CONCEPTUAL ANALYSIS article
Front. Sports Act. Living
Sec. Sports Management, Marketing, and Economics
This article is part of the Research TopicShaping Tomorrow: Trends and Transformation in the Sports IndustryView all 6 articles
Sports Industry 5.0: Reimagining Sport through Technology, Humanity, and Sustainability
Provisionally accepted
- 1Universitetet i Sorost-Norge, Kongsberg, Norway
- 2Université Paris-Saclay, Saint Aubin, France
- 3Higher Colleges of Technology, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
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The sports industry faces converging pressures from digitalization, climate change, and social demands for inclusion and well-being. Existing “Sports 4.0” approaches emphasize efficiency and performance but mostly overlook broader social goals. This paper introduces Sports Industry 5.0 as a conceptual framework that adapts the principles of Industry 5.0 to sport. Unlike prior accounts, we argue that Sports Industry 5.0 is not only an extension of technological innovation but also a reorientation toward human-centricity, sustainability, and resilience across all levels of sport, from elite to grassroots and eSports. The article synthesizes interdisciplinary literature and global examples, while critically addressing risks such as surveillance, greenwashing, and inequities of access. Tables illustrate how Industry 4.0 and 5.0 principles diverge in sports, and case illustrations show how these ideas can be operationalized. We conclude by outlining future research directions, including comparative case studies and cross-cultural analyses, to assess whether Sports Industry 5.0 can function as a universally relevant paradigm.
Keywords: Sports Industry 5.0, Industry 4.0, digital transformation, sustainability, Social Justice, Fan engagement, inclusion, Ethics
Received: 03 Jun 2025; Accepted: 05 Nov 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Madsen and Glebova. 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:
Dag Øivind Madsen, dag.oivind.madsen@usn.no
Ekaterina Glebova, katrina.glebova@universite-paris-saclay.fr
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