The rapid development of digital technology is driving the development of the digital economy so that it is injecting vitality into global economic development. The continuous deepening of digital economy process and integration with the real economy have a profound impact on the transformation and upgrading of traditional industries. In recent years, China has attached great importance to promoting economic and social development, and also takes the development of sports industry very seriously. How to improve the efficiency and development quality has become an important issue in achieving high-quality development of the sports industry. The widespread application of digital technology has injected new impetus into the development of the sports industry. Digital economy is a new engine for promoting the efficiency improvement and achieving high-quality development of the sports industry. This article comprehensively examines the impact and internal mechanism of the digital economy on the efficiency of the sports industry using panel data from 31 provinces from 2013 to 2021. It further examines the heterogeneity of three dimensions which are the nature of sports industry efficiency and the level of digital economy development. The results show that the development of the digital economy is beneficial for improving the efficiency of the sports industry. It mainly promotes the widespread application of digital technology in various aspects, improves information acquisition ability, realizes efficient division of labor and rational use of factor to promote the efficiency of the sports industry. On the internal mechanism, the digital economy promotes the efficiency improvement of the sports industry by promoting the agglomeration of the sports industry. Based on industry heterogeneity, the digital economy promotes the efficiency improvement of the sports industry by promoting the agglomeration of sports goods manufacturing industry. It is unable to significantly promote the efficiency improvement through the agglomeration of sports service industry. Further research has found that the promotion of the digital economy on the efficiency of the sports industry is mainly reflected in the improvement of scale efficiency based on the heterogeneity of the efficiency of the sports industry. The development of the digital economy is conducive to the integration of digital technology and the sports industry, promoting enterprises to discover and improve existing inefficient production processes, widely applying advanced technology to various production processes, integrating and expanding production scale, and reducing enterprise production costs. Therefore, the promotion effect is more reflected in scale efficiency. The development of the digital economy is conducive to the integration of digital technology and the sports industry so that promotes enterprises to discover and improve existing inefficient production processes. It widely applies advanced technology to various production processes, integrates and expands production scale, and reducing enterprise production costs. Therefore, the promotion effect is more reflected in scale efficiency. Based on the development level of the digital economy, the role of digital economy development in promoting the efficiency improvement of the sports industry is more significant in areas with lower levels of digital economy development. Due to government policies favoring areas with relatively underdeveloped digital economy development, it is beneficial to change the production mode, save transaction costs and promote industrial innovation. While the widespread application of digital technology and the deep integration with the sports industry have produced more significant innovative effects. Therefore, it can significantly promote the development of the sports industry and enhance its efficiency. This paper provides policy implications for improving the efficiency of the sports industry and achieving high-quality development of the sports industry in the context of digital economy development.