Ghost games and ex-post viewing preferences for the English Premier League: Evidence from YouTube highlights

Butler, David; Butler, Robert W.

doi:10.1016/j.serev.2023.100012

Cited by 3 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 23 publications

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“…This indicates that fans prefer to watch highlight clips and post comments when the underdogs defeat the favorites. This result is consistent with the one in Butler and Butler ( 2023 ), and supports the arguments presented by Card and Dahl ( 2011 ), Ge ( 2018 ), and Matti ( 2021 ) that an unexpected outcome (i.e., a game with upset result) can activate an emotional cue and influence the subsequent actions of the fans. In our context, the unexpected wins and losses might have generated emotional cues, triggering the subsequent behavior of watching highlights and posting comments.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 91%

“…A few recent studies have tried to explain the esports industry (Newman et al, 2022 ) and esports viewership (Watanabe et al, 2021 ). Most recently, Wang ( 2022 ) examined esports replay viewership data, focusing on the evidence supporting skill-based star effect and Butler and Butler ( 2023 ) tested the relationship between English Premier League highlight viewership and closed door games without attendance during the COVID-19 pandemic.…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Unlike studies on live attendance and TV viewership, highlights viewers decide to watch highlights after a game finished; therefore, factors determined after the match could affect viewership (Han et al, 2021 ; Salaga et al, 2022 ; Butler and Butler, 2023 ). For after-the-game factors, we include upset results, in-game statistics, and match duration.…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Missed a live match? Determinants of League of Legends Champions Korea highlights viewership

Ryu,

Hwang,

Jeong

et al. 2023

Front. Psychol.

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This research aims to explore the determinants of the League of Legends Champions Korea (LCK) highlight views and comment counts. The data of 629 game highlight views and comment counts for seven tournaments were collected from YouTube. The highlight views and comment counts were regressed on a series of before-the-game factors (outcome uncertainty and game quality), after-the-game factors (sum and difference of kills, assists, multiple kills, and upset results), and match-related characteristics (game duration, evening game, and clip recentness). A multi-level least square dummy variable regression was conducted to test the model. Among the before-the-game factors, outcome uncertainty and game quality were significantly associated with highlight views and comment counts. This indicated that fans liked watching games with uncertain outcomes and those involving high-quality teams. Among the after-the-game factors, an upset result was a significant determinant of esports highlight views and comment counts. Thus, fans enjoy watching underdogs win. Finally, the sum of kills and assists only affected view counts, which indicated that fans prefer watching offensive games with more kills and a solo performance rather than teamwork.

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