Today, technology is so heavily integrated into our favorite sports that it can be hard to picture them without it. That’s why we’re looking back at three of the biggest tech innovations that changed how sports were played and gave rise to the globe-spanning sports industry that we know today.
Three Tech Innovations That Changed How Sports Are Played
Sportscasting & Livestreaming
No other technology has been so formative as sportscasting – the ability to broadcast a sports event across the airwaves. This was first done as far back as 1899, but live televised sportscasting in America first started in 1939, at a college football game, then later the US Olympics that same year.
The ability to broadcast a sports event in real time has since allowed every sport to find its fans, no matter where they live in the world. This technology also spread to other industries and led to live streaming over the internet, creating a whole different genre of entertainment. Today, most social media sites let users stream themselves live, while some business models like iGaming use it to offer more content.
Casino sites, which typically offer digital versions of their games, started live streaming their blackjack online games with a real human host, reaching a new level of interactivity that didn’t exist beforehand. It’s just one example of how a technology that was first pioneered in sports has changed and created many different activities. On the sports front, it made the big leagues more popular than ever as people could see the action play out on the screen, as opposed to radio commentary.
It didn’t just change how sports was viewed, as the entire industry grew around the ability to broadcast games through television, and later the internet. Sponsorship became powerful, allowing popular sports to make billions by putting certain company logos and mottos on camera. In turn, that money paid for better equipment, new stomping grounds, and lucrative paychecks for the world’s biggest sporting stars.
Wearable Sensors & Digital Twins
Besides cameras and the ability to broadcast video, it’s sensors that have made the biggest impact on sports. While their gear may look like ordinary padding, the average NFL player’s uniform is laced with RFID sensors nowadays that track them on the field and collect a lot of valuable data. That data is processed in a variety of ways, some detailed here, but digital twin technology is by far the most impressive.
Digital twin technologies like Intel’s FreeD render 3D digital copies of the entire football field. Using that copy, FreeD can show 3D renderings of game-critical moments or show viewers what a particular player would be seeing without strapping a camera to their forehead. Their wearable sensors keep these digital replicas informed and provide data points to help track where they are at all times.
VAR & Hawk-Eye Systems
The Video Assistant Referee changed how sports games are called, particularly soccer games where this technology first gained popularity. It works by recording and showing officiators footage of a game’s most chaotic moments, so they can make a more informed decision. It can also identify missed incidents and deal with them accordingly.
In other sports, Hawk-Eye camera technology fulfills the same purpose. It’s a goal-line technology that tracks where the ball is at all times, even predicting its path based on trajectory, and that can all inform how a point gets decided in tennis or cricket. Some VAR and Hawk-Eye setups also use a chip in the ball, but most modern smart cameras are advanced enough to track it by sight.
Together, these three tech innovations have changed how we fundamentally view and score some of the world’s most popular sports. As the tech around sport continues to advance, we can expect even more innovations to come in the future.
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