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The purpose of this study was to examine whether anti-transgender rights legislation among state legislators is associated with increased suicide- and depression-related Internet searches. Employing a quasi-experimental non-equivalent control group design, we focused on bills that were introduced to state legislatures from July 2019 to July 2020. As our panel is constructed of 51 states/territories over a 52-week time frame, our final dataset is composed of 2,652 observations. Results showed that states’ passing of anti-transgender rights bills were linked with suicide- and depression-related Internet searches. Second, introducing or debating the bills did not have an association with Internet searches. Third, the defeat of anti-transgender bills was linked with fewer depression-related searches. Finally, the LGBT context in the state affected the results: anti-transgender legislation had a particularly strong association with suicide-related Internet searches when the state had a high LGBT population density.

Esports—a professionalized, commercialized, and spectatorial form of video game competition—is a burgeoning industrial sector that has relied on entrepreneurial community support and multi-platform media distribution modalities to catalyze its growth. In particular, the esports industry is increasingly turning towards grassroots crowdfunding to gain access to financial resources that can be used to facilitate tournament prizes. However, what remains unclear is which factors contribute to grassroots esports crowdfunding campaigns’ success. We used social exchange theory to identify important social and economic attributes that may influence the outcomes of esports crowdfunding projects. For methods, we scraped crowdfunding data from Matcherino using Octoparse 8. A total of 14,497 esports crowdfunding projects were analyzed by using multiple regression analysis, as well as robustness checks that were estimated through machine learning techniques. We find that equal distribution of prize rewards, the endorsement of big brand sponsors, and genres of games significantly influence the success of esports crowdfunding. This contributes to our theoretical understanding of 1) the process of esports crowdfunding campaigns as a complex mechanism that incorporates financial incentives and social values, 2) esports as an emerging industry that is institutionalizing, 3) the heterogeneity of genre-based community, and 4) the importance of distributive justice of prize rewards for organizing grassroots esports tournaments and events. Furthermore, we discussed methodological implications regarding the use of econometrics approach and machine learning for future crowdfunding and esports research as well as managerial implications for esports entrepreneurs, esports teams and organizations, and sponsors and investors in terms of developing strategies tailored to the dynamics of esports communities.

In 2022, a call for nominations for the PSA was sent out by the ESEA Board to ESEA members. Brad has researched topics as diverse as competitive balance (e.g., Humphreys, 2002); the financing of sports stadia and potential growth effects (e.g., Coates & Humphreys, 1999b; 2003, 2008); health and sport participation (e.g., Huang & Humphreys, 2012; Humphreys et al., 2014); gambling and betting (e.g., Humphreys & Perez, 2012; Humphreys et al., 2011); athlete behavior, contest behavior, and reputational impacts (e.g., Price et al., 2010; Soebbing et al., 2013); and so on. [...]as well as providing robust empirical insight and commentary on these topics, Brad has also innovated theoretically and methodologically, whether it be the development of a full theoretical model of sports participation behavior (Humphreys & Ruseski, 2011), measuring competitive balance (Humphreys, 2002), or integrating behavioral economics into the analysis of sport (e.g., Coates et al., 2014). Brad has held visiting positions and taught sports economics and econometrics courses at the University of Paderborn, the German Sport University Cologne, and the University of Salford. [...]he is ever present at ESEA events-giving a keynote at the 2015 ESEA Conference in Zurich-and supporting the development of sports economics in Spain, with Placido Rodríguez and Levi Perez. [...]Brad has reciprocated by ensuring a strong European presence in the United States through the Western Economic Association and encouraging submission and the development of sports economics research in key journals like Contemporary Economic Policy (as editor-in-chief) and Economic Inquiry-to reach beyond field journals like the Journal of Sports Economics and the International Journal of Sport Finance.

Sport demand literature notes multiple sources of demand for a sport product. Two forms of direct demand come in the form of live attendance by patrons and purchases of pay-per-view (PPV) to watch sporting contest through a television set (Borland & Macdonald, 2003). That is, attendance and PPV purchases are both direct consumption of the sporting product. Recent theoretical discussion has noted the importance understanding both live attendees and television viewers of sport events in order for organizations to behave more strategically (Budzinski & Satzer, 2011). This study attempts to examine two sources of direct demand for the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), one of the most popular combat sport organizations in the world. Prior research into the UFC has provided individual examinations of single sources of demand for televised events (Watanabe, 2012) or attending events in person (Tainsky et al., 2012). This research examines events from 2001 through 2012 and finds that an individual sport product may have different determinants for live attendance and television viewership.

PurposeUtilizing the capital asset pricing model (CAPM), the purpose is to analyze whether the stock prices of the corporation that owns sport teams fluctuate based on team performance in the Chinese Super League (CSL).Design/methodology/approachSeveral CSL teams are publicly owned corporations. As such, the authors look to see if on-field performance impacts the stock price of the firms. Using the news model from previous research, seemingly unrelated regressions are estimated on CSL games from 2014 through 2017.FindingsThe results from the main models indicate some evidence of a statistical relationship between on-field team performance and stock price. Furthermore, the findings for individual teams across markets did not hold consistent across different markets. More specifically, the authors found some instances where successful on-field performance led to a decline in stock prices.Originality/valueThe present study further contributes to the growing literature related to on-field performance and stock prices. Unlike previous research, the use of the CSL as the empirical setting provides the opportunity to use multiple stock markets which provides an opportunity to further examine this relationship. Finally, the study contributes broadly to the literature on professional sports ownership structures around the world.

Abstract While much of the focus on professional sport is divided between North America and Europe, there is a growing need to analyze sport leagues and organizations outside of these two regions. In this paper, the J-League, Japan's top flight professional soccer league, is the focus of examination through a seasonal attendance model which seeks to test the importance of region and competitive balance in determining demand for attendance. The results of this model indicate that fans are sensitive to competitive balance, confirming the uncertainty of outcome hypothesis. Furthermore, this paper attempts to look at the differences which occur in the demand for sport from one regional type to another.

Previous research examining referee bias in football (soccer) has not distinguished between incidents (goals, substitutions, fouls, cards) in regulation and in stoppage time. This study examines the determinants of stoppage time seconds in matches of the English Premier League using data from the second half of all close matches of the 2012-2013 and 2013-2014 seasons with a two-goal (n=634) and one-goal differential (n=478). The regression results show that the number of goals scored, substitutions, and yellow cards in the regulation 45 minutes of the second half and in stoppage time have a significant positive effect on stoppage time. Yet, only fouls in stoppage time have a significant positive effect, but not fouls in regulation. Referees awarded more added time for incidents in stoppage time than in regulation. Also, the number of seconds lost for injuries during the second half was not fully mirrored.

This research is a comparison of identification and motivation factors between sports with team as a point of attachment (college football) and sports with an individual athlete as a point of attachment (NASCAR). The results contribute to advancing our understanding of identity formation and spectator motivation. Geography and family were found to be important antecedents of college football team identification, while media influence drove consumer identification with NASCAR drivers. NASCAR sport consumers were prone to watch their sport casually, while college football sport consumers were influenced to watch their sport by the aesthetics of the game, and a relationship to other recreational activities such as tailgating. Findings help us to understand what specific factors play a role in individuals connecting with different types of sport symbols, but also have implications for the management, marketing, communications, and selling of sport and sport-related products.

The growth of the second-hand ticket market has increased the complexity of ticket pricing for sport franchises. In 2007, Major League Baseball (MLB) signed an agreement with StubHub, an online seller of secondhand tickets. Although pricing in MLB has been investigated previously in the literature, price dispersion (i.e., multiple prices for a similar product) and the effects of the second-hand ticket market have been largely neglected. The purpose of this research is to examine the impact of the StubHub agreement on pricing behavior of MLB teams using data from the seasons 1975 to 2010 (except 2009). The results of regression analyses show the StubHub deal had a significant and positive influence on price dispersion, measured by the total number of price levels and the inequality amongst those ticket price levels (Gini coefficient). The findings have implications for the marketing and pricing strategies of professional sport franchises.

This study examined social media posts by athletes from eight nations (Australia, Brazil, Germany Iran, Japan, South Africa, United Kingdom, and United States) with varied applications of the International Olympic Committee Rule 40 during the Tokyo 2020 Summer Olympic Games. Guided by the concept of ambush marketing, we sought to determine to what extent Olympic athletes followed or violated Rule 40 during the Tokyo Games and what impact that had on engagement with their posts. Our quantitative content analysis of 9,387 Instagram posts from 622 athletes revealed that 4.32 percent of posts violated Rule 40, and these posts received significantly less engagement than non-violation posts. Theoretically our findings contribute to the ambush marketing literature by offering confirmation that athletes from several nations engage in ambush marketing via social media, and athletes developed a new way to circumvent Rule 40 by tagging their personal sponsors within images.