Beyond Sports Initiative | The Mission

Established in 2023

Executive Director: Dr. Andrew C. Billiings (acbilliings@ua.edu)

Managing Director: Dr. Kenon A. Brown (brown@apr.ua.edu)

The Beyond Sports Initiative (BSI) is the CCIS sports and gaming think tank. BSI strives to provide data-driven insights to current and future sport scholars and practitioners so they can adapt and thrive in a changing, global sport and gaming environment. As a unique academic research collaborative, BSI directly works with leaders in the sports industry to identify, investigate and influence the issues that are important to the field. 

BSI has identified four priority areas in sport and gaming that will help educate the next generation of sport practitioners:

• Sport Media Literacy
• Sport and Technology
• Esports and Video Gaming
• Fantasy Sports and Sports Betting