You don’t need us to tell you how that technology is changing the world. Unless you’ve been living under a rock, and perhaps even then, you’ll know that we’re undergoing a shift as profound as the industrial revolution. Tech is touching just about everything, including the sports world.
We see the shift on the pitch, where technology is used to make the game fairer. We see it in training, where tech-driven tools help to push athletes to their highest level. And it’s had an impact on the sports fan’s experience when watching the action, too.
In this blog, we’ll look at a few ways that tech is helping to make live sporting events better with each passing year.
More Camera Angles
If you want to get a sense of how good coverage of sporting events is today, just go to YouTube and watch a sporting event from, say, 1970. Not only will the coverage be much grainier, but it’ll also be pretty one-dimensional. There’s only one camera in the stadium, and while that’ll help you to stay on top of the action, it doesn’t make for the best experience.
It’s a far cry from what we see today. Now, viewers can watch the action from multiple angles, which makes watching the game on television just as good — sometimes, even better — as watching in the stadium. You have to imagine that things will only improve in the future, too. How long will it be before we can watch the action through the eyes of one of the players on the pitch, for instance?
Following Games From Afar
In the pre-internet era, you’d have to be in the stadium or have access to television/radio coverage if you hoped to follow the action live. And since most televised/radio broadcast games were geo-blocked, especially in major leagues such as the NBA, this wasn’t as straightforward as it could be.
Today, things are different. There are sites where fans can learn their team’s NBA live score, and get detailed stats and other useful information related to the game in real-time, no matter where they are. As with most other things, technology has helped to make sports more accessible.
In-Match Social Media Conversations
People watch sporting matches for the athleticism on display. But a large portion of the enjoyment also comes from the secondary social element of the action. It’s not just about watching the action; it’s about talking about it.
Technology has helped to make this much more straightforward than it used to be. In the olden days, you’d have to be at the game or in a bar if you wanted to give or receive opinions about the game. Today, thanks to social media, you can share your two cents with just a few clicks.
New Games and Events
Technology isn’t just improving the experience of watching traditional sporting events. It’s also giving rise to new ones. There’s been a massive growth in interest in e-sports in recent years. Indeed, the latest research suggests that e-sports will have a following of some 500 million people within a couple of years.
There’s also a growing belief that in the years to come, we’ll be watching athletic events with robots, rather than humans, competing in the action. Whether that takes off is another matter, however.
The Overall Fan Experience
Ultimately, technology is helping to improve live sporting events because it’s helping to improve the fan experience. From communication, improved accessibility, and making the experience of being in the stadium more fun, technology has helped to take people’s core interest in sport and make it an even more valuable experience.
