About the lecture:
Innovation in sports and the emergence of virtual Sports as leisure sports offer – opportunities and pitfalls for sport clubs and sport policy
Thibault’s research on sport innovation considers the emergence of Virtual Sports for leisure sport offers. Virtual Sports are mixed reality sports games (e.g. Zwift virtual cycling, sport climbing using LED-projections) that are in between casual exergaming and competitive eSports in that they utilise features and principles of both. This novel combination introduces opportunities, but also potential pitfalls, for new sports formats and Sport-for-All policy design and implementation. Different perspectives on virtual sports, ranging from commercial to social inclusive ones, are discussed within the broader view of organisational innovation for non-profit, governmental, and voluntary sport organisations and clubs.
About Thibault:
Thibault Fouquaert is PhD researcher and teaching assistant at the Sports Management Group of Ghent University, Belgium. His PhD focus on the digitalisation and gamification of leisure sports from a Sport-for-All and organisational innovation perspective for sport organisations. He presented his work mainly at the European Sports Management Conferences. His interests revolve around the topics of innovation, strategy, business models, technology and triathlon, while his background is in Business Economics (Ma), Communication Sciences (Ma) and Computer Sciences (Ba).
