How AI is Capturing the Winning Edge in the Sports Industry with Smart Innovations?
From the open grounds to AI-driven platforms, everything seems nostalgic. All credit goes to the driven transformation.
Remember when we were eager to finish our homework and assignments on time. Taking extra time to play, whether indoors or outdoors. However, due to the hustling lifestyle, it is hard to do.
Sports not only engage us, but also boost energy, foster dedication, determination, and discipline, and promote physical wellbeing. These grounds also seed true friendships, camaraderie, and collaboration. What was once love now feels like luxury. The interest isn’t faded; the responsibilities have just taken a toll.
Although AI initiatives have shifted the scene, they are encouraging sports enthusiasts to stay connected. This blog explores the drastic transformation through AI in the Sports industry from traditional grounds to cutting-edge gadgets.
From Gully Games to Professional Passion: How AI is Transforming the Sports Industry?
My cousin was also an exceptional national-level player. He has won awards and medals in various sports. One day, when I asked him about his game. He just lost in thought. Reading his face, I knew the reason, but I still asked what happened. You don’t look well.
He told me he misses his sports time, the grounds, the laughter, and the masti with his friends. Even when the call time was 5 AM, he used to manage to reach the ground on time.
However, now, due to the professional and personal hustle, he can’t make time for his favorite thing, which he once found so enthusiastic about.
Not all his friends have time since they have moved to different cities for work, so they rarely plan meetups.
I feel that not everyone was cut out to be selected for the professional, but sports were a part of every kid’s childhood. Whistles of the secret codes to call out our friends to play. We need the group because not everyone has the sports kits.
Someone gets the ball, someone has a bat, someone has gloves, and someone has the play area. Given the tight schedule, we’re now focusing on earning money to maintain our lifestyle.
How AI in the Sports Industry is Driving Precision and Perfection at Every Step?
We have discussed two scenarios: one involving a sportsperson and another similar to gully players. Both have enthusiasm and a lively spirit for sports.
At that time, sportspeople had limited resources and faced significant challenges during practice. It’s no joke to cover miles by bicycle or on foot. As if they want to be the best amongst the best, they need the support of the best professional trainers and coaches. They have no specific gadgets or tools to track their fitness at home.
Not everyone had the financial means to purchase equipment, afford training sessions, or buy sports gear. In case anyone gets injured during practice or faces any health issues, the entire process should not involve guesswork or assumptions.
Following the evolution of technology in the sports industry, the situation improved significantly. The game format also got changed.
How the Pandemic Accelerated AI Adoption in Sports?
Everything is driving smoothly, but then suddenly the world is isolated. Do you remember when the global pandemic was announced in 2020?
People were helpless to stay in their homes. That led to anxiety, reduced social interaction, and everyone just lost energy. We are social animals, and without social gatherings, it becomes harder for humans to feel positive and energetic.
At that time, the sports industry received a tremendous boost with the convergence of AI. The organization launched community-driven platforms and tools that are remotely accessible across the globe.
The market growth is exponentially rising with each passing year, and it is expected to continue increasing in 2029.
By the end of 2022, when COVID faded, the AI sports market size was estimated at 2.2 USD billion, and at a rate of 30.1% CAGR, it can cross 29.7 USD billion by 2032.
Businesses operate their services and products adopting different type of monetization models. Reflect on the revenue outlook of the sports app ecosystem acquired by:
In-app purchases: $71.55 billion
Paid apps: $5.61 billion
Combined total: $77.16 billion
With the intervention of AI, businesses are witnessing a surge in their loyal fan base. Instead of keeping everything free, they are adopting smart strategies such as freemium, dynamic pricing, hyper-personalization, and other monetization approaches. This enables them to boost revenue and surpass competitors, thereby accomplishing their goals.
Reflecting on the Best Part of AI in the Sports Industry
AI has offered the best kind of experience in the sports industry, some of which we’re mentioning in this section.
Let’s explore how the transformation has benefited sports industry over the past few years.
Engagement from Passive to Active
Initially, as a viewer, spending long hours watching the screen feels boring. Businesses have learned to turn passive viewers into engaged ones by adopting AI tactics and tools.
Now you must have noticed that the ongoing tool is used between matches to make predictions, run polls, build their own team, and participate. It adds value to the platform with an active, engaged fanbase.
Yes, Cricket and football originated in India, but their popularity is not limited to there; it’s worldwide.
Personalized Feeds for Fans
We all have our favorite teams and players, and we don’t want to miss any of their highlights or glorious moments. The sports business has infused hyper-personalization into sports platforms to better align user preferences with their interests and activities.
They provide comprehensive team stats through a dedicated custom feed. It gives their fanbase a boost.
Reducing the Churn rate
No matter how exclusive your app is, users can easily switch to other trending tools or find entertainment elsewhere. These AI tools will showcase when, on which platform, users get engaged, which feature they find interesting, and where they left off.
AI tools in sports can provide indicators to prompt immediate action and implement relevant changes, thereby enhancing interactions and converting passive users into long-term fans.
Tracking Player Performance with Precision
What makes a player a perfect professional player?
How do they perform better than their competitors?
It is all about paying attention to every bit of their day-to-day activity. A minor injury or a weight increase of 100 gm. will result in elimination.
That’s huge for a player right now; they’re hustling for months, only to turn around and lose an opportunity. Many coaches and athletes are accessing such types of apps to elevate their game performance.
Amplifying Revenue with AI-driven Ads
Nowadays, businesses can set up and run campaigns aligned with their demographics and user personas. The ads will be displayed to relevant user bases in targeted regions and age groups. It saves their budget and enhances monetization and revenue by showing the right things to the relevant ones.
Taking a Competitive Edge with AI-powered Analytics
AI-driven analytics provide insight into the competitors’ activities. Business and team coaches can analyze and plan their next moves, identifying areas for improvement and incorporating strategies their competitors have adopted. It’s a must-have app for smartphones and other gadgets to improve performance.
Use Case of AI in Driving Transformation in the Sports Industry
The benefits we have listed in the previous section reflect how AI has disrupted the sports industry, engaging the passive viewer to monitor the athlete’s performance. AI emerged as a prominent factor, with its unique essence. Here, we mention the use case of AI in sports.
Interactive Communication with Chatbots
It is a trending use case of AI in the sports industry, bridging the communication gap. Connect fans directly to their favorite teams. You may not have the FC Barcelona app on your system or phone. It integrated AI chatbots that keep fans in the loop by sharing match updates, ticket confirmations, and personalized content based on their activity and behavior.
Whatever the fans want, these chatbots can do round the clock — from sharing match insights and content to helping them explore and decide which feature to use.
These chatbots are well-trained to maintain seamless interactions with fans in their native language without any interruption.
They know precisely what their fans are expecting to view or explore at the moment, and Smart, instant recommendations for news or game-related gear appear.
Fans have a curiosity to know everything, from basic to advanced technical topics, and these chatbots can effectively handle their queries. Undoubtedly, these chatbots have reduced bounce rates, improved the experience, and shifted the burden of manual client handling.
Flags Suspicious Attempts on Time
Fraud and scams are common nowadays. As technology evolves, so do these hackers, upgrading their tactics.
We know that betting and black ticketing are illegal, but interesting match leagues and the enthusiasm of players and fans increase the chances of fraudulent events.
AI and ML are combined to analyze and extract those patterns of user behavior, including activities, regions, and account activity. Ensuring everything is accurate without any anomalies.
Gauge the Athlete’s Performance
Undoubtedly, AI plays a significant role in boosting athlete chartbuster performances. That credit goes to recent innovations and launches.
AI tools enable real time visualization of multiple key performance indicators. Thus, players and coaches can proactively identify areas for improvement, refine their moves and tactics, and get the proper guidance strategically.
Previous Match Highlights On a Tap
Get the quick updates and insights on competitors and team players to see if they have performed better or lost their charm on the grounds.
As everything is on the screen, visible to athletes and coaches, they can instantly tweak out the strategies and adopt the backup plan to go ahead.
You have noticed the short breaks between matches. They are designed to keep fans engaged, preventing them from jumping to other screens. AI enables interactive stats.
Preventing the Injury and Risk
Behind the best performance is their persistence, patience, and resilience. Initially, it was challenging to detect the exact location of injury or strain, but now AI, combined with ML, has made this easy to diagnose.
Sports and fitness app development company providing optimal accessibility to help identify potential injuries or fitness issues early on, enabling timely treatment.
These apps, accessible via wearable devices, enable the detection of injury risks and other relevant data through biometric monitoring.
Sometimes the training lasted long hours, especially during competition season, and players sometimes sacrificed their food and rest, which can lead to fatigue. Wearables have some indicators and sensors that can track if they need to take a rest, as overexercising can cause strain.
Suppose any player has an injury but doesn’t have time to visit a physiotherapist. At that time, navigation sports fitness apps can provide a personalized care plan that ensures a rapid recovery.
Whether it is personal or professional, doctors may request historical data if you experience the injury again. Additionally, when you appear for an exam, they often require a fitness certificate to ensure you are careful during training or any physical activity.
Personalized Training Session
It combines another subset of AI, computer vision, to provide personalized training content, assessment, and feedback for growth, making them perfectionists for every competition.
Analyzing the athletes’ every move at the drilling season.
Visualize scores, points, and other performance data insights, providing feedback in voice or text prompts in real time.
Sourcing the Right Player
International sports leagues are held every year, with different players and buyers (businessmen) participating in the auction. AI helps to select the best fits in the given price range.
During the auction, while selecting a player, various factors are considered:
Are they in form, and how was their performance in previous league matches?
Are they worth that money?
Sometimes, when team owners are more satisfied with their performance and don’t want to lose them, they lock them in before the final auction to retain them. These players can switch between teams.
We have skipped several use cases to avoid bothering our readers. However, you may have understood how closely AI influences the sports industry.
Go Rally: Our Innovation Built by Implementing AI Tactics in Sports App
Anyone interested in playing pickleball can visit our community platform, Go Rally. While building this app, we have used the AI tool Cursor along with ReactJS, NextJS, NestJS, AWS, New Relic, and Clarity. It is comprehensive and has the following engagement-driven accessibility at its center:
Courts Booking
Events and Tournaments Entry
Join Open Games
Connect with Players
Check Ranking on leaderboards
Get trained with experts
Access to premium equipment
It took around 70 to 80 days to develop this platform, which received instant applause as 300 users joined. It is currently doing 1000+ bookings per day.
Few Visuals:
It is the Go Rally Book Page Interface:
It is the Go Rally Activity Page Interface:
It is the Go Rally Calendar Page Interface:
Ending here now…
Final Words
Whether viewers, athletes, or coaches, everyone was impressed by the recent evolution of AI in the sports industry. It not only enhances player performance and safety by tracking every move and injury, but also streamlines dynamic processes within sports leagues, including ticketing and betting. AI and its subordinates, such as natural language processing, machine learning, computer vision, and LLMs, all enable the advancement of mapping real-life scenarios, trends, and competitive features.
At Eternalight Infotech, we have also launched an AI driven solution with exceptional UI/UX, seamless, hassle free functionality, and features. To stay ahead of sports user needs with an advanced solution, share your vision, and we’ll shape the best solution for you!
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Ayushi Shrivastava
(Author)
Senior Content Writer
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