The commercial and social ascendance of esports has become a source of considerable organisational, industrial, experiential and identity-based concern for those inside and outside the digital gaming field. Indeed, one major concern for self-identifying ‘gamers’ around the world is the extent to which the logics of professionalisation, spectacularisation and rationalisation that pervade contemporary esports will unsettle existing identities within the gaming community. In this study, we draw upon the theories of Paul Ricoeur to provide a narratological analysis of the stories gamers tell themselves about themselves on the social media platform Reddit—and in so doing explicate the politics of inclusion and exclusion imbedded in these stories. We investigate how story-narrative is utilised to mark boundaries in rhythm with, or in opposition to, the commercial, cultural and identity politics which gamers perceive are infiltrating the online gaming field. Based on our analysis, it becomes clear that Reddit users actively use the medium to promote a dominant politics of gender- and investment-based inclusion/exclusion. We conclude with a discussion on the complexities of digital community identity and the challenges seemingly democratic media technologies such as Reddit present for those seeking to promote egalitarian and inclusive spaces of digital play.

Recently, private and State actors within the Chinese economy have increasingly taken ownership of (or established other financial relationships with) major football clubs across Asia and Europe. In this study, we provide an abductive interpretation of a) the extent to which capital investitures in the sport are linked to State mandates to grow influence in the game in China and abroad and b) how, by investing in these clubs, business actors are able to strategically ensconce themselves in political capital-yielding social networks. We use the concept of guanxi—or relationship building through gifting and reciprocity—to theorize the machinations through which these networks are formed. We then utilize social network analysis to map how, amidst shifting State mandates, private actors have mobilized football-based capital as a form of gifting to (re)assemble football-based networks that strategically position their firms in configurations that might maximize political capital.

In this study, we present three ‘embodiments’ of post-reform footballing China. Starting in 2015, the Chinese Football Association (CFA) initiated a series of reforms to advance player development, increase international success, and broaden the cultural appeal and commercial aspects of the sport. During this time, key footballing bodies have been incorporated into mediatization processes as a way of apprising the public about the state of these initiatives. In this study, we examine how individual players, national teams, and the commercial status of the game – as positioned in political and public discourse – articulate back to narratives and framings of: 1) what it means to represent China; 2) China’s ascendency in the global political economy; and 3) how sport as political technology is leveraged in debates about sovereignty and cultural belonging. These three body types reveal a heterogenous, complex, and contested relationality of bodies, cultural representation, and the political mediatized of the footballing State.

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.

The purpose of this paper is to examine influence strategies in organization-stakeholder relationships, by examining the National Basketball Association (NBA) and Anschutz Entertainment Group’s (AEG) involvement in the operations of MasterCard Center in Beijing, China. Using Frooman’s model of stakeholder influence strategies, a case study of AEG and the NBA China was undertaken, relying on archival sources and interviews with key stakeholders. The study produced two major findings. First, Bloomage employed different influence strategies to press the NBA and AEG to further reduce their involvement in the MasterCard Center’s operations. Second, Bloomage used cultural differences to justify the need to reduce its reliance on the NBA and AEG. The study adds to the literature on stakeholder theory and sport organizations by examining organizations establishing themselves in foreign markets, and the influence strategies employed by key local stakeholders.