Just a stopgap for ‘real’ sports? Experiences with digital sport and exercise activities during the COVID-19 pandemic

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has led to an increase of digitally supported home-based sport and exercise activities. This paper asks how these digital sport and exercise (DSE) offers are experienced by consumers and compares the experiential value of DSE activities with similar on-site, offline sport and exercise (OSE) activities. The paper is based on cross-sectional online survey data from active members of two university sports centers in Germany. Findings reveal that a relative strength of DSE compared to similar OSE offers is the higher degree of autonomy experienced by users. However, this comes at the expense of the social, physical, affective, competence, and motivational experience. DSE courses are somewhat better rated by self-disciplined and healthy individuals, but lower rated by participants with a high motor competence. Overall, data lend support to the notion that DSE was just a stopgap for many during the lockdowns. For becoming a real alternative to on-site sports, DSE offers should be developed further in such a way that emotional and social experiences are enhanced. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version of this article (10.1007/s12662-023-00881-y) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.