Hype or opportunity? Tokenization as engagement platform in sport marketing
International Journal of Sports Marketing and Sponsorship
ISSN: 1464-6668
Article publication date: 27 April 2023
Issue publication date: 11 October 2023
Abstract
Purpose
Novel technologies such as tokenization have the potential to disrupt value co-creation in sport marketing. Tokenization in particular has generated a hype in sport marketing by facilitating engagement behavior. However, it remains unclear to what extent tokenization can serve as an engagement platform to enable new and innovative interactions between sport organizations and its network of actors.
Design/methodology/approach
The study investigated a tokenized governance platform of a professional sport club as engagement platform by means of a case study applying a multi-method approach combining document analyses and semi-structured interviews with sport management, sport club fans and blockchain experts.
Findings
Governance tokens indeed foster fan engagement by including fans in decision-making processes. The engagement platform is meant to enable two-way communication between fans and professional sport clubs. However, benefits could be overrated, and fans describe concerns about increasing commercialization due to the application of governance tokens. Thus, opportunities must be balanced out to foster engagement of sport club fans.
Originality/value
The findings contribute to extending the phenomenon of tokenization as a financing model and engagement platform in sport marketing. The results show how tokenized governance platforms can be applied in sport marketing and how they contribute to value co-creation in the digital world of sport clubs.
Keywords
Citation
Stegmann, P., Matyas, D. and Ströbel, T. (2023), "Hype or opportunity? Tokenization as engagement platform in sport marketing", International Journal of Sports Marketing and Sponsorship, Vol. 24 No. 4, pp. 722-736. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJSMS-08-2022-0157
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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