If you were to ask the average person what technology has taken off most in the last few years, Artificial Intelligence (AI) would almost certainly be on the list. And why not? From ChatGPT to similar tools, we are exploring the use of AI much more in our daily lives for better or for worse.
The sports sector is not exempt from this, as many more innovations are emerging to enhance the experience for both players and fans. If you’re curious about how AI is becoming a mainstay in sports, consider the following:
For a lot of people, the only thing more exciting than watching sports is betting on them as well. The thought of walking away with money after correctly predicting your team's victory is a major draw, which the internet has further facilitated. Artificial intelligence is also making its presence felt in the sector by facilitating various platforms for it. These days, it’s more common to see online gambling platforms that allow for sports betting, as well as casino games. Whether it’s local options or offshore casinos reviewed by www.cardplayer.com, they are seeing millions of dollars in revenue each year. Artificial intelligence has helped this process by speeding up the development of these platforms. Whether it is designing the visuals or creating the code behind the websites, more of them can launch quickly thanks to the technology.
Artificial intelligence is also used for things like customer support, speeding up the resolution of customer inquiries. It is also being used for customer recommendations, analyzing previous behavior to recommend the best games, platforms, and much more.
Training of athletes has also been further improved with the advent of artificial intelligence. Thanks to wearable technology devices, things like heart rate, speed, and much more can be tracked and analyzed in real time. This means that any possible issues can be flagged early and addressed for the sake of players' performance. Coaches can also use this data to further develop strategies for plays. If certain players are found to be more efficient at certain moves, this can be instantly caught, and their position in the next game can be determined to the team's advantage.
Player performance can be much more easily evaluated thanks to artificial intelligence. Prospective players, who are looking to get scouted, can have their footage reviewed by both humans and artificial intelligence to consider potential and other factors. After a game has concluded, coaches and managers can use AI to further evaluate the footage and identify areas where weaknesses emerged and opportunities for improvement exist.
Players can view their own footage, critically analyze where they are lacking, and this can lead to better outcomes overall. Rather than doing guesswork or being subject to possible human error, even the smallest movements can be analyzed. For games that have a contested outcome, footage can be analyzed to the millisecond and micro-movement, to know which team came out on top.
A big part of training and preparing for games is health, and using artificial intelligence, players' health, both physical and mental, can be addressed. Things like sleep patterns, water intake, stress levels, and much more can be recorded and issues flagged in real time. Even outside of performance, this can be used to preserve player health, which is more relevant as we learn more about things like CTE and other health problems in specific sports. Players can also turn to AI-powered mental health tools to find human support, get answers to common issues, and otherwise protect their mental health well before any issues arise.
Both players and fans can benefit from AI-powered immersive experiences in different ways. On the players' part, AI can be used to simulate actual games where training strategies can be tested out in a safe environment. The more efficient AI becomes, the more accurate these simulations will be, and the better training they can enjoy. This is especially useful for younger players who might not be used to specific environments, and thus, can get the anxieties out of the way before actual games.
Fans who want to get the feel of being in the stadium but cannot afford to do so can lean on AI-powered immersive experiences to feel like they are in the same space. Those who enjoy sports-related games can also rely on AI-powered tools that enable more hyperrealistic gameplay, more engaging storylines, and much more.
The general consensus is that we have only scratched the surface of what artificial intelligence can do. But if there’s any industry that is bound to test the limits of this new technology, it is the world of sports. With billions of dollars on the line and an endless number of teams and players who want to improve their game, we can rest assured that more innovations are to come. For now, we have things like sports betting and training analysis, but only time will tell what other things lie in the future.
