Augmented Reality in football: a closer look at fan experiences

07/08/2025 - 16:24

Augmented reality (AR) and other types of immersive media are emerging as popular leisure technologies, offering new ways for audiences to experience familiar activities. At BUas, Carolina Jordão is conducting her PhD research focused on understanding how digital technologies impact visitor experiences within leisure and event contexts. As part of this broader research, she recently investigated how pre-match AR experiences impact fans' excitement and overall enjoyment during football matches.

In collaboration with PSV, one of BUas’s strategic industry partners, Carolina and her colleagues tested an engaging pre-match AR experience with PSV fans. Participants used AR glasses combined with a smartphone app to view and interact with dynamic, life-sized player projections featuring realistic movements, and detailed player and team statistics.

The aim of this study was to investigate whether this AR intervention could influence fans' emotional responses during the match and how they evaluated their overall match-watching experience. To evaluate the impact of this AR experience, the research compared emotional responses and evaluations between fans who engaged with the AR content and those who did not, across two distinct environments: attending a live match at the PSV stadium and watching it on TV in a simulated home environment, on our BUas campus. This home-like set-up provided participants with a relaxed atmosphere complete with snacks, drinks, and other typical home-viewing comforts to mimic the experience of watching a match at home.

Findings highlight notable differences between the two viewing contexts. Fans interacting with AR content in a home-like setting appeared to benefit from the technology, showing some evidence of enhanced engagement before and during the match. Conversely, stadium viewers did not experience clear additional benefits from AR, likely due to the already highly stimulating live environment. These results underline the importance of carefully considering viewing context when implementing AR technologies.

This study was part of Carolina Jordão’s PhD research at Buas and Tilburg University, supervised by Marcel Bastiaansen, Ondrej Mitas, and Greg Richards. The project was conducted collaboratively with a multidisciplinary BUas team, including Hans Revers and Joel Pardaan from the Academy for Leisure & Events, and Wilco Boode and Marnix van Gisbergen from the Academy for AI, Games & Media. The study also benefited from a valuable partnership with Dutch Rose Media, who collaborated with the materials for the development of the AR experience, and the Effenaar, which supplied the AR glasses and phones used in the experiment.