Abstract
It has been argued that all serious leisure activity is founded upon a strong sense of companionship and community. Besides, social capital is widely believed to generate mutual understanding and communal reciprocity. Sport event volunteering is considered a form of serious leisure. However, the interrelationships between these concepts deserve further investigation. This study analyzed the interrelationships between serious leisure volunteering and social capital acquisition of 311 World Masters Games volunteers using a structural equation model. Moreover, differences between groups of volunteers were assessed. The findings revealed a significant relationship between serious leisure and social capital. For example, local volunteers identified significantly more with serious leisure volunteering than those from outside of the host region.