The smart sport

Sport, according to the RAE "Physical activity, exercised as a game or competition, the practice of which involves training and subjection to rules." Let us not be surprised that in the future dictionaries will include the definition of "Smart Sport", since for years numerous technologies have been integrated that help the execution of this activity.

In this article we will tell you everything you need to know about artificial intelligence in sports. So much football, athletics, baseball, American football, motor sports... They have been integrating technologies to improve the experience of doing these sports.

How is artificial intelligence used in sports?

AI systems have arrived in sport to reduce the margin of error in any decision, obtain a greater series of data... in short, help athletes/referees. Some areas in which it is used are:

• Performance measurement: during a match a large series of data is collected that in past decades were impossible to measure. Nowadays, thanks to AI in training, it is possible to receive feedback in real time and create personalized training programs for players, thus improving the effectiveness of each exercise for each individual. It is even possible to create "twins", that is, a virtual twin of the athlete that allows us to improve their training, optimize their performance or learn from their own data to predict muscle injuries and cardiovascular diseases.

• Refereeing: Refereeing is an essential part of sports, so much so that without it its practice would be chaos. That is why everything that helps make it more efficient is welcome. We already have several cases in which AI helps the referee make decisions. For example, in the next World Cup, FIFA will implement AI and semi-automated technology to detect offsides.
• Strategies. Thanks to all the analysis provided by AI, coaches are able to know how their rivals play, how they should confront them, which players to use according to the context... In short, they have access to a large series of data that makes their task easier.

How has sport changed thanks to this technology?

If we talk about smart sports, the application of AI is much more evident in individual sports in which it is easier to measure different data. For example, in cycling, effort and intensity levels, altitude, gradient, pollution level are measured... and all this to know when it is most appropriate to overtake.

On the other hand, in several sports we have a method known as "moneyball", a revolutionary model that is based on “big data” to make signings. This management model is based on the film by Bennet Miller. In the film we can see how Billy Beane, general manager of a baseball team, achieves success by making the most of his resources.

Soccer

In the case of football, one of the pioneering clubs in this practice is Brentford, an English club that is currently competing in the «Premier League» but a few years ago he was roaming the fields of the 3rd English division. This very remote promotion is due to the fact that the new members of the board came to the conclusion that it was impossible to fight with the largest clubs due to the budget gap, so they had to fight with ingenuity and being more efficient. That is why they implemented this management modality. In their case, for the recruitment of players they have scouts scattered throughout Europe who are recruiting data, which will later be used to know if that player is suitable for the team.

Future of sport

The future is somewhat unpredictable in most cases, but seeing cases of how some sectors such as video games, tourism, etc. have evolved, we can predict that one of the keys to the future of smart sports will be virtual reality.

On the one hand, we have the application of virtual reality for professional athletes. How can this technology help you? Well, especially when viewing scenarios in which they have already been or will be. Virtual reality will be able to take them to their playing field to practice mistakes made in the previous match. If we look for some examples of sports in which virtual reality is already being used, we find, for example, motorsports, where the driver can replicate the race through the different circuits, or golf, where, thanks to virtual reality, shots can be rehearsed and thus predict what the trajectory of the ball will be.

Here is an example of how virtual reality is applied in training.

Open video or resource

Additionally, virtual reality will also be useful for spectators of sporting events, because not everyone can go to stadiums and live the 100% real experience. In the United States it has already been implemented in several sports such as basketball, WWE or the NFL. Imagine what basketball fans had to enjoy watching Kobe Bryant's last game broadcast in virtual reality.

Ethics/Technodoping

With this large number of technological advances, we see more and more athletes capable of reaching limits that a few years ago were not even imaginable. For example, the Kenyan runner Eliud Kipchoge managed to complete a marathon in less than two hours on October 12, 2019. And although we know his great skills for competition, the focus was on something else, his shoes, the "Nike Alphafly". Then, the debate opens on whether materials and how they distort the competition, favoring the performance of athletes. It is clear that sport should not ignore the great possibilities that technology offers, but in cases like this, regulation by sports courts is necessary, because at the end of the day, sport must remain sport.

Bibliography

Expansion (December 2019)- https://www.expansion.com/juridico/actualidad-tendencias/2019/12/30/5e0a3fbce5fdeafc3e8b45d8.html

PortalcomunicacionUAH (June 2021)- https://portalcomunicacion.uah.es/diario-digital/entrevista/el-uso-de-la-inteligencia-artificial-en-el-deporte

Tokyoschool (August 2022) – https://www.tokioschool.com/noticias/inteligencia-artificial-deporte/

Revistalibero – https://revistalibero.com/blogs/contenidos/brentford-un-equipo-construido-a-base-de-estadisticas

Expoknews (October 2021) – https://www.expoknews.com/implicaciones-de-la-inteligencia-artificial-en-el-deporte/

Written By

Alejandro Ferrer

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