The rise and rise of sports tech: Big data, immersive viewing, AI emerge as new-age sporting tools

NEW DELHI: It's the era of technology, and the tools of digital mapping, data analytics, machine intelligence and immersive viewing is even spilling over to the area of sports, and sports management.
Companies, many of them start-ups and others as large as Infosys, Wipro, Tech Mahindra and HCL, have been offering tech-laden solutions to various functions, ranging from tracking the fitness and sporting activities of players, to managing and measuring audience engagement, and using virtual reality for a richer viewing experience.
While still in its infancy in India, sports tech is gaining ground in line with trends abroad. Sporting leagues as well as players have been making use of data analytics, artificial intelligence and other new-age digital tools and learnings to improve performance and enrich audience engagements and tracking.
The trend has only strengthened after the outbreak of the coronavirus. There has been a spurt in the sports tech area in the start-up space over the past few years even as larger IT companies have managed to crack lucrative deals with sporting giants such as Manchester United, Cricket Australia and the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP).
In 2019, Indian cricket board BCCI had on-boarded UK-based tech company STATSports to make use of their GPS-driven performance tracking and analysis. The deal saw a high-resolution unit embedded in a base layer vest of the players to monitor their workload.
Sitting in a pocket between the shoulder blades, the device would measure hundreds of physical metrics of players, including distance, speed, acceleration, deceleration, high-speed running, and dynamic stress load. It would allow the fitness team to carefully manage players’ workloads, and injury rehabilitation programmes.
Jagdish Mitra, chief strategy officer and head of growth at Tech Mahindra, says the pandemic has only hastened the role of digital in sports.
"Tech Mahindra launched a sports-tech business with the purpose of ‘bringing the stadium to home and home to stadium’, through novel sports-tech concepts like virtual stadiums and digital fan engagement experiences. While the sports-tech space is still at a nascent stage in India, we foresee increased focus on leveraging new-age technologies for personalized sports viewing experience and enhanced fan entertainment," Mitra adds.
Tech Mahindra has signed up partnerships with IPL teams such as Rajasthan Royals, Kings XI Punjab, apart from initiating a global chess league with International Chess Federation.
"With Viswanathan Anand, the five-time world chess champion, as a mentor, advisor, and partner, the chess league aims to promote chess and also create opportunities for the youth and explore innovative ways of promoting the game through interactive technology-enabled platforms."
Veer Sagar, founder of Criconet, says the integration of technology has helped improve the performance levels in games. "The use of technology through slow motion replays, database storage and retrieval, as well as comparison with others have helped players vastly improve their game by recording time, speed, direction, swing, turn and bounce. This has helped players control their grip, release and speed. Every part of a player's body can be assessed and monitored during play for deriving maximum impact."
As the pandemic hit, Criconet started to develop a technology for a remote coaching module. "We realised that to benefit the children and encourage them to keep up with training through the lockdown period, we needed to re-think and re-design our module. Taking advantage of the exposure to technology that allows remote processing, Criconet has designed a platform for e-coaching. The technology allows anyone across the country to access good coaches registered on our platform from their mobile and take personal one-on-one classes. The student and coach can share actual videos of games to pinpoint faults."
Arun Pandey, chairman of Rhiti Group that manages MS Dhoni and other cricketers such as Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Kedar Jadhav, says the Indian sports fraternity currently stands at the cusp of a technological revolution. "While sports tech is still nascent in India, it has shown encouraging trends that has helped boost investor confidence. For India to become a sporting powerhouse, it is essential to leverage technologies such as artificial intelligence, machine learning, and Big Data. Capitalizing on new-age technologies, we’ll not only be able to produce great athletes, but will also bring sports closer to the people," Pandey says.
According to a report by B2B research company MarketsandMarkets, the global sports technology market was valued at $17.9 billion in 2021 and is expected to reach $40.2 billion by 2026, growing at a CAGR of 17.5%. "In the recent years, professional sports bodies have adopted new technologies such as sports data analytics, smart stadiums, wearable devices, and digital signage to enhance their team performance, engage fans, and provide smart infrastructures. Smart stadiums are among the key global trends owing to the increase in the number of sports events being held worldwide," the report says, adding that the outbreak of Covid only hastened the adoption of technology within sports.