The purpose of this prospective, randomized study was to determine the efficacy of a prophylactic knee brace to reduce the frequency and severity of acute knee injuries in football in an athletic environment in which the athletic shoe, playing surface, athlete-exposure, knee injury history, and brace assignment were either statistically or experimentally controlled. The participants in the study were 1396 cadets at the United States Military Academy, West Point, New York, who experienced a total of 21,570 athlete-exposures in the 1986 and 1987 fall intramural tackle football seasons. The use of prophylactic knee braces significantly reduced the frequency of knee injuries, both in the total number of subjects injured and in the total number of medial collateral ligament injuries incurred. However, the reduction in the frequency of knee injuries (total and medial collateral ligament) was dependent on player position. Defensive players who wore prophylactic knee braces had statistically fewer knee injuries than players who served as controls. This was not true of offensive players who served as controls; they had statistically no difference in the number of knee injuries from players who wore prophylactic knee braces. The severity of medical collateral ligament and anterior cruciate ligament knee injuries was not significantly reduced with the use of prophylactic knee braces.

The integration of new media technologies has changed the manner in which sport is produced, marketed, delivered and consumed. This has contributed significantly to the ongoing fragmentation of media channels worldwide and prompted a dynamic and synergistic relationship between new media and sports sponsorship.The proliferation of new media technologies, the revolution in consumer to consumer communications and the need for brands to gain permission to engage consumers have also precipitated a transition in marketing logic "from a goods-dominant view, in which tangible output and discrete transactions were central, to a service-dominant view, in which intangibility, exchange processes and relationships are central" (Vargo & Lusch, 2004, p.2). Core marketing activities now include "interactivity, integration, customisation and coproduction" (p.11), and value "is defined and co-created with the consumer rather than embedded in output" (p.6). New media, therefore, has become a vehicle for the expansion of integrated marketing communications, which includes the use of multiple media channels and publicity methods in order to sell products, services and ideas (McAllister &

PurposeNotwithstanding the dynamics of digital transformation and its relevance for revenue generation in the entertainment industry, empirical research that focused on consumer behavior at the intersection of sport content and media technology acceptance is limited. Virtual reality (VR) is a re-emerging and nowadays commercially available technology that impacts sport consumed through media. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the consumer acceptance of VR technology and highlight the effects of content quality and flow experience as influencing factors of behavioral intention.Design/methodology/approachBased on a literature review, the authors constructed and empirically tested a model that extends the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT2) by considering additional antecedent factors. Participants (N=570) in the empirical study viewed sport content via VR technology (Sport VR) and completed a survey before and after viewing. The authors conducted factor analysis and structural equation modeling.FindingsThree UTAUT2 influencing factors, i.e., performance expectancy, social influence and hedonic motivation, showed significant effects. Furthermore, flow and content quality had positive indirect effects. Thus, the quality of sport content and the state of flow that users experience when immersed in a VR environment are relevant factors that determine the performance expectations of consumers and their Sport VR usage intention.Originality/valueThis empirical study contributes to knowledge on consumer acceptance of a hedonic technology in a sport media context. Moreover, two factors extended the established UTAUT2 model.

Nowadays sponsorship is an important part of sports events. Sports sponsorship offers more benefits, more variety and also it's a more powerful form of marketing. In general, sponsorship holds a unique position in the marketing mix because it is effective in building brand awareness, provides different marketing platforms and valuable networking and hospitality opportunities. Sponsorship marketing efforts can be influenced by culture. Especially when global sponsorship in sports which refers to sports events in different countries with different cultures, is under consideration. In such situations, sponsorship aspects can be affected by cultural obligations which are discussed in this article.