In the digital age, online brand communities (OBCs) have emerged as vital platforms for fostering connections between consumers and brands. Football online brand communities are gaining a lot of power not only because sports are being increasingly commercialized, but also because sports consumers have a level of passion and emotional connection rarely seen in other contexts. For that reason, this study explores how online brand community dynamics like identification, experience and commitment drives online brand community engagement and how this engagement generates emotional brand outcomes like brand love and pride. This study is based on the Stimulus, Organism and Response framework and followed a quantitative approach by survey research. PLS-SEM technique was applied to data extracted from a questionnaire applied to active online football community members. Results showed that online brand community identification, experience and commitment each positively influence engagement, with commitment emerging as the most impactful factor. The findings demonstrated as well that the emotional brand outcome which has the strongest influence from engagement is brand pride. These insights offer theoretical and practical value for sports marketers and community managers, emphasizing the importance of nurturing identification, designing memorable digital experiences, and strengthening fan commitment to cultivate pride within football online communities. Making this research a winning game for both the online community members and the football clubs.

Dissertation presented as the partial requirement for obtaining a Master's degree in Data Driven Marketing, specialization in Marketing Intelligence