Sport Business Research

Big and medium size sporting events provide both direct spending opportunities for sport tourists and indirect benefits for the hosting economy such as post-event tourism related destination awareness and improvements in infrastructure. Sport Business by Jamk has researched multiple sports events from different viewpoints, including e.g. fan surveys, customer satisfaction surveys, economic impact studies, brand image and customer experiences. The research data has given different sport organisations an opportunity to develop their events further, and due to the online Webropol survey model, react instantly to the customer feedback.

In the field of Sport Business, Jamk offers Bachelor’s, Master’s, short-term and specialiced study programmes. Our partners are universities in Finland and abroad, sport clubs, sport companies, national and international associations, governmental institutions and the Research Institute of Olympic Sports in Finland. Students have participated in international research projects, such as the 2010 FIFA World Cup, South Africa, WRC FIA World Rally Championships 2012, 2012/13 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championships, Finland and Sweden, 2014 Field Hockey World Championships, the Netherlands.

Our Sport Business experts have collaborated with many international universities and research institutions in sport event research, EU-projects and multiple development projects. Important local partners for us are Finnish Research Institute for Olympic Sports, WRC Rally Finland, JYP Ice Hockey team, Finnish Athletics Federation, Ice Hockey Federation, Football Federation, Basketball Federation and many other sport organizations. Important research and development partners have also been the city of Jyväskylä and the Regional Council of Central Finland.

eSports is growing fast globally, and its importance as a new sports discipline has been widely recognized. Our Sport Business experts have been in forefront in researching this promising business sector in Finland. In 2018, our Sport Business team conducted a national study investigating the structure and volume of the eSports industry in Finland. This survey was targeted to key stakeholders operating within the eSports, retail, professional gaming and game development sector but also electronic games players in Finland. We will continue eSports study in national and international research projects together with other research institutes and eSports organisations.

During the 9 years of collaboration with the WRC Finland rally organizer AKK Sport Ltd., our Sport Business team has conducted several research projects involving rally organizer's strategic business partners, event economic impact for the host city region, rally brand image and spectator values, non-spectator survey, and multiple customer surveys. This long term collaboration with the WRC Rally Finland organizer is a good example of determined event development by using research data.