The Center focuses on the following main domains; however, this is not an exhaustive list. Additional relevant fields and detailed topics may be added depending on the researchers’ area of expertise:
Data Analytics and Computing; Socio-Cultural; Policy and Regulation; Behavioral Science; Health; Business and the Digital Economy; and Entrepreneurship and Career Preparation.
The Center invites research proposals that address problems in the Center’s research domains. Seed funding will be available for robust research proposals that add to the body of knowledge and have potential positive impact.
Data Analytics & Computing
The goal of the Data Analytics research area is to study sports outcome and prediction models. The following research topics need to be addressed:
- Identifying indicators of player and team performance
- Developing sensors to monitor players and spectators
- Visualization techniques for displaying multimodal datasets
- Software architectures for modeling the outcomes of sports competitions
- Metaverse and Digital transformation.
Socio-Cultural
The focus of the Socio-Cultural research area is identifying which groups and communities are most likely to accept and engage in sports gaming and eSports. This requires addressing questions regarding sports gaming and eSports:
- Demographic and socioeconomic differences in engagement
- Cultural differences in the perception and acceptance of activities
- Developing social network analysis methods to identify how relations influence engagement and acceptance of activities
Policy & Regulation
The goal of the Policy and Regulation research area is to forecast the impact of State and Federal regulations on sports gaming and eSports activities. Corresponding research topics include:
- Identifying ethical issues involved in sports gaming and eSports competitions
- Developing intellectual property rights and data governance frameworks for sports gaming and eSports
- Investigating how changes in the regulatory environment impact sports gaming and eSports organizations and participants
Behavioral Science
The goal of the Behavioral Science research area is to develop cognitive training to enhance sports gaming and eSports decision-making. Research to identify:
- Psychological predictors of sports gaming and eSports player and team success
- Developing cognitive models of sports wagering
- Modeling cognitive processes used during eSports competitions
- Identifying the psychological impact of maladaptive social and environmental factors such as player and spectator toxic behaviors.
Health
The Health research area focuses on the physical and mental health issues related to sports gaming and eSports. The goal is to identify individuals vulnerable to developing mental (e.g., gambling addiction) and physical ailments when engaging in sports gaming and eSports. By doing so, prevention, detection, and treatment methods can be developed. Reaching this goal requires:
- Identifying the risk factors to developing problematic behaviors when engaging in sports gaming and eSports
- Comparing the development of gambling addiction with sports gaming to traditional gambling
- Investigating protective factors and interventions that reduce the chance of developing problematic behaviors in sports gaming and eSports.
Business & the Digital Economy
The Center’s Business and the Digital Economy research area aims to identify opportunities to create ventures, improve operational performance, develop innovations and determine the impact of sports gaming and eSports. Research topics include:
- Dynamic pricing models
- Applications of blockchain technology such as tokenization and NFT
- Evaluating the economic impact of sports gaming and eSports
- Entrepreneurship models to monetize said activities
Entrepreneurship & Career Preparation
With the recent and rapid development of sports gaming and eSports, the Career Preparation research area aims to identify learning approaches for training students to become professionals in sports gaming and eSports. This goal includes:
- Investigating strategies to increase the diversity of sports gaming and eSports professionals
- Researching the knowledge and skillsets that are predictive of eSports and sports gaming professional success
- Evaluating the effectiveness of curricula for the different career paths available for eSports and sports gaming