Augmented Reality (AR) has slowly been creeping its way into the sports industry since the early 2000s when live tracking technologies like VAR and Hawkeye were introduced to track ball trajectories and speeds, as well as questionable referee calls. In recent years, however, there have been significant strides in the relationship between AR and sports and the ways it affects and familiarizes fans with AR, as well as with the sports industry itself.
A New Way to Engage
Since AR’s introduction, fan engagement has never been higher. In the downtime before the game or during halftime, AR offers the possibility of displaying content on the field giving greater context to the game. For example, in Germany, the AR app ARISE utilizes real-time technologies allowing fans to be able to display lineups to learn more about players and their abilities to move and shoot, their strengths and weaknesses, etc.
Displaying match and score information, and even the competitive history of the two teams playing offers another level of interacting with the players and events as opposed to the typical broadcast at home. With sports that have special courses such as golf, cycling, and racing, AR has made it possible to recreate their courses with the use of a phone or tablet to better understand the course as well as the position of the athletes. F1 took this approach in 2018 when Immersiv.io created a 3D tabletop display of the Monaco Grand Prix giving watchers the ability to interact with the track.
Entertainment, Marketing, and Broadcasting
The use of AR has also allowed stadiums and arenas to gamify the in-person experience by creating mini-games during halftime or before and after the game-turning them into a digital playground of sorts. Oaka Arena in Greece did this by creating a treasure hunt where AR markers were hidden around the stadium. Fans had 3 minutes to collect them and earn prizes and customized gifts from the Panathinaikos club team.
On the industry side, this generates greater revenue for the sponsors, and also helps marketing research and merchandise sales by making it possible to monetize and personalize ads in AR. For fans in and out of the stadium, it is now possible to display jerseys and other merchandise they want to buy in 3-D and allow them to try them on (check out our article on AR in the future of online shopping). A report by Research and Markets in 2021 noted the AR market was worth $7 billion in 2020 and is forecast to generate revenues upwards of $152 billion by 2030 for businesses as well as the sports industry.
With COVID-19 hitting in 2020, AR has also been a huge help in increasing fan engagement outside the stadium. Immersiv.io states that 58% of Millennials use social media to get updates on sports games, and AR allows fans to create personalized experiences on social media apps like Instagram and Snapchat. At present, broadcasting uses techniques of AR to create on-screen graphics, but not personalized content. Using a phone or smart glasses allows viewers to interact with their TV feed allowing fans to see content they’d miss from just watching.
Not only does AR affect the consumer-business relationship, but also how athletes train and improve their game. With the use of AI, trackers, and computer vision, players are now able to analyze their performance. Smart glasses make it so they can display information and stats in front of them without the need for a screen, and 3-D makes it so they can display different environments to allow for strategy development such as kicking a field goal during high-wind conditions. vGolf, a mixed reality golf training system, did this by using smart glasses to display wind direction and speeds, and course contours and yardage. Useful tools like this game can be used for professional golfers, as well as amateurs who may not have access to a coach or caddy.
This is but a scratch on the surface as to the capabilities AR is bringing to the sports industry. XR is beginning to creep into not just the consumer side of sports, but also all realms of sports enterprises through training, interaction, marketing, and broadcasting. In the future, it is likely stadiums and teams will be introducing more augmented technologies to increase fan engagement, user experience, merchandising sales, and sponsorships. As a sports fan, I’m excited to see the impact of AR and look towards its future.
