How AI platforms are transforming sports fan engagements

Physical locations and athletes themselves will always be crucial to the sporting experience, but AI platforms and untapped data are now changing the game

In the present and future of sports fan engagement, artificial intelligence (AI) continues to power new kinds of fan experiences in a range of ways. Catered to preference and persona; AI will be able to recommend options based on historical choices and interact through chatbots in real time. For the experience to truly take off, a collective effort is required from sports brands and sponsors, stadium real estate, cloud providers, nimble tech innovators and of course, buy-in from the fans themselves.

According to Jan Kees Mons , Consultant and Sports Commentator at Eurosport, stadiums will be instrumental as they will become major content and data providers in order to deliver the ultimate customer journey inside a stadium, and hence satisfy the demands of the fans. In fact, stadiums and fan platforms will become ‘data temples’, thinks Mons. Equipped with this data, tailor-made marketing campaigns, games and sales recommendations can be made, which should add to the fan experience.

“The entire future customer journey of a fan will be hugely affected by AI . Imagine yourself wanting to go to a football match. Ordering your tickets will be determined by chatbot-assisted AI, your AI-assisted car will drive itself to the stadium, drop you off at the entrance and find itself a parking spot. You won’t have to queue as AI-powered crowd management systems will take care of congestion assisted by facial recognition etc.

Once in the stadium, AI will recognise who you are and what fan profile you have, so it can provide you with a tailor-made experience instead of a one-for-all experience. AI-powered chatbots will give you a personal treatment like never before, making you feel like a VIP. Whether it is related to food, merchandise or social media, AI will come up with the right suggestions. An AI-assited control centre with security personnel will oversee and monitor your safety so that you do not have to worry about terrorist threats or hooligans. Once at home, AI will take care of all your personal highlights during the game, so you have something great to remember,” said Mons.

Data unlocks new levels of experience

Sports science may now be widespread in most elite sports, but much ‘behind the scenes’ data isn’t immediately available to fans. It’s a realistic expectation that some will cash in on this rich vein of data and analytics, so it can migrate into the supporter’s experience and create a multitude of potential insights to be interpreted by fans and fed into areas like the betting industry. Highly-tailored experiences also bring with them more relevant content experiences for the customer and for advertisers, increased accuracy and locality of their messages.

Substantial investments into direct-to-consumer platforms and enhanced streaming capabilities have already begun, powered by AI on the cloud from the likes of Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Microsoft Azure. Back in 2020, Microsoft and the NBA announced a partnership that changed basketball. The NBA’s vast array of data sources and extensive historical video archive became available to fans through state-of-the-art machine learning, cognitive search and advanced data analytics solutions. Satya Nadella, CEO, Microsoft said at the time that: “We’re thrilled to serve as the official AI partner of the NBA. Together, we’ll bring fans closer to the game and players they love with new personalised experiences.”