Andy Devaney
For anyone still under the impression that modern sports fan engagement begins and ends with the scoreboard, Dizplai’s latest analysis arrives like a cold bucket of water to the face. The company’s review of more than 16,000 fan comments from some of the world’s biggest sporting spectacles suggests that what truly stirs audiences is not always the sporting action itself, but the human theatre attached to it: reputations, rivalries, redemption arcs and the endless courtroom drama of public opinion.
In other words, the goal, the touchdown, the sprint and the chequered flag still matter. But for vast numbers of viewers, they are only the opening act.
Dizplai, which positions itself as a strategic growth partner for audience engagement, analysed 16,295 fan comments from video coverage around the UEFA Nations League Final 2025, the UEFA Women’s EURO Final 2025, the Super Bowl 2026, the 2024 Paris Olympics 100m Final and the Formula One World Championship 2025.
Its conclusion is hard to ignore. Across all five events, nearly 36% of audience interaction centred on judging athletes and debating their stories. That made narrative-driven discussion the single largest category of fan conversation.
There is a lesson in that for publishers, broadcasters, teams and leagues. Sport may still be the stage, but the cast has become the obsession.
The action is live, but the conversation is personal
This is where the old broadcast model starts to wheeze a bit. For years, coverage was built on the assumption that fans came for the event and stayed for the analysis. Increasingly, that looks backwards.
What people want now is participation. They want to weigh in on who deserves praise, who deserves criticism, who is clutch, who is overrated and who has somehow become a folk hero by Tuesday afternoon. The comment section has become a grandstand, a pub argument and a jury box all at once.
Ed Abis, CEO of Dizplai, says: “Fans don’t just react to what happened in the game. They react to the people involved. Rivalries, reputations and redemption stories are what drive conversation and keep audiences engaged long after the event ends.”
That is not merely a neat line. It is the spine of the data.
For media companies trying to improve reach, retention and monetisation, the signal is obvious enough to be seen from space. Audience engagement in sport now thrives on personality-led storytelling, live reaction and the social layer that sits on top of every major contest.
Men’s and women’s football are sparking different conversations
The study also found a notable split in how audiences engage with men’s and women’s football coverage.
Coverage of the UEFA Nations League Final 2025 produced stronger emotional responses and more narrative-heavy commentary. That makes sense. Men’s international football has had decades to build grudges, myths and scar tissue. The rivalries are older, the reputations more fixed, and supporters arrive armed with memory like a blunt instrument.
The UEFA Women’s EURO Final 2025, by contrast, drew more analytical discussion. Fans talked tactics, coverage quality and accessibility in greater numbers. There was also more tribal and cultural debate, which suggests the women’s game is being watched not only as competition, but as a barometer of visibility, growth and how seriously the sport is still taken in the public square.
That is an important distinction. It shows that sports fan engagement is not one-size-fits-all. Different audiences behave differently depending on the maturity of the sport, the visibility of its stars and the wider cultural conversation surrounding the event.
Formula One has become episodic sport
Then there is Formula One, which appears to have leapt the fence altogether and wandered into serialised entertainment.
According to the analysis, 46% of comments during coverage of the Formula One World Championship 2025 focused on drivers and their personal narratives. That figure sits comfortably above the cross-sport average and well ahead of team-based properties such as the Super Bowl 2026, where personality-driven discussion accounted for just over 30% of engagement.
It is not difficult to see why. Formula One lends itself to character study. The drivers are visible, the rivalries are marketable, the politics are relentless and the season unfolds like a long, expensive family argument with carbon fibre.
Abis says: “Formula One increasingly behaves like episodic entertainment. Fans follow the characters, the rivalries and the season-long storylines as much as the racing itself.”
Quite right. In F1, the race is often only part of the plot. The real hook is continuity: who slighted whom, who cracked under pressure, who outfoxed the pit wall, who is building a legacy and who is busy setting fire to one.
What publishers and broadcasters should do with this
This is where the findings stop being interesting and start being useful.
Dizplai’s research sits within its broader “Harness the Hype” initiative, which looks at how media brands can turn major sporting moments into interactive video and live formats shaped by actual fan conversation. The point is not simply to gather comments and admire them. It is to build content around the themes audiences are already discussing.
That means leaning into player narratives, rivalry-based formats, live debate, emotional reaction and audience participation. It means recognising that fan comments are not just noise beneath the video player. They are editorial intelligence.
Used properly, they can help shape studio segments, social clips, second-screen experiences and live shows that feel less like top-down broadcasting and more like a conversation with the crowd.
And that is the commercial angle too. Better audience insight can produce stickier content, stronger repeat viewing and more valuable sponsorship opportunities. When broadcasters understand what sparks reaction, they stand a better chance of keeping attention once the final whistle has gone and the highlights package has already done its rounds.
“The days of the one-way broadcast are over. Our data proves that for teams, leagues, and broadcasters, the game itself is the backdrop to the real action: the human narrative. Fandom has evolved into a high-velocity, two-way conversation where fans aren’t just watching players; they are debating their legacies and reputations in real-time. If you aren’t capturing that conversation and weaving those player stories back into your content, you’re missing the heartbeat of your audience and the commercial value that comes with it.”
The scoreboard still matters, but it is no longer enough
There is no need to get melodramatic about it. Sport has not stopped being about winning and losing. A gold medal still matters. A title still matters. A final still matters.
But if this analysis shows anything, it is that the modern audience does not consume sport in neat little boxes anymore. They watch the contest, then they watch each other reacting to it. They argue over legacy before the confetti has landed. They turn athletes into protagonists and comment feeds into after-hours panels.
That is the new shape of sports fan engagement. Not passive. Not polite. Not especially patient.
For broadcasters and publishers, the message is simple enough. Cover the action, certainly. But understand that the human story is what keeps the conversation alive, keeps the audience nearby and, increasingly, keeps the business moving.
