According to recent analysis, the sports technology markets could be worth as much as $65.64bn within the next decade as more sports start to adopt and utilise different tools and systems. This isn’t surprising either, as we’ve already seen a notable shift in the last 10 years to a more technology-led sporting world, whether it’s in how we play different games, analyse them or indeed broadcast them.
So, as we head further into 2023, it begs the question of what trends will be on the rise this year, as the popularity of using technology within sport continues to shoot upwards. Here, we’ve listed three examples of tech that we may see being used more and more in our favourite sports and sporting competitions.
More Performance Analytics and Data Capture
Data analysis is no longer just reserved for the business world and its use within sport is becoming more and more widespread. Typically, it’s being used to look at player and team performance to identify how and where improvements can be made, and as this data becomes easier to collect, we’ll likely see this practice spreading to all levels across different sports.
One such example is in rugby union. If you take a look at the latest All Blacks news, you’ll see how the New Zealand national side has committed to rolling out a digital transformation project this year that includes dedicated performance analysis. Should this prove to be a big success in 2023, more nations (and sports) are bound to follow suit.
Augmented Reality Experiences
Following the Covid-19 pandemic we’ve still yet to see stadiums and venues as full as they were in 2019 and many fans still prefer remotely watching games through the subscription services that were set up during the height of the pandemic. It’s not just the safety element that fans prefer here either, it’s the additional commentary, player/team information and analysis that can come by watching online.
As such, another sports tech trend for this year might be the rollout of AR experiences for fans who still prefer remote viewing – essentially giving them a more realistic and immersive experience that gets them involved and behind their team/event.
Going one step further, we might even see the introduction of AR (such as headsets or glasses that display additional information) at venues themselves, perhaps as another means of engaging with these fans to tempt them back.
AI Sports Content Generation
AI has already been making waves in the digital world through what can be the seemingly instant automated production of content (be it copy, graphics or video). So, we might see coverage before, during and after games or events where the content is fresh and new and ultimately generated by AI. This would also make this coverage more focussed, relevant and up-to-date, rather than relying on content that has been previously put together, edited and possibly rushed.
What happens in 2023 of course remains to be seen, but given we’ve already seen the beginnings of many of the above, these forecasted trends will probably be quite close – if not accurate – when we look back from 2024.
