Youth sport 2.0? The development of eSports in Norway from 2016 to 2019

ABSTRACT

Digital technology has deeply impacted the ways in which youth play and consume sport as part of their leisure activities. Central to this topic is the rise of new virtually played sports: eSports. eSports has taken the global youth sportscape by storm – so much so that the International Olympic Committee (IOC) are looking to capitalise on its popularity as part of the organisation’s work to make the Olympic Games more attractive to youth. The aim of the current study is to explore the development and expansion of eSports in Norway from 2016 to 2019. This is done through a qualitative content analysis of 102 media texts. The findings reveal a tendency towards eSports gradually being integrated in the Norwegian sports model by local sports clubs. Our material also reveals a shifting trend towards acceptance of eSports as ‘real’ sports. This is particularly evident through the introduction of eSports in the school system and eSerien – a national professional FIFA league organised by the Norwegian Football Federation (NFF). Furthermore, the texts included in the sample also illustrates how some groups of people express resistance towards the growth of eSports in Norway.

KEYWORDS:

• eSports
• sport
• digitalisation
• youth
• technology

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. We have noted that there are different ways of spelling eSports. Although the International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) spelling is ‘Esports’, most scholars seem to use ‘eSports’ (e.g. Hamari and Sjöblom 2017; Jenny et al. 2017; Thiel and John 2018). Therefore, to be in line with the spelling that is most evident in the field of research, we use ‘eSports’ throughout the article.

2. The texts included in Table A1 in the Appendix can be accessed by contacting the authors.

3. By virtual friends we mean friends that you only know through gaming online/digital interaction, but that you have not met in real life.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Anne Tjønndal

Anne Tjønndal is an Associate Professor at the Faculty of Social Sciences, Nord University (Norway). Her academic work focuses on innovation, digitalisation, technology, gender and social inequality in sport. Tjønndal is a member of the Young Academy of Norway (AYF). In 2019 she was awarded the Celia Brackenridge International Research Award for her paper ‘Girls are not made of glass!’: barriers experienced by women in Norwegian Olympic boxing”, published in the Sociology of Sport Journal.

Mads Skauge

Mads Skauge is a PhD candidate in Sociology, Faculty of social sciences, Nord University (Norway). Skauge’s fields of research is youth sports, social inequality and trends in sports, exercise and physical activity.