All kinds of technologies are being deployed in sports today, including video streaming, high speed cameras, tracking systems, and even augmented reality.
When used effectively, they can help to create more exciting and enjoyable viewing experiences for fans, attract more viewers, and even increase revenues for leagues and teams.
The iGaming industry also uses a wide range of technologies to improve the fan experience when they place bets on sports games.
One great example of this is comparison sites like oddschecker that pool the free bet offers, odds, and other key information to help bettors make the better decisions and unlock more value.
Another technology that is being used in sport is drones.
These small remote-control aircraft can unlock entirely new dimensions to this form of entertainment.
However, due to the complex nature of the vehicles and their safety implications, drone adoption is slow and tentative, but it is progressing nonetheless.
Formula 1
Motorsports like Formula 1 have long deployed helicopters to provide a bird’s-eye view of the action, but drones can have only been used a handful of times.
The sport has begun experimenting with them, first in 2020 and again in 2022, but safety issues and practical implications of F1 speeds have prevented the sport’s bosses throwing their weight behind them so far.
The World Rally Championship
Things are difference in the WRC, though. The cars are spaced further apart, there are fewer spectators that a drone could land on, and rally stages are vast.
This makes a drone perfect for following a car through areas where coverage would have simply been impossible or impractical, providing fans with a better perspective of the action and allowing them to feel closer to the sport. Many drones now use a high speed RDMA Camera, which makes them perfect for capturing each car racing past.
The NFL
The NFL doesn’t, as a general rule, use drones to film games.
The given reason for this is that there are better technologies for capturing close-ups of players inside a stadium that are safer.
However, the league was the first in America to receive permission from the FAA to fly drones and it uses them for training and documentaries.
300 small aircraft were also used in Lady Gaga’s Super Bowl halftime show in 2017 to create the American flag.
Skiing
Skilling, in many ways, is like rallying in that crowds are usually contained to one (or a few areas) with most of the competition taking place away from them.
This makes operating drones safer than at stadiums where thousands of people are packed close together.
However, the caution deployed by other sports has been proven prudent by professional skiing as there have been several incidents in recent years.
For example a UAV almost hit Marcel Hirscher during a slalom race in December 2015 when it crashed, at speed, into the snow.
(Pic by Unsplash, licence free)
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