Today, sports are not entirely based on physicality and practical experiences alone. Every business in the world has been significantly impacted by technology, and sporting activities are no different. The sports sector is constantly improving with the progress of technological advancements.
We all remember the World Cup soccer game between England and Germany, where the English team lost because Frank Lampard’s goal was incorrectly ruled out for offside. How about the situation when you finally got to the front of the queue after you waited in line to buy tickets to a baseball game, only to find that they were all sold out? Even attempts to bet on the NBA live games were sometimes discouraged due to the time it would take to stake offline. Indeed, technology has fundamentally changed our culture over the last 20 to 30 years.
This article will outline ways digitalization and technology are improving sports. The means at our disposal to alter any aspect of society, the commerce sector, or the entertainment that we choose are now available courtesy of the internet, cell phones, GPS, data science, and AI. Every aspect may not be touched on in this discussion, but the fundamental areas will be noted.
Positive Effects Of Technology On Sports
Technology has greatly impacted the games and how we can watch them. In its absence, we could quickly return to tight shorts, high socks, and Afros. Here are six unmissable ways technology has helped the growth of sports.
- Quality Game Viewing
The convenience through which we watch sports is significantly impacted by technology. It’s simple to overlook all the many on and off-screen technological innovations when watching the Super Bowl from the luxury of your home. While sipping a drink and enjoying your basket of chips, it’s worth noting that the work of digitalization is at play.
High-definition video cameras capture fast-paced action from various perspectives, and the top or bottom of the screen constantly updates the score and game time. You can access various sporting networks that broadcast elite competitions like the Indian Premier League and the Six Nations Rugby Union event in Europe right in your living room. There is also the introduction of Virtual Reality to sports. However, full implementation hasn’t been achieved yet. We will keep an eye on that one.
- Implementation of Automated Officials
Technology is enhancing sports fairness in every way. Now, hawkeye and goal-line technologies deliver unanimous decisions in football and tennis, and anti-doping techniques can now detect a wide range of illegal drug usage. Video referees can now be used to confirm conclusions with 360-angled cameras.
This new standard of justice will help keep disagreement and too much drama at bay and rekindle interest in sports that have historically suffered from unfairness. If you’re doubtful about how genuine these improvements are or if they are just for show, consider how tasking it would be for a referee to oversee twenty-two players in soccer games at once while also fielding jeers from the audience. Trying to grasp all the action is challenging enough from your screen, so don’t stress about it.
- Instant Replay Technology
One of the most critical breakthroughs in sports has undoubtedly been the invention of replay systems for in-game reviews. Unlike in the past, referees had to decide based on instincts if a soccer player was offside when scoring a goal during a game.
With these digital forms, sports leagues can guarantee the correctness of what is occurring, and referees can better maintain a game that is as fair as possible. Plus, who wouldn’t enjoy watching LeBron perform a slow-motion reverse windmill dunk a thousand times?
- Online Ticket Purchasing
The days of waiting in line on game day to purchase a ticket only to be refused access to your favorite team matches because the seats are all sold out or having to struggle for the last available nose-bleed seat are long gone. You can immediately purchase tickets for upcoming events from a team’s official site using your computer or smartphone with online ticketing.
This method has completely changed how we can attend games and select the precise seat or vantage position we want to occupy. This way, you can choose your viewpoint and select specific seats while skipping the traffic at the gate.
- Upgraded Training Facilities
Training is what differentiates amateur and professional athletes. Even the most talented players will suffer from poor or absent training. Even the slightest glint of talent can be developed into a professional athlete with more and better training.
Computer-aided training programs are now used to incorporate real-time data into player development models to assist athletes in performing better. Tennis players, swimmers, and footballers may enhance their game’s various aspects. Computers are now starting to identify weak points and recommend enhancements that could help prevent the accumulation of long-term injuries.
- Game Analytics
Regular monitoring of player analytics is a difficult task when done manually. However, technology has enabled us to monitor statistics humans cannot measure independently. An illustration of this tech is SportVU, a system that monitors everything on a basketball court, including the mobility of players and the direction of the ball.
Technology has given us access to a vast amount of data that spectators, athletes, and especially coaching staff may use to their advantage. Teams can now make more precise adjustments with the results of analytics data, and coaches can abandon the sole use of intuition when developing a game plan.
Conclusion
Whether you enjoy football, basketball, baseball, or any other sport, the fact is technology has enhanced how we observe and engage with our favorite games. That’s the icing on the cake! There’s still more to what tech can offer, and soon we’ll see a quick uptake of innovations in every sphere of sports.
