Participatory Culture of Sport

What does it mean to be involved in a sports online?
This Wikia will focus on the participatory culture of sports fans in the online world. it will also discuss how sports have created online communities through video games, pools, sports betting sites.

The platforms I am going to look at are those of office pools, and daily draft sites such as draft kings. Office pools are often involve an online site where you can keep track of your player/team stats that take place over the course of a season or playoff period. Where as sites like Draft Kings have found a loophole in the rules against online gambling and are on daily/gamely basis. The communities involved in these platforms are massive and filled with sports fans and stats wizards that may not even like sports at all.

Why is it important?
The increased popularity of these online sports betting sites has created a new type of sporting culture, where pride isn’t the only thing on the line. People are betting money everyday on point spreads and player achievements. People make thousands of dollars a year doing this, but for someone too be that successful, that means other have to be equally unsuccessful.

How Will We Learn About The Effects of Online Sports Communities?
By looking at the effects sites like Draft Kings have had on sports, be it the people that participate in the daily betting, the sports stations that now have betting advice, the nature of sport and how it is no longer only about pride and passion, but now the everyday Joe has much more invested in that, “Kansas vs. New York” game.

I will reference a video from Trevor Noah outlining a lot of the flaws of the online draft services. There are multiple articles outlining the FBI’s investigation into their business model and whether or not they are breaking rules of online gambling.

I will also ask friends and family for their take on the situation. Do they participate? Have they been successful? Do they consider it to be the same as actual gambling?

I will also look at the Nico Carpentier reading on Participatory Culture and how these sites thrive off of the participation of the public, and through the already created passion for sport combined by the incentive of money.