In this article we will go over some areas of tech and how they will affect sports; IoT, AI, drones and VR.
Internet of Things
The current role of Internet of Things in Sports is already quite clear. There are several areas in which they improve the operations of sports teams: player development, player safety, and fan engagement. Player development as organizations will are able to monitor through sensors and video data the player efficiency and performance during games and practice. This is also used to analyze the opponents. Player safety is also applicable in IoT to reduce the probability of injuries or to detect heart injuries that could potentially lead to life-threatening accidents. Lastly, IoT is also already used in fan engagement, this is a fairly recent introduction and will be more important in the future mainly in sports stadiums.
However, the future of sports events and sports management will be even more influenced by IoT. If we look at the stadium they will heavily be influenced by these new technologies that will allow them to increase the comfort of being in the stadium. First of all, will be the management of the traffics in and around the stadium. The mobile application which will be linked your location will tell you what the best way is to access the stadium but also the precise direction towards your seats. Other uses could be to monitor the stadium in terms of energy efficiency or to trigger maintenance notification when it is required. Moreover, stadiums could be able to use smart devices such as smart cameras where they would use facial recognition to increase the security of their stadiums.
Fan comfort will be heavily different as smartphones, sensors and other related technology will provide the fans with new insights on the game. This means real-time statistics that could be visible through smart wear provided by the stadium for an extra fee for example. Fingerprint and facial recognition to smoothly enter the stadium without any cue at the entrance. For example, beacons could be used for in-store purchases instead of using credit cards.
Further IoT applications could be seen on the pitch. Nowadays in many sports, there are still decisions that cannot be fully a 100% correct like offsides for example. With small IoT devices that could be placed in the shoes or clothes of the players, this would remove the uncertainty that still remains in certain decisions in football or American football. Not only would they remove unfair decisions they would also be able to sell this data afterwards to sell it to gaming applications which could, for example, reproduce real-life situations of the game exactly on a console.
Artificial Intelligence
AI may seem a little off-topic at first-hand in the sports industry however in the past years AI has grown a lot in the sports industry and has already established itself within the industry. Currently, AI is already used in several areas, such as chatbots for sports teams , deep learning to help improve safety measures in auto racing and AI written sports articles.
Future applications could be very diverse in terms of artificial intelligence. First of all, AI Assistant Coaches, computers are currently being trained to understand the game of American Football using Deep Learning. While coaching is a very specific skill that requires years of experience AI could assist a coach in providing increased accuracy in terms of common mistakes or spaces that could be better used during games. These AI assistant coaches could potentially improve plays at a faster rate than humans.
Smart ticketing might be another area when the sports business might see major improvement thanks to AI. A new football team that was started by several Silicon Valley entrepreneurs are focusing on innovation to give their new team a new competitive advantage. The technology will propose ticket buyers different ticket options based on their backgrounds in terms of nationality, family or interest. With interest, this could for example that they would sit people together that support a particular European football club.
IBM also announced its plans to use AI features in the tennis competition of Wimbledon. With IBM’s Watson platform they analyze the noise of the crowd and the facial reactions of the players to compile the match highlights automatically. This was already experimented in the competitions in 2017 and 2018 and is expected to be seen elsewhere in other competitions in the next few years.
Lastly, in AI, applications for amateur sports players are also being developed. As we know in tennis professional players can call a review of a decision three times a game to check whether a ball was “IN” or “OUT”. This will trigger a computer program that bases its decision on the Hawk-Eye method to assess whether or not the ball was out. In 2017 a French inventor introduced a small device that would do this same job but it would only cost 199$ and you can place on any tennis court you like. We see here that AI is going to affect amateur players as they will also benefit from AI devices like this one.
Drones
Drones in sports are useful as they can view the actions of players from a different point of view. This is interesting for two markets: the coaches and the media. Now when sports has become more than “just-a-game” it is no surprise that some sports teams are experimenting with drones to record training sessions. For example, the Miami Hurricanes American Football team already started recording their practices on drones and will not be the last one to do so. Also, the football team Everton is already working with drones to analyze their practices from a different perspective.
Here another example.
On the other drones can be used for commercial purposes, like they already in the Super Bowl in 2017 for example. Nowadays drones are being used to film sports events such as skiing, surfing or golf. In the future, they could be implemented in other sports such as Football or Basketball where they could, for example, deliver drinks or food to people in the stadium and therefore avoiding cues during halftime.
A mix of AI and drones is becoming reality as well and could be introduced in the near future. Drones are being designed now to follow a specific person that is holding a small sensor. With this ‘follow me’ mode the drone would automatically follow the person without any interaction of another human being. These drones exist nowadays already but they do not avoid obstacles yet for example. However, we should expect to see major advancements in this area soon.
Watch here the first version of the drone developed in 2015
Virtual and Augmented Reality
Today VR is fairly inaccessible for the average population, some VR devices are affordable of stores but they are for fairly basic use. Many sports fans are dreaming of being able to wear headsets which would make them feel they are really at a basketball game. Jaunt, a company that produces AR and VR products, is experimenting with devices that would fully immerse the customers into these locations. However, much improvement is needed and live coverages that would sustain VR footage are not yet used thus the complication to implement such practices. This same company is also working on a software that would replicate a tennis match using a 3D image to project it onto any type of surface. Microsoft is also working on a HoloLens that would project American Football on dinner tables for example. Microsoft is closely working with the NFL to introduce this in the future.
More about this here.
Conclusion
I would say all these technologies will have an impact of the sports industry, but I do not believe it will change the essence of the sports. The technologies will be used on the sidelines and around the games, but I do not think it will change the games profoundly. The technologies will be applied to everything that is a derivative from sports. This includes media, refereeing, fan experiences, training, etc. In these areas, AI, drones, and VR will have a major impact which will change the way we as fans experience our favorite sports. Wrong refereeing decision will be ruled out, fans will be immersed into the stadium, comfort will increase etc.
These all offer new revenue streams for the sports teams and media and it will have to adapt itself to play a major role in these new trends. In many industries change is very common while in sports, many sports clubs are still being managed in a very old-fashioned way, this is way slower. To keep your competitive advantage for a football club like Real Madrid for example, early investments should be made in these technologies to stay on the forefront of these potential commercial uses. Not only commercially sports teams should invest in new technologies also to keep an advantage on your competitors on the sports side. FC Midtjylland has started to use data analytics since 2013. In 2015 they became the champions of Denmark scoring half of their goals from set pieces, which is one the biggest areas in football that can be studied using data. It has proven to be successful and sports organizations should further look into technologies to attain a competitive advantage on the pitch as well.
In my opinion, these changes are not far away. We see tests happening in tennis, American football, football, skiing, etc. Commercially, drones are being used already and will play a bigger role in the very near future. AI and IoT will also be used for training purposes in almost any sport. Sports teams have to figure out in what ways they can use these new technologies in their advantage to provide unique fan experiences, innovative training practices and increased accuracy of referee decisions. Once they have found the best way to implement these technologies within their sports it will not be a long process anymore before they become mainstream. The technology is there, existing and waiting to be useful to the sports industry. One question remains: when and where are club owners going to realize that the future is not a threat but an opportunity?
Comments