The present study aimed to investigate the effect of social capital and psychological capital on social entrepreneurial intention in the sports industry, emphasizing the mediating role of expectations of social entrepreneurship outcomes. This descriptive-correlational study was conducted using a field method and its statistical population included undergraduate students of sports sciences at public universities in Iran. The data collection tools included social capital questionnaires (Salamzadeh et al., 2022), expectations of social entrepreneurship outcomes (Pham et al., 2024), psychological capital (Luthans et al., 2007), and social entrepreneurial intention (Linnan and Chen, 2009), whose validity and reliability were confirmed. The data were analyzed using structural equation modeling and the partial least squares approach. The findings showed that expectations of social entrepreneurship outcomes play a significant mediating role in the relationship between social capital and psychological capital with social entrepreneurial intention in sports. Also, psychological capital and expectations of social entrepreneurship outcomes had a positive and significant effect on social entrepreneurial intention in sports. Accordingly, it can be concluded that simply having social or psychological capital is not enough, but students' perception of expected outcomes also plays a decisive role in their decision to enter sports social entrepreneurship. Therefore, it is suggested that policies and support programs be formulated in a way that, in addition to strengthening the social and psychological capital of sports science students, they also focus on creating positive and realistic expectations of the outcomes of social entrepreneurship in sports.