CONCEPTUAL ANALYSIS article
Front. Sports Act. Living
Sec. Sport, Leisure, Tourism, and Events
Volume 7 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fspor.2025.1547137
This article is part of the Research TopicExploring the Dynamics of Medium and Small Scale Sport Events: Implications for Communities and DevelopmentView all articles
Transformative blockchain technological approaches to sports events
Provisionally accepted
- 1University of Maia, Maia, Portugal
- 2Research Center in Sports Sciences, Health Sciences and Human Development (CIDESD), University of Maia, Maia, Portugal
- 3Laboratory of Exercise and Sports (LABEES), Rio de Janeiro State University (UERJ),, Rio de Janeiro, Paraná, Brazil
- 4Faculty of Human Kinetics, University of Lisbon, Cruz Quebrada - Dafundo, Portugal
- 5Research Center for Tourism, Sustainability, and Wellbeing (CinTurs), University of Algarve, Faro, Portugal
- 6Department of Physical Activity and Sports Sciences, University of Castilla-La Mancha, Todelo, Spain
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The integration of blockchain technology in sports event management represents a significant shift towards more decentralized and efficient governance structures, particularly relevant to small and medium-sized events. Despite growing interest, its practical implementation remains limited and lacks comprehensive theoretical guidance. This study addresses this gap by proposing an integrated theoretical framework, combining the Dynamic Capabilities Framework (DCF), Collaborative Governance Theory (CGT), and the Four Modes of Governance (FMG), to systematically explore blockchain's application within sports event management. Our analysis reveals that blockchain technology can effectively foster transparency, efficiency, and enhanced stakeholder participation through Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAOs). These advantages are realized through key mechanisms of access, control, and incentives, which interact across external environments, governance structures, and blockchain core infrastructure. Furthermore, the study identifies critical managerial implications necessary for successful blockchain implementation, emphasizing strategic infrastructure assessments, stakeholder engagement, and risk management protocols. Ultimately, this research contributes both theoretical insights and practical guidelines, addressing existing knowledge gaps and providing a structured framework for leveraging blockchain in managing small to mediumsized sports events.
Keywords: Decentralized systems, Stakeholder systems, organizational innovations, Smart infrastructure, Digital Event Management
Received: 17 Dec 2024; Accepted: 06 May 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Principe, Ribeiro and Lopez-Carril. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Vitor Principe, University of Maia, Maia, Portugal
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