Technology trends have exponentially increased the consume on many platforms that previously didn’t have such a strong presence in people’s daily lives.
In the sports world, technology trends were practically non-existent until a short time ago. This industry was in a phase of denialism, despite the fact that technological advances had been incorporated into the different disciplines for a long time.
How it started
Technology trends have had a strong presence in many sports, such as motorsports, soccer, basketball, and many others. The digital transformation could only be initiated with the emergence of a new empowered consumer with easy access to information.
As a result, the big soccer clubs realized that they needed to start offering a new model to build a stronger relationship with the fans. This sport, which is committed to a philosophy of business, is currently working on bringing the consumer audience closer and closer to this discipline.
This sport has many technological innovation centers, such as the Global Sports Innovation Center, of Microsoft, or the Barça Innovation Hub, where they host a significant number of startups, which seek to find a new repeatable and scalable business model through consumer acceptance.
How it’s going
Technology trends in 2022 assure that it is now very important to identify and analyze these new competitors, as well as to understand how they build their value proposition.
Today, the separation of the digital world from the real one doesn’t make much sense, since the customer interacts with the brand and products from different channels. The client expects homogeneity and consistency in service.
In addition, with the arrival of 5G, communication between mobile devices now includes a higher connection speed, with lower latency and also less energy consumption.
This means that most of the efforts in sports are focusing on providing consumers with content that offers immersive and interactive experiences.
At WillDom, we know the importance of empowering our clients and we have a client-first business philosophy which places our valued clients at the center of everything we do. With an agile approach and our best software developers and engineers, we can make your business even more successful.
Trends for this year
This year we will see several trends around the idea of evolution and innovation in the sports sector, all this in a digital reality that combines both worlds to offer better strategies and connections.
In this context, the combination of the physical and the digital not only considers streaming broadcasts, but also hybrid events, where the virtual and the real world will coexist in a fully integrated multichannel production and communication strategy.
eSports
In 2020, the sports sector accounted for 495 million viewers and is an industry that is growing at a rate of 20% annually, according to the latest reports.
eSports offer advantages that others don’t, such as the ability to interlink stories or characters from different locations and make them the main characters.
This was recently seen in the Madrid Open initiative, organizing the first international Madrid Open Virtual Pro Tournament. Some of the players of the ATP and WTA circuit participated in this event where funds were raised for the fight against Covid-19, achieving impressive numbers, more than 75 million people, 8 million minutes played and 160 thousand interactions.
Virtual Reality
This is one of the most demanded trends in technology nowadays, in which immersive experiences are sought to provide sports entertainment for both children and adults.
While AI has already started to assist coaches in optimizing athletes’ performance, this trend is expected to extend to athletes themselves this year.
Companies at the forefront of this movement include Athlete’s AI, providing athletes with the ability to live stream or upload their match or training sessions. AI algorithms will then conduct real-time or post-match analysis, by reviewing techniques, ball speeds, comparing previous matches, or plotting progress over time.
All of this will provide athletes with the analytics needed to identify key areas for improvement, and shows how AI is set to shake up traditional training programs and structures.
The use of AI in stadiums and venues will likely gain momentum in 2022. Stadium entry, drone cameras, and smart ticketing are all aspects currently controlled by AI, but there is huge potential for this to be taken further. This may be through automated video highlights or virtual umpires. AI aims to transform the fan experience and take live event engagement to new levels.
Increased Reality
The difference with virtual reality lies in the fact that it adds holograms to the real environment, allowing the consumer to live a different experience. For example, with Microsoft’s “Hololens” glasses, where tests are carried out to watch games from anywhere in the world.
This is a trend that Real Madrid has used, testing with the hologram of its stadium, the Santiago Bernabeu, so that any fan can watch their games anywhere in the world.
Influencer Marketing
This modality has gained great popularity in recent years. Major brands capitalize on the power of sports superstars to create much greater engagement with their audiences, and 2022 won’t be any different.
The digital world continues to evolve and brands are increasingly inclined to partner with influencers to position themselves for the challenges this year will bring.
For example, Tiktok has become the platform of the moment, being the fastest-growing social network in history. For its part, Instagram has recently introduced a feature where a post is displayed simultaneously on two different user accounts, which helps to generate a larger audience and more engagement.
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