Identifying the Opportunities of Gamification in Sport Context: A Thematic Analysis

The purpose of this study was to identify the opportunities of gamification in sport context. This study was a qualitative and exploratory research conducted by applying a thematic analysis method. The statistical population consisted of faculty members from various subfields of sport sciences, and ۱۲ experts were interviewed as a statistical sample through snowball sampling until reaching the theoretical saturation. The validity and reliability of the study were evaluated and confirmed by using Guba and Lincoln (۱۹۸۹) method. The thematic analysis of the data by Braun and Clarke's (۲۰۰۶) method led to the extraction of ۵۲ codes, sixteen sub-themes and five main themes. The findings indicated that "Targeted and Sustainable Development of Sports in Society", "Entrepreneurship and Development of Sports Businesses", "Development of Event and Fan Management", "Educational Transformation in Sports Learning", as well as "Digital Transformation in Sports Organizations" are the main themes of the research and for each of the main themes, a number of sub-themes were extracted according to their semantic and conceptual similarity. The findings indicate that these five main themes demonstrate a development cycle. Together, these constitute an evolutionary and reinforcing cycle that begins at the individual level and expands to the macro levels of the industry and organization—a cycle for which gamification can provide significant potential opportunities at each stage.