THE DIGITAL DEVELOPMENT OF EU MEMBER STATES AND ITS EFFECT ON ESPORT PERFORMANCE

The examination of sports performance in relation to various macroeconomic variables has long occupied researchers in the field of sports economics. Similar interest surrounds esports, which has become one of the fastest developing types of "new media" in recent years. In esports, as well as in the video game industry besides creative content production, technology and digitization play a decisive role. In our research, we draw a parallel between digitization, the economy and sports performance in an area researched by relatively few. Based on the Digital Society and Economy Composite Index (DESI) published annually by the European Commission, we examine the digitization of the Member States of the European Union and whether a link can be found between esports performance and the digital development of each Member State. In the first part of the research cluster analysis was used in order to map the pattern of digital development across the EU, where four main direction was found, based on which four groups, namely “digital winners”, “digital laggards”, “technology-“ and “user focused” states were identified. After which regression analysis was used in order to examine whether digital development has any effect on esports performance.