In recent years the information that’s been made available to sports fans means they’re now much more informed. Not that long ago there was a very limited number of news sources for fans. TV, radio and print provided info but at a prescribed time and place. Technology has been the enabler to deliver this information to us – whenever we want, wherever we want and in whatever form we want it.
Video is king. It’s become a part of our everyday lives, especially for news consumption. Video content is just one way that sports teams and leagues are connecting with fans. For an example of a ‘media-rich’ league, journalist Ned Soseman recently looked at the number of video channels each NFL team has on their website and where those channels sit in the hierarchy of online content.
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The most separate channels was twenty-one while the least was seven. This level of video content lets the teams connect with their fans quickly and easily. It enables them to enhance articles, web pages and social media consumed by their fans.
Many people now won’t leave their homes without a personal computer in their pocket. The handy smartphone delivers content to those fans whenever they want it. Most teams, leagues and sports organisations have (sometimes multiple) applications available to download, and they’re bursting with articles, images and video content.
The Barclays Center in Brooklyn is home to the NBA’s Brooklyn Nets, and most recently the NHL’s New York Islanders. Available to download is the Official Barclays Center app which gives users video – and some. On top of this content the application offers a full event schedule, the option to add events directly to your phone’s calendar, in-app ticket purchase options, interactive concourse maps, seating charts and a post-to-scoreboard feature.
At the recent #SportsFest event in Brooklyn, Barclays Center CMO Elisa Padilla, said: “Everything we do surrounds enhancing the guest experience. We understand that mobile and what used to be the third screen is now the first screen. No one leaves their home without their mobile phone.” Marketing executives at many venues are now understanding that this kind of mobile fan engagement is crucial.
Padilla said that while the Barclays Center hasn’t found a way to monetise this kind of application, they can’t be far off the next step. Perhaps we can combine these applications with tracking systems to see where people spend their time in the stadium. Big data is something currently being harnessed and this can be invaluable to tell venues how best to display and enhance their in-stadium services.
Next to video content and big data collection, statistics have done a sterling job at bringing together fans and their favourite teams or sports. Thanks to tracking chips, speed guns, advanced camera tracking systems and investments into analysts, there’s now a record of every step a player makes, every point a team scores, and how that compares to last year’s performance, or performances from five years’ ago.
This level of detail engages fans – it’s pretty simple. Many conversations I’ve had with friends about sport has ended up in rounds of quick-draw ‘I know the most statistics.’ And having access to not only current statistics but from previous games gives fans a yard-stick to measure this performance. Broadcasts, articles and podcasts are absolutely brimming with numbers.
This year’s Tour De France for example was a ‘tour de force’ of statistical information. In a partnership between Le Tour organisers ASO and Dimension Data, each bike was fitted with a GPS transponder. This meant the exact position and speed of every rider was tracked throughout the race and fans could follow the action as it happened. Previously, the location and position of riders was worked out archaically by the TV camera operators’ position on motorbikes. If an operator wasn’t with a particular group of riders, their position, speed or timing could only be assumed.
During the London 2012 Olympic road race, GPS data wasn’t available due to overloaded networks. And the BBC actually lost track of a number of cyclists – including Team GB’s Mark Cavendish, the home favourite for the race. Commentators didn’t know distances between the breakaway group and the peloton, causing all sorts of issues for the host broadcaster as well as a lot of criticism from viewers and other media outlets.
Having a separate network for data made sure this didn’t happen at this year’s Tour de France. One of the defining moments of the 2015 tour was a huge crash at the third stage. With the live data we were quickly delivered a visual representation of the accident’s data. This showed the average speed of cyclists as they crashed was over 40kmph.
A dedicated twitter feed was set up to present the data to followers throughout the race. This feed is an absolute goldmine for cycling fans who wanted to see what was happening with the tour and Dimension is still producing countless infographics using their data.
Amateur vs. Froome: this shows the difference in speed between the 2 at each point of stage 19’s route. #TDFdata pic.twitter.com/28JMVNZxqH
— letourdata (@letourdata) July 28, 2015
Technology has played a huge part in making the sports fan experience as engaging as possible. That being said, I’m sure we’re only at the beginning of what’s to come. Personally I’d like to spend my day watching American football in a VIP box at whatever stadium I want – all from a VR headset, sat in my own house of course!
Martin Izzard – @Martin_Izzard
Martin is an account manager for broadcast and sports technology clients at Red Lorry Yellow Lorry, a global broadcast and IT technology PR agency.
Working predominantly in the media and entertainment and live sports sectors with being an avid NFL (and suffering Atlanta Falcons) fan, Martin is interested in any technology that has an impact on the enrichment of the fans’ live sports experience.