Online technologies and sports: A new era for sponsorship

Online digital technologies have proved to be an important aspect of branding as well as international sport sponsorship since they have the capacity to interact with customers on a global scale through an abundance of digital platforms. The assimilation of online digital technologies has altered the way sports are created, promoted, delivered and consumed.

The purpose of this study was to delve more deeply into the main factors of favorable buyer behavior connected to the sponsorship of sports in the online digital framework. In more detail, the effect of four antecedents variables (i.e. fans' degree of involvement with sport, their degree of attachment with their favorite club, their beliefs about sponsorship in general as well as the frequency of their visits to sport club's online social networks and website pages) on the two main intermediate variables (i.e. fans' awareness of and attitude towards sponsors) and their subsequent impact on fans' purchase intentions regarding sponsors' goods and services. A quantitative approach was used for the purposes of the current research and 3.434 questionnaires were collected by fans who attend sport online with the use of digital/portable devices, which were successfully analyzed by SPSS and AMOS. In accordance with the outcomes, determinants such as sports club attachment, sports involvement and beliefs about sponsorship were discovered to greatly affect supporters ‘awareness of as well as their attitude towards sponsoring companies. In addition, outcomes revealed that supporters’ buying aim was significantly influenced with regard to their attitude towards sponsoring companies as well as their awareness of sponsoring companies.