The Future of Experiential Technology in the Sports Industry

The sports industry has always been a sandbox for innovation. The willingness of its stakeholders, including athletes, coaches, administrators, and fans to try something new and have fun with it has made this industry a fertile ground for technology to thrive. 

A big part of it is a generational shift in thinking. For Millennials and GenZs, gratification is experiential rather than material. For instance, 76% of consumers today would prefer to spend on experiences such as live sports and concerts rather than material goods. Athletes increasingly want virtual training simulations to prepare for competitive situations. And owing to COVID-19, administrators are splurging an incredible amount of money to replicate in-stadium experiences for fans watching remotely. 

Technologies like cloud, AR/VR, IoT, and AI have led the charge in facilitating this. Combined with sports science and broadcasting innovations, they’ve transformed sporting experiences entirely. It’s no surprise that the sports tech market is expected to be worth over $31 billion by 2024.

Here’s a roundup of some of the most exciting ways technology is revolutionizing the sports industry:

Player performances are still at the crux of any sporting event. Athletes are required to maintain peak fitness levels at all times, and teams, understandably, want to get the most out of their investments in them.  

As a result of this, there is increasing reliance on technology to support players’ health and training regimens. Take ArmCare, for example — it’s an arm health evaluation and training platform designed for baseball players and coaches. As the video below explains, ArmCare uses a custom hardware device to monitor the condition of a player’s arm. Based on test results, it delivers hyper-personalized training programs accessible through a mobile and web platform. 

Training applications like this are a very realistic way for administrators to deliver differentiated team experiences and build a fanbase.

Over-the-top (OTT) platforms are radically changing everything about how live sports are delivered and viewed. With their groundbreaking workflows that utilize everything from AI to 3D graphics, lightning-fast highlights, and interactive features, they’re beating cable broadcast channels at their own game. 

Moreover, this trend even predates the pandemic. According to Deloitte, while the NFL saw a drop in TV ratings and attendance around 2017, the number of fans streaming NFL games increased by 25 percent.

Building and maintaining a loyal fanbase has always been at the heart of the endeavor for sports leagues, teams, and clubs. Part of it is making the experience as interactive as possible. Digital tools facilitating live sports chats, community reach-outs, and user-generated marketing are fostering fan connections that teams simply wouldn’t be able to create on their own.

This isn’t limited to just professional sports either. Amateur sports are in on the action too. VNN, for example, is a marketing and coordination platform for high school athletic departments. It connects the high school sports experience for fans, athletes, and athletic professionals nationwide. 

Next-gen streaming platforms have helped push the boundaries of what’s possible, providing some incredibly immersive experiences for fans. 

Take Bundesliga, the first European domestic soccer league to resume games after COVID-19’s enforced hiatus. To continue to enthuse fans remotely and provide them the level of immersion they’re used to, they launched Match Facts. It’s a platform that captures millions of data points and, combined with machine learning models, provides real-time match predictions and analyses. Some of its tools, like xGoals, are revolutionary—even able to predict the likelihood of any shot resulting in a goal just before it’s made.

Other sports tools, like video assistant referees (VARs) used in soccer, tennis, and cricket, create in-game impact for the players and match officials by determining the legitimacy of an event. 

Online sports betting has come a long way from its early days when it was viewed with suspicion and considered risky. Today, secure payment gateways and technologies like blockchain offer full protection for betters and operators. In fact, it’s so safe, it’s almost not gambling anymore. AI startup Strategem is developing sports betting algorithms that can find patterns in football games. The aim is to help users predict the outcome with enough accuracy so as to make it closer to investing rather than gambling. 

Sports tends to be one of the most lucrative—and expensive—advertising avenues for brands. However, fans are increasingly weary of scheduled, run-of-the-mill ad spots. They’re looking for a more personalized and engaging experience.

One way to improve engagement is to use virtual (VR) and augmented reality (AR). AR is already being used by the sports industry, to great effect, in simulating player training and broadcasting. Now advertisers are leveraging it to provide fans with exciting new experiences at stadiums and elsewhere. The NBA, for instance, has partnered with Sony PlayStation to create a VR headset that would allow fans to sit in courtside seats. Lavazza and the Arsenal Football Club launched an AR experience in 2020 to allow fans to engage with their team during lockdown.

Fantasy gaming has grown phenomenally, largely due to the spread of high-speed internet and smartphones. If you’re not familiar with the concept, fantasy sports involve putting together an imaginary team of real players. The better your player performs in real life, the better you do at the game. You compete online against other players and their teams. There has been a proliferation of fantasy gaming apps, essentially technology building on the appeal of real-world personas to spawn a whole new digital sporting ecosystem.

High-tech infusion in sports will continue to grow at a dizzying pace. For one thing, broadcasters have set a standard that the industry as a whole will strive to match and best. For another, fans themselves are so much more mature digitally, and their hunger for fresher and more exciting experiences is only going to increase.