spectators at sporting events as part of the total entertainment environment (Veeck, 1996). Spectator sporting events are designed as experiences that should never let spectators become bored (Brown & Kreutzer, 2002). As a result, there has been an increase over time in the number and variety of promotional activities held during sporting events. From “Kiss Cams” to mascot and dizzy bat races, the number and variety of promotional activities held during a game seems never ending (Crenshaw, 2014)Read more

The use of social media as a communication tool to engage others has rapidly proliferated over the past decade (Wallace, Wilson, & Miloch, 2011). According to the Pew Research Center, 73% of all online adults were using social media as of September 2013 (Brenner, 2013). Facebook leads the way with 71% of all online adults using the platform in 2013; however, a growing number of individuals are also using other emerging platforms such as LinkedIn (22%), Pinterest (21%), and Twitter (18%) (Duggan & Smith, 2013). Further, approximately 42% used multiple social media platforms (Duggan...Read more

On February 15, 2013, Heisman Trophy winner Johnny Manziel’s licensing company, JMAN2 Enterprises LLC, filed suit against Eric Vaughn, who had been selling a variety of shirts that featured the phrase “Keep Calm and Johnny Football” with various uses of Texas A&M’s color scheme and/or protected logos (Watson, 2013a). Manziel filed to register a trademark in his nickname “Johnny Football” during the 2012 season prior to winning the Heisman Trophy (the trademark registration was still pending approval before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office [USPTO] at the time of this writing). His...Read more

Can a high demand sporting event institute a random selection process to distribute tickets and create revenue while doing so? Recently, the NCAA was sued for using such a ticket distribution method (George v. NCAA, 2011). The plaintiffs to the lawsuit claimed the NCAA ran an illegal lottery by charging a non-refundable handling fee for all ticket requests, including those that were not able to be met due to the high consumer demand. Ultimately, the Indiana Supreme Court held the NCAA’s actions did not legally constitute a lottery, and thus the NCAA’s ticket distribution method was allowed...Read more

Social media provides brands with “personal, trusted, and direct” connectivity to consumers (Drury, 2008, p. 277). Through social media, brands are able to target specific consumer demographics about new and existing products, thereby increasing the likelihood of purchase of those products. With more than 1 billion active users (“Facebook Newsroom,” 2012), Facebook has become a leader in social media and an important vehicle through which sport marketers connect their brands with consumers. From the London 2012 Olympics alone, brands saw significant growth in fan interaction on Facebook....Read more

In 2012, Nike became the first company in the United Kingdom to have a Twitter campaign banned after the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA), the U.K.’s equivalent of the United States’ Federal Trade Commission, held that soccer star Wayne Rooney had violated rules for clearly communicating to the public that his tweets were advertisements for Nike (Furness, 2012). Nike, through its endorsement deal with Rooney, encouraged Rooney to engage in Twitter messaging as part of its wider “Make It Count” advertising campaign. Rooney’s tweet, which went out to his 4.37 million followers, said: “...Read more

Michael Jeffrey Jordan. MJ. Air Jordan. No. 23. Six-time NBA Champion. Six-time NBA Finals Most Valuable Player. Five-time NBA Most Valuable Player of the Year. Ten-time NBA scoring champion. Naismith College Player of the Year. Two-time Olympic gold medalist. NBA Hall of Famer. Who would not want to pay homage to arguably the greatest player in NBA history? In tribute to Jordan’s induction into the Hall of Fame, a grocery store’s advertisement tried to do just that.Read more

Can the local newspaper simply show up at a post-season high school football game, set up a video camera and live stream the entire game on its website … all under the banner of the First Amendment? That was the crux of the issue in a federal court case decided this past summer (WIAA v. Gannett Co., 2011). At stake was the ability of the Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association (WIAA), the governing body for middle and high school athletics in the state of Wisconsin, to exclusively sell the video rights to its post-season tournament games.Read more

The U.S. Supreme Court’s recent decision in American Needle v. National Football League is not the “death knell” of collective licensing agreements in sports, but it will hold the NFL and other professional sports entities to a higher level of antitrust scrutiny than they had hoped. The issue in American Needle v. National Football League was whether the NFL’s collective licensing arm, NFL Properties, LLC (NFLP), was a single entity, and therefore, exempt from antitrust liability under Section 1 of the Sherman Antitrust Act. Section 1 deems “[e]very contract, combination in the form of a...Read more

The Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act of 1992 (PASPA) prohibits state lotteries that employ a wagering scheme related to the outcome of sports contests (Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act, 2010). Four states (Oregon, Nevada, Delaware, and Montana) which had operated sports betting schemes before the passage of PASPA were provided a limited exemption from PASPA. PASPA “grandfathered” gambling schemes in these states “to the extent that the scheme was conducted by that State” between 1976 and 1990. Following the passage of PASPA, only two states, Nevada and Oregon,...Read more