The starting point for this month’s ramble comes from the recently released Global SportsTech Report from the lovely people at SportsPro & Sportradar.
Upon downloading, the aesthete in me was impressed – animated stats, embedded videos and alternating scrolling directions all make it feel suitably hi-tech so kudos to the design team – and I’m glad to report that the content’s pretty good too.
This new collaboration aims to deliver a “360-degree view of the technological trends driving sports digital transformation” based on a global survey of 160 senior industry execs. Whether this sample size is enough to be fully “360” is up for debate, but it is certainly representative enough to present a meaningful look at the state of the sports tech market.
One of clearest pictures the report paints is that of AI’s assimilation into all areas of sports business, whether that’s in media & content, fan engagement, infrastructure & operations, betting & gaming, stadiums & venues or athletic performance. To pull out a few of the headline AI related stats:
- 82% of sports organisations are currently using AI
- 98% plan to use it more in next 12 months
- 66% of those not using it currently, plan to use it in next 12 months
These findings, while interesting, are hardly groundbreaking.
