What is acceptable as a "Sport" in a quiz?

This debate first came up on facebook regarding the inclusion of questions about WWE/UFC in the Sports and Leisure round of the latest Grand Prix event. In case you are unfamiliar with the GP circuit, then suffice to say it involves top UK quizzers meeting every month for a 240 question quiz (of which 40 of the questions are on Sport). It started a whole debate about whether it was right to include what some people called a "minor" sport or what some people called "entertainment not sport". Either way it has got me thinking....What is acceptable in a Sports Round in a quiz?

Lets start with the standard Pub Quiz. Chances are every quiz you go to will include sports questions, its part of general knowledge and has a right to be so. Many of the quizzes which have themed rounds will often contain one on Sport. But where do you draw the line over what is acceptable? Football and Recent Events take precedents over anything else it seems but what other sports are "fair" to include? 

Many players who struggle in other rounds of the quiz may be a genius on sports. Indeed, the depth of sporting knowledge out there is vast without people even knowing the level they possess. I have seen people with poor general knowledge whiz tough sports round, even people who are bad general knowledge players have appeared on and got to latter stages of Sports Mastermind. It is one of the few, if perhaps the only, major quiz category that this could apply to.

I guess the first thing to do is cater for you audience. If you get a crowd of mainly young players then questions on 1970's Grand National winners will never be popular but that sort of question may be loved by others who were alive and interested in racing in that era. Knowing your audience applies to any round for any quizmaster anywhere..

But what about the more common mixed audience? What sports are best and worst to include? And indeed what is a sport and what is not a sport?

My view on the whole WWE/UFC issue is simple. They are far far popular than most of the sports asked about on GP papers. Indeed on the vast majority of serious quizzes the vast majority of sports questions tend to be from less popular sports than these two. UFC is Mixed Martial Arts in case you were not aware and that industry is close to drawing larger weekly crowds than every sport apart from Football and possibly Rugby. Last year viewing figures were only topped on ESPN UFC's coverage by Premier League football. Despite it not being "respectable" or "admirable" in some people's eyes, that should not exclude it from quizzing as it is a legitimate sport. Again it does depend on audience but a UFC question in any serious quiz should not have people turning their noses up at it in my view and I am not only saying that due to being a fan, because I am not, its just the case of modern day sports not being represented in quizzing generally.

WWE is a different kettle of fish and this is something I am a fan off. Say what you will about Professional wrestling but it has stuck with me as a child. Then it was all about heroes and idols, now as an adult its a good form of escapism and something I am interested in on more than one level.  Of course "WWE" is Sports entertainment, scripted and more akin to a weekly soap which raises the issue of whether it should be in Sports and Leisure or TV?

To deny WWE a place in a serious quiz based on snobbery is wrong. I am not saying it should be in every single quiz on every single show, but it should be considered. Saying that a recent GP question I found on WWE to be way too niche to be fair....

We are talking about one of the biggest entertainment companies in America and Worldwide, viewing figures in the UK that regularly beat all other sports but football, PPV's that outsell any other Pay-Per-View sporting events, a TV show that holds all kind of records. Regardless of whether you are a fan or not, I have yet to hear a reasonable argument to why this should not be considered usable for any sort of quiz on a serioius level.

A pub quiz is quite different though, as the reaction to asking a question on "wrestling" may not be too great....

I ended up on a rant there about WWE/UFC which I did not intend to but nevertheless it raises some interesting points about sports rounds in quizzes. I would be intrigued to read any thoughts on the issue?