Consumer Behavior in Virtual Sport Events: The Case of World Petanque Offline Cup 2020 during the COVID-19 Pandemic

The current research aimed to analysis the consumers’ behavior in the World Petanque Offline Cup 2020. Five measuring instruments of the research were filled by 200 men and women participants of the WPOC in order to modeling the causal relations between the variables. The findings of the path analysis by PLS showed that brand image of FIPJP on brand image of WPOC, brand image of WPOC on behavioral intentions, satisfaction on behavioral intentions and event quality on all brand image of WPOC, satisfaction and brand image of FIPJP had significant positive effects. Additionally, the mediating impact of satisfaction on the relationship between event quality and behavioral intentions, the mediating impact of brand image of WPOC on the relationship between event quality and behavioral intentions, the mediating impact of brand image of WPOC on the relationship between brand image of FIPJP and behavioral intentions were positive and significant. The proposed model of the research had good fit. It is suggested that administrators of the offline sport events should focus on various dimensions of services quality in sport events aiming to increase satisfaction followed by positive behavioral intentions development. Also, the image of the brand of the organizer of such events in the minds of consumers can predict behavioral intentions, and therefore it is suggested to improve the quality of organizational arrangements, how to interact with participants and related technical issues.