Comparing Consumers Responses to Esport and Sport Sponsorship: The Effects of Event-Sponsor Fit and Brand Awareness

This study aims to investigate consumer responses to sponsorship across sport and esports context, focusing on the moderating roles of event-sponsor fit and brand awareness. The current study employed a 2 (event type: sport vs. esports) × 2 (event–sponsor fit: high vs. low) × 2 (brand awareness: high vs. low) × 2 (sponsorship presence: yes vs. no) experimental design. Specifically, consistent with prior sponsorship research, football and soccer were selected to represent the sport context, whereas League of Legends and Counter-Strike were selected to represent the esports context. A total of 514 participants were exposed to sponsorship stimuli, after which consumer attitudes, perceived product value, and purchase intentions were measured. The results revealed that consumer responses differed across contexts. In sport context, brand awareness primarily drove consumer responses, with sponsor fit having minimal effect. In esports, event-sponsor fit interacted with brand awareness: well-known brands with high fit generated more favorable responses, while lesser-known, low-fit brands were less effective. High-fit sponsors, regardless of awareness, are recommended for esports to boost visibility and engagement. This study extends sponsorship literature by comparing sponsorship effectiveness across sports and esports while simultaneously examining the combined effects of brand awareness and event-sponsor fit. The findings provide practical guidance for sponsorship strategy development, suggesting that esports sponsorship requires a more strategic alignment of both fit and awareness, whereas sport sponsorship depends primarily on brand awareness.