One of the physical activities in our daily life takes the form of sports. Frequently characterized by competition and structure, sports engage, sustain, or enhance physical capabilities and talents. Participants also find them enjoyable, and in certain instances, they offer entertainment for spectators. Sports events are defined as those that are organized according to a specific predetermined program, have a significant social and economic impact on the location or region where they are held, and are distinguished by creative and complex content of sports-like, recreational activities of an entertaining character. This study is mainly focused on investigating emerging themes and identifying new trends in the study of Customer Experience and Tourist Behaviour (CETB) in relation to sports events. It encompasses science mapping and an in-depth examination of thematic evolution in subtopics, citation trends, co-occurrence networks, and development paths within CETB research related to sports events. The Scopus database was chosen as the main source of bibliometric analysis for this research, since it ensures an accurate and detailed exploration of the research work, facilitating the discovery of critical insights into the thematic and structural development of academic inquiry. The software VOS viewer is used to create and display bibliometric networks, and 183 articles distributed across 81 distinct journals were considered useful for the study. One more objective of the analysis is to generate a VOS viewer diagram, which contributes to a clearer understanding of the intellectual structure of the field, guiding future research directions and practical applications. By reviewing sports event studies in the international literature, this research seeks to close a gap in the area and give academics a comprehensive viewpoint. It helps to clarify the intellectual framework of the field, and, using the idea of co-occurrence, pinpoint academic hotspots and major research topics.