With new discoveries and improvements, the world is expanding quickly, and humankind has done an outstanding job of creating reliable technology. Who knew you’d be reading our story on your smartphone one day while making coffee at the same time? Nevertheless, we believe the time isn’t far off when the majority of our labor will be performed by robots, including many aspects of the world’s most popular pastime – sports.
Even though there’s a long way to go, we’ll talk about a few of the most cutting-edge sports technologies today that revolutionized sports in the last decade or so and brought it closer to fans and bettors (which is the sector separately influenced by the tech, separating the best operators at Bookmaker-Expert.com from the rest in terms of providing the betting service to users). Needless to mention the ways sports technology influenced athletes themselves…
# 1 Snicko/UltraEdge Detectors
You’ve probably heard commentators mention Snicko detectors; they are actually pretty handy in cricket. If the ball has made contact with the bat before being caught by the opposing team, Realtime Snicko (also called Snickometer from BBG Sports) or UltraEdge (from Hawk-Eye Innovations) employ sound waves to detect this.
With the use of an oscilloscope and a sensitive stump microphone, it measures sound waves. Following background noise removal, the noises are synchronized with video streams and then replayed in slow motion helping the third umpire to make a decision.
# 2 Smart Bails
You may have observed while watching cricket that any time the wicketkeeper stumps the batsman, the bails over the stumps collapse and instantly light up with vibrant lights. They are actually smart bails, which a company called Zing Bails introduced in 2013.
The idea was to have the bails glow once they were successfully removed from the stumps. When the stumps are touched, a microprocessor in the bails detects it and the bails are gone. A low-voltage battery that lights up the bails in less than 1/1000th of a second powers them. Run-outs and stumpings are now quickly examined by the third umpire. Also, especially during night games, the LED lights provide the game with a special touch for the spectators.
# 3 VAR
Tech focusing on a goal line was previously introduced in football to assist in determining if the ball had crossed the goal line or didn’t. It was only employed when the referee had no way of deciding on a goal and acquiring a second opinion.
A pitch-side monitor has been utilized at the 2018 FIFA Club World Cup after a successful trial in which VAR (Video Assistant Referee) was first deployed in a friendly match between France and Italy. The MLS, Bundesliga, and Serie A followed suit after the A-League (the top division in Australia) as the first professional league to implement VAR in 2017. With La Liga joining in for the 2018–19 season, VAR was first used in an FA Cup match in England. From the 2019–20 season on, the Premier League and even the UEFA Champions League began using it for what FIFA refers to as “game-changing decisions”, such as goal validity, red cards, offsides, and penalty kicks.
# 4 Drones in Flight and Camera Angles
It has been a long road from those adorable small reel cameras to large flash DSLRs. Whenever we observe a sporting event, we frequently see several camera angles.
The most incredible moment occurs when the camera soars and you can see the entire stadium as well as a close-up of your favorite athlete. It’s all due to the usage of spider cameras and flying drones by TV broadcasters, who provide breathtaking images for our televisions. They are used to offer a 360-degree viewing angle by taking pictures from very near to the ground to the skyline.
# 5 Graphics for Players and Games
You may have noticed various infographics popping up on your TV screen while watching your favorite sport. They provide information about a certain group of players or team. The manner data is processed and presented to viewers has become more exciting thanks to the usage of 3D visualizations and simulations.
A few organizations combine their efforts in the domains of statistics and visual arts. An entertaining way to see the athletes’ and teams’ abilities, strategies, and outcomes is to display 3D player models both during play and post-match conversations.
# 6 Clothing and Equipment for Athletes
There are numerous varieties of wearable technology used in sports. Fitbit smartwatches are popular with both serious athletes and recreational exercisers. They are suitable for a wide range of activities that require tracking of steps, calories, pulse, heart rate, and distance.
“Smart garments” are another, more specialized example of wearable technology. Athletic apparel can measure breathing activities, heart rate, pace, weight distribution, and postures. New clothing is designed to wick perspiration away from the body via evaporation rather than accumulating it. To attain the optimal balance of traction and comfort, even lighter and flatter track footwear is being developed.
# 7 Fan Participation
A completely involved fan experience is the best in sports, so everyone has started to employ a variety of strategies to increase the fervor and enthusiasm of their most devoted fans. Using innovative fan interaction strategies that rely on the most cutting-edge technological platforms is the only way to implement them effectively.
You can use UMPIRE and BRISK, two tools created by TISA, to assist you to advance your sports brand in terms of content creation and dissemination. A few examples of online fan engagement include forums, fantasy leagues, and international fan organizations.
# 8 Accessibility and Disabilities
Because of innovative technology, sports can now be enjoyed by spectators of all kinds, including disabled supporters who may have formerly struggled with barrier areas of tournaments and venues. The use of e-ticketing options and other contactless or automated solutions can also be advantageous to spectators with disabilities. This enables people to avoid the difficulties of visiting a destination that might not have handicapped parking spaces close to fan zones or be wheelchair accessible.
In some stadiums, “in-seat delivery options” have even been used. Audiences can request food and drinks to be served to their seats as they watch the event. For instance, many football teams have begun to position huge screen panels near the pitch so that fans can interact with players and even watch a whole game.
# 9 Blockchain and NFT’s
Sports enthusiasts acquire non-fungible tokens (NFTs). The Sports NFT is a unique, non-transferable record entity that’s kept on a digital ledger (blockchain). A blockchain is a type of database where data is stored in linked-together segments. It might help the sports industry in a number of ways, including increasing audience engagement, providing new revenue opportunities, and creating entirely new markets for trading rare goods.
Blockchain adoption is now significantly increasing when it comes to the introduction of Fan Tokens in sporting organizations. Just a few of the well-known international clubs that have already chosen to use tokens in their community are Juventus F.C., FC Barcelona, Atlético Madrid, Paris Saint-Germain, and AS Roma.
# 10 AI
The capacity to gather accurate and timely data on athletes’ achievements today has led to the emergence of artificial intelligence (AI) in the realm of sports. According to experts, AI will have the biggest influence on boosting team performance and discovering more valuable athletes globally in the scope of sports technology.
The decision-making process is aided by algorithms and artificial intelligence. Projecting the results of sporting events might be more precise with the use of artificial intelligence.
# 11 Neuroscience
Training the body is important, but so is exercising the mind. The Options group can create personalized action plans thanks to cutting-edge neuroscience combined with exclusive technology. And detailed prescriptive advice that fully optimizes the brain’s performance in athletes.
In the same manner that top athletes have tested, trained, and enhanced their performance “below the neck” for millennia, applied neuroscience now enables us to measure, train, and upgrade the brain. In 2017, the Halo headband was first made accessible to the general public. The device prepares athletes’ brains for workouts and major races by providing pulses that assist neurons in firing together.
# 12 VR
A virtual environment that’s interactive and immerses you in a new world through the use of sensors, cameras, costumes, or joysticks is known as virtual reality (VR). Virtual reality headsets are additionally used by numerous clubs and international rugby teams. It’s employed to create realistic rugby simulations of high balls, first-phase offensive actions, and line-outs. Gamers’ cognitive learning and visualization abilities may be enhanced by this.
The term “AR” describes a category of technology that enables you to see extra characters or objects in the real environment; it’s augmented reality. Snapchat’s bitmoji or the Pokémon GO app are two examples of how computer-based knowledge and our physical reality are interacting. Mixed reality (MR) differs significantly from AR in one important way. The interaction between virtual and real-world items and people makes it possible for the two worlds to coexist.
