Are university students living in a world of fantasy? Fantasy football motives among students at a South African university of technology

The online sport phenomenon and fantasy sport, in particular, has gained unprecedented popularity in many countries, including South Africa. The primary purpose of the study was to identify the motives behind fantasy football consumption among university students. The secondary objective of this study was to establish the existence of any gender-based differences in the identified motives. A quantitative research approach was applied using a survey method. A self-administered questionnaire was distributed to a sample of 193 respondents. Through factor analysis, a five-factor structure was developed, namely eustress, achievement, aesthetics, enjoyment and ease of use, comprising 20 items. Adequate internal reliability of the scale was established at a Cronbach alpha value above 0.70 on all five factors. The correlations analyses suggest that there is a concurrence among the five motives and fantasy football participation. In addition, independent sample t-tests were applied and statistically significant (p < 0.05) gender-based differences were noted on only three dimensions; eustress, achievement/reward and enjoyment. These findings present novel implications and further lend credence to the existence of heterogenous beliefs regarding the views of males and females when participating in fantasy football on various websites. Therefore, upon understanding the reasons why young players participate in fantasy sports, sport businesses can specifically cater to the needs of a desired target market by aligning the fantasy sport website positioning strategy to the needs of the users. In this way, such enactment may contribute towards enhancing the usability and intrigue associated with the uptake of fantasy football in South Africa.Keywords: Fantasy football, motives, eustress, achievement, aesthetics, enjoyment, ease of use