There are very few aspects of life that artificial intelligence (AI) is not embedding itself into, and the sports industry is no exception. There are many different use cases appearing, from athlete training to sports analysis, through to television coverage. When the marathon runner Tola Tamirat crossed the finish line in the 2024 Paris Olympics, he was wearing sensors that monitored his heartbeat and hydration level. Athletes wear devices on their wrists and others embedded into their apparel that do not just monitor heart rate but also the speed they are running, distance covered and the force and angle of physical impacts in sports like rugby and American football (such analysis can be used to help prevent concussion). Such biometric data can help to avert injury by highlighting deviations from normal data, with one study finding a 35% reduction in non-contact injuries amongst teams using wearable devices.
Other technologies record live action sports on camera and then use artificial intelligence and other algorithms to analyse player movements. Cricket fans have become used to technology like Hawk-eye, which predicts the trajectory of a cricket ball to help adjudicate whether a batsman is out leg before wicket, whilst other technology can assess whether a batsman made a faint contact with the ball before being caught. The Hawk-eye technology is used to assess line calls at Wimbledon and in several other sports, including badminton and volleyball. Video-assisted referee (VAR) technology has been controversial in football (soccer to Americans), but it is getting a helping hand from AI to speed it up and assess some decisions.
Tools such as Football Radar rate players and predict the outcomes of matches, including betting advice, and they are not the only such tools. Coaches can use such tools to assess player performance and spot areas for improvement in sports ranging from basketball to cycling. AI in the sports market was valued at over $2 billion as long ago as 2022. AI can be used to analyse golf swings and provide immersive practice environments for players to practice and get feedback. It has even been used in golf course design to help optimise water usage and assist with course layout. It is used in dope testing by spotting sudden changes in an athlete’s physiological data or performance. The technology can be used by talent scouts to analyse footage of the activities of promising players and help them assess the most talented ones, though human experience is still key. As Real Madrid football coach Zidane said: “Artificial Intelligence plays a very important role now, but in my view human intelligence remains the most important.”
Sports channel ESPN has built a generative AI tool that builds summaries of some sporting events, these recaps being reviewed by human editors before being published on websites and apps. Rival technology carries out optical tracking and predictive modelling. Motor racing, an industry full of technology, has embraced AI, such as its use of machine learning to help optimise car design. improving aerodynamics and more; with over 3,000 different components on a Formula 1 car that can be optimised, there is plenty of room for computing power to help model performance. AI is even being used in ten-pin bowling. AI-powered video technology is allowing audiences to develop in niche sports like Pickleball and even arm wrestling.
Clearly, the vast amount of personal health data being stored about athletes brings with it concerns about privacy, though techniques such as homomorphic encryption can help secure such data. There are also issues of fairness and bias, a recurring theme in large language models. Nonetheless, there are many uses for the various flavours of AI in sports, and the cost of the technology continues to fall, such as the ubiquitous video cameras in smartphones that allow sports events to be inexpensively recorded. It seems inevitable that AI technology will continue its relentless invasion of sport. This may not be universally welcomed, as the controversy around VAR in football has shown, but it seems unstoppable. Machine precision is set to complement human sporting talent in more and more areas.
