Editorial. Covid-19, sport and society

not least, the paper by Mazza and Russo (2022, in this issue) ( ‘ The value of esports football. Towards new models of consumption and participatory experience in Italy ’ ) rounds o ff this themed issue and assesses the topic of esports. The authors focus on the growth of esports because of the suspension of live sporting events during the Covid-19 pandemic and identify a change in the consumption of ‘ mediated ’ sports. While traditional sports ground to a halt, the data highlights how, con-versely, the number of people following e-sports events on streaming platforms such as Twitch increased. Two main aspects emerge from Mazza and Russo ’ s research: fi rstly the ‘ spor-ti fi cation ’ of e-sports as a process of participatory experience within a complementary consumption between football and e-football; and secondly the deepening relationship between sport and esport as a pillar for the development of new business models