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Measuring football fever through wearable technology.
Sci. Rep. 16:3866 (2026)
Football is the world's most popular sport, evoking strong physiological and emotional responses among its fans. Yet, the specific reactions to fan involvement have received little attention in the literature. In this paper, we quantify the resulting physiological responses through a unique case study from professional football: the 2025 cup final of the German Football Association (DFB) between first-division club VfB Stuttgart and third-division club Arminia Bielefeld. We collected high-resolution smartwatch data, including heart rate and stress level, from 229 Arminia Bielefeld fans over approximately 12 weeks, complemented by survey responses on identification with the club, match attendance, and personal characteristics from a subset of 37 participants. By combining physiological data with survey information, we analyse variations in emotional arousal across individuals and contexts, measured by physiological reactions to the cup final. This approach provides rare, data-driven insights into the football fever that captivates fans during high-stakes competitions. Furthermore, we compare the vital parameters recorded on the day of the match with baseline levels on non-matchdays throughout the entire observation period. Our findings reveal pronounced physiological responses among fans, beginning hours before the match and peaking at kick-off.
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Publication type
Article: Journal article
Document type
Scientific Article
Keywords
Fan Involvement ; Football Fever ; Smartwatch Data ; Vital Parameters ; Wearable Technology; Heart-rate-variability
ISSN (print) / ISBN
2045-2322
e-ISSN
2045-2322
Journal
Scientific Reports
Quellenangaben
Volume: 16,
Issue: 1,
Article Number: 3866
Publisher
Springer
Publishing Place
London
Reviewing status
Peer reviewed
Institute(s)
Institute of Computational Biology (ICB)
Grants
Universitt Bielefeld (3146)