How Sports IP Has Gotten Armchair Fans on Their Feet

It’s game day. The fridge is stocked. The snacks are ready. Your friends are on their way. For the next few hours, you’ll be glued to the box as the match unfolds, play by play, bottle by bottle, fist pump by fist pump. You ain’t going anywhere until the final whistle sounds.

For sports fans, game day has always played out this way. Whether your jam is football, soccer, basketball or some other team sport, the formula has scarcely changed in decades. We may have moved from black and white to color TV, and then to HD, 4K, and internet streams, but the basic premise – invite the crew over to catch the big game – remains the same.

They’re called armchair fans for a reason. But while the way we watch these season-defining games has barely evolved, the way in which we interact with them has. Because whereas in the past fans were powerless to do more than scream at the screen, now they’ve got a reason to rise to their feet.

In 2026, fandom is no longer a one-way street in which the players play and spectators spectate. There’s now an array of ingenious ways for supporters to interact that extend far beyond passive viewing – and it’s thanks in no small part to the evolution of sports IP. Astute leagues and clubs are learning that when armchair fans become active participants, the experience is enriched and the upside – for all parties – is uncapped. 

Leaving the Living Room

The catalyst for this shift has been a fundamental change in how we define viewing. It’s no secret that the screen is no longer a viewing portal – it’s a dashboard – and that we’re now glued to multiple screens while watching the same game. Our smartphones obviously, but also attuned to the highlights – spicy tweets, latest odds, fan footage – our mates are sharing from theirs.

In 2026, the second screen is where the real action unfolds. What happens on the pitch is still paramount, but what happens in the digital domain is where reputations are forged and fandom is flexed. That’s because leagues are increasingly moving toward programmable IP, where the data generated during a match – be it a buzzer-beater or what footie fans colloquially know as a “worldie” – becomes a digital trigger for fan rewards and indelible memories.

Take the NBA for example. Through its refined digital-first strategy, the league has moved beyond basic streaming to create “meaningful experiences” that allow fans to interact with live overlays. Similarly, Formula 1 has leaned into “Passionomics,” using billions of real-time data points to power in-play engagement tools and Fastest Lap challenges that turn viewers’ predictive intuition into tangible prizes. But it’s when we turn to Web3 that the future of sports IP truly comes into focus.

SCOR Pioneers Programmable Fandom

The last three years has seen a slew of blockchain-based platforms emerge intent on extending the fan experience by enabling supporters to demonstrate their loyalty, show off their knowledge, reap the rewards, and vibe with a global community of like-minded fans.

At the heart of this movement is SCOR, a protocol that treats sports IP as a living, breathing asset class. While previous Web3 sports platforms focused on static collectibles that sat dormant in digital wallets, SCOR has pioneered a model where participation is the product. Through SCOR-ID, fans possess a persistent, blockchain-based identity that tracks their activity across the entire sports ecosystem. Whether you’re making predictions, maintaining a streak of watched games, or holding a licensed digital collectible, that activity carries economic weight.

What’s smart about this sort of strategy is that it doesn’t merely elevate the matchday experience, but it helps to fill the interminable wait between games – which as every fan knows is the worst part about supporting a team. And let’s not even start on the closed season or, for footie fans, international breaks when they can go weeks without seeing their heroes take the field.

Sports IP, when integrated into platforms such as SCOR, doesn’t just extend the ways in which fandom can be experienced, but fills these gaps, transforming 90 minutes of on-field action into endless opportunities for engagement and entertainment.

The New Fan Economy

Sports IP has historically been about control, with leagues and broadcasters owning the rights to footage and branding, and fans consuming the content without much say or stake in the process. That model is now looking increasingly archaic in the digital society we inhabit, with both Web2 and Web3 platforms reconfiguring IP into programmable assets that fans can interact with and even co-own.

Sports organizations, from global leagues to high-flying teams, are realizing that fostering active participation rather than passive viewership drives loyalty and increases opportunity for monetization. The armchair fan hasn’t disappeared, but their seat – and thus their status – has been upgraded. Smart sports teams readily recognize their most precious resource isn’t their stadium or their players – it’s their IP.

And when that IP can be activated by the crowd, such as by enabling fans to prove that they were there for a historic moment, the distance between the sofa and the stadium vanishes. Thanks to the leveling up of sports IP, in 2026 fans finally have a reason to get off the couch and into the game.