Forecast: AI, web3 to drive innovation in sport

IMG and its digital company Seven League have launched their Digital Tendencies Report 2023, exploring the applied sciences and developments that might form the game media panorama for rightsholders over the following 12 months.

That includes insights and evaluation from Seven League’s international workforce of specialists, the report breaks down the most important developments within the sector and the way they might affect the methods sports activities manufacturers and organisations have interaction followers and audiences. This consists of Twitter and Meta’s future instructions, TikTok’s future as a streaming platform, Apple and Amazon’s newest performs as sport broadcasters, the digital progress of girls’s sport and the evolution of Web3 – to call a couple of. 

Seven League CEO, Lewis Wiltshir,e stated: “The previous yr has witnessed the best second of transition the know-how sector has seen in a era. We’re now getting into a brand new period of the web that embraces streaming, content material, communities, information and industrial. On this yr’s Digital Tendencies Report, we convey collectively all of the experience throughout Seven League’s huge community, mixed with IMG’s international scale and industrial prowess, to supply rightsholders a glimpse into what they need to be contemplating for his or her digital methods over the following 12 months.” 

Headline predictions from the Digital Tendencies Report 2023 embody:

• The Membership Wars: Stay sport is a singular driver of viewers acquisition and retention, particularly when a part of a broader subscription bundle – as seen with Prime Video’s NFL Thursday Night time Soccer protection. Subsequent yr, sport goes to see the continued development of tech-focused firms similar to Amazon, Alphabet and Apple into this area. If rightsholders wish to entice this new era of broadcast companions, they’ll want to indicate they will convey engaged fan communities to the desk.
• Web3 turns into helpful: Whereas early makes use of of blockchain know-how in sport have revolved round collectibles – subsequent yr, innovation will probably be centered on enhancing the connection with followers and prospects slightly than utilizing these new applied sciences to solely earn cash. Wanting forward, we’ll cease utilizing phrases like NFTs and transfer in direction of extra fan-friendly language. 2023 can also be going to see an evolution in the usage of web3 applied sciences within the areas of ticketing, fan engagement, re-sellable digital merchandise and loyalty programmes.
  
• AI and the way forward for content material: 2022 noticed the emergence of thrilling new types of computer-generated content material, together with Marks & Spencer’s very personal digital influencer, Mira. In 2023, we’ll see the sports activities trade begin to experiment with an thrilling new content material toolkit to interact audiences that now anticipate extra immersive and interactive leisure, similar to creating immersive 3D content material from nonetheless photographs. Look out for hyper-realistic recreations of historic sporting moments from the grainiest archive footage and even different commentary codecs that marry reside information feeds with AI-generated speech from well-known voices.
• Sport will get severe about communities: This yr we’ve seen the proof that whereas conventional social media platforms can convey followers nearer to the model, it’s not often about creating fan-to-fan relationships. Transferring ahead, sports activities properties will probably be trying to established group platforms like Reddit, Discord, WhatsApp and Substack to construct that reference to their viewers via fundamental fandom. The alternatives for sports activities rightsholders to get severe about investing in fan communities have by no means been broader.
• Go large… or go totally different: From information, music and video games to retail and messaging – right this moment’s sport followers have extra content material at their fingertips than ever. To keep away from changing into subsumed by the wealth of content material now obtainable throughout platforms like TikTok, rightsholders have a option to innovate their content material output and go greater … or go totally different. Wanting ahead, sports activities manufacturers must be giving their inventive groups the liberty and permission to trial new content material concepts and collaborations that change from the archive, highlights and analysis-based content material we’re used to seeing.
• D2C ≠ DIY: Direct-to-consumer methods have lengthy been seen as the reply to fan engagement.  Nevertheless, subsequent yr the sports activities trade will realise that D2C is just not a catch all answer, and whereas it’ll stay extraordinarily vital to remain linked to grasp your buyer higher – they’ll look to trusted third events to assist them navigate each D2C and B2B enterprise revenues. D2C doesn’t need to imply DIY.
• Digital drives ladies’s sport: The previous 12 months have seen nice progress within the digital progress of girls’s sport – with the launch of athlete-backed media enterprise TOGETHXR and the primary 24-hour streaming service for girls, the Ladies’s Sports activities Community. Subsequent yr, digital will proceed to drive the mannequin for girls’s sports activities via the likes of OTT platforms, social channels, NIL rights, and sponsorship from manufacturers looking for a direct connection to particular communities. With the FIFA Ladies’s World Cup approaching in 2023, the dialog round ladies’s sport will come to the forefront as soon as once more with many manufacturers and stakeholders asking “what extra may be executed?”