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1. Introduction
eSports is as “a form of sports where the primary aspects of the sport are facilitated by electronic systems; the input of players and teams as well as the output of the eSports system are mediated by human-computer interfaces.” In more practical terms, eSports commonly refer to competitive (pro and amateur) video gaming that is often coordinated by different leagues, ladders and tournaments, and where players customarily belong to teams or other “sporting” organizations which are sponsored by various business organizations. During recent years, eSports (electronic sports) have become one of the most rapidly growing forms of new media driven by the growing provenance of (online) games and online broadcasting technologies. It has been estimated that more than 70 million people watched eSports during 2013 (Warr, 2014).
Like other media, media content consumption and information technology adoption research, the research on sports consumption and spectatorship is commonly interested in the motivations of why people consume it, how they consume it, as well as what kinds of needs the given form of media/technology might gratify. Thus far, sports consumption research has been mostly conducted in the area of sports management. However, with the rise of eSports, sports are increasingly becoming a computer-mediated form of media and information technology which may entail novel ways of information technology use. This is especially so because eSports media content is conveyed through computerized broadcasting (such as internet streaming), and because the sporting activity itself is computer mediated. This makes eSports an increasingly interesting subject of study for the area of information technology in general.
In this paper we seek to progress both the conceptual understanding of eSports by discussing what eSports is, as well as the understanding of the motivations of eSports consumers by empirically investigating which sports consumption motivations predict how much time people are likely to spend on watching eSports. We employ data from on an online survey that was conducted amongst people who have watched eSports online (n=888).
2. Background
2.1 Defining eSports
eSports have only recently enjoyed wide international adoption, and there is still resistance as to whether eSports can truly be considered as a sport. This conceptual conundrum is a pertinent issue for not only defining eSports, but also for drawing...