In 2023, global sports technology acquisitions, mergers and acquisitions totaled $37 billion, an increase of $16 billion from 2022.
The largest transaction was the US$9.3 billion acquisition of WWE. Why is an event IP transaction also included in the field of sports technology?
With the slogan of "seeking common ground while reserving differences, chatting about sports hot topics of common concern", "Community" is a weekly dialogue program launched by the Voice of China at 10:00 p.m. on Friday at 10:00 p.m. during the "Decisive Moment" column of the Voice of China.
Drake Star, an overseas investment bank, recently released a report stating that the total amount of global sports technology acquisitions, mergers and investment and financing projects in 2023 will reach 37 billion US dollars, an increase of 16 billion over 2022. On March 29, 2024, the 154th episode of the program discussed the new trends in the development and application of sports technology. The three "gossips" involved are Zhang Wen, a reporter from the Voice of China, Zhang Rui, vice president of Ruiteng International Sports Technology Group, and Luo Ranfeng, vice president of sports business marketing and general manager of Shengyi Interactive.
This article is an excerpt from the content of this program.
01
Sports technology marches to eight major tracks
Zhang Wen: Recently, a foreign investment bank released a set of data, pointing out that the total value of global technology acquisitions, mergers and acquisitions, investment and financing projects will reach US$37 billion in 2023, an increase of US$16 billion from 2022. This increase has always kept people in high interest about the development of the sports technology industry. Today, let's talk about how the achievements of sports science and technology innovation have nourished the sports industry in recent years.
Ran Feng, in addition to the significant increase in the amount of sports technology investment, what other interesting details are there in the report?
Luo Ranfeng: The report divides the types of sports technology investment projects. Among the mergers and acquisitions category, the largest transaction was the acquisition of WWE by Weimei for $9.3 billion. The most prominent investment and financing projects are related to China, and Hero Sports VSPO, a Chinese e-sports organizer, has received a $265 million investment from Saudi Arabia's Savvy Games Group.
Zhang Wen: I have the impression that Weimei is more like a media company, while WWE is an event IP. Why is this considered a sports tech-related investment, and are there technologies that will be applied to WWE to make the event look more technological?
Zhang Rui: Taking WWE as an example, the new application of its technology can be reflected in the following aspects. The first is media production. For example, the clarity of the broadcast screen of the event is improved, and the different applications of technologies such as VR virtual reality and AR augmented reality, as well as the optional viewing angle and camera position. Like VR has been said for so many years, there is still a certain breakthrough in development. The core competence of one of our collaborative science and technology innovation projects is to make the audience wearing the device feel immersive. The clarity of the picture is up to 8K, and the sound capture is also very good, restoring the feeling of the audience in the actual stands. In this way, viewers watching the game on a device will have an experience that blurs the boundaries between the physical and the online.
VR is still a sports technology track that has attracted much attention
The second is data insights. When you watch a sports game, you will see some technical statistics on the screen at regular intervals. In the last year, we have also been in contact with some start-up teams in related fields who have developed data collection solutions that are less disruptive to the contestants. In a combat match, to accurately measure a fighter's punch speed, power, and other data, it may be necessary for the fighter to wear some equipment. But the upgraded solution uses a camera and an artificial intelligence algorithm to analyze the punching habits, hit percentages and other statistics of the fighters. These in-depth statistics can be used to assist the commentator in the analysis of the game broadcast, or to be the first to be disseminated on social networks.
The third is promotion and publicity. WWE is a real-life confrontation, and the audience is relatively mature. However, with a few collection methods, WWE fighters may become models and animate them among children, guiding them to become future professional wrestling fans, so that they can build brand loyalty to WWE from an early age. One can even imagine Tom and Jerry battling each other in Cat and Mouse in the style of live-action WWE players.
The fourth is professional protection. WWE is a show, but there is also a basic confrontation. In some combat sports, fighters are punched to the flesh, and there is a significant risk of injury. There are a number of new ways to help protect the player. For example, if a player wears braces with sensors, if he is hit in the face with a fist, there will be data to show how much force his brain has been hit, whether he has been concussed or otherwise unfit for the game. In addition, there are many sports health protection programs outside of competitions, such as analyzing the changes in muscle temperature of athletes through infrared photos, assessing the physical condition of athletes, whether the training intensity is too high or insufficient, whether they are at the critical point of injury, etc.
On our side, sports technology is generally divided into eight tracks, including health/sports medicine, media/entertainment, education/training, food/beverage, venues/events/fan engagement, e-sports/virtual sports/gamification, shoes/clothing/accessories & fashion, outdoor, etc. WWE can be tightly integrated with at least four or five of the eight tracks, some for user experience, and some for professional training or care.
02
Scientific and technological innovation meets the needs of the new era of sports
Zhang Wen: Sports have always been reshaped by technology. We have become more and more accustomed to using technology to improve human performance. A recent sub-issue in Nature magazine described how Google's DeepMind is working with Liverpool Football Club to develop AI tactics. DeepMind is the team that developed AlphaGo and has been working with Liverpool for three years. The result, called "TacticAI", uses artificial intelligence to analyze corner kick tactics, such as who has the highest probability of receiving the ball and shooting when attacking, and how to position to reduce the probability of the opponent's shot when defending.
It's a classic case of new technology changing athletic performance, and at the same time it makes me think about a question. In terms of applying new technologies, how does the science and technology innovation team tap the market demand?
Luo Ranfeng: The host mentioned AlphaGo, which was developed by DeepMind to study the capabilities of AI machine learning, which originated from the exploration of AI in the technical community, and the opportunity lies in the high complexity of Go as an intellectual sport. This represents one of the directions in which science and technology innovation adapts to market demand, that is, after some mainstream topics, hot spots, or tackling key directions appear in the science and technology industry, there will be teams to consider how the relevant technologies can be applied in the sports world.
We take the promotion of the concept of "Internet +" as a starting point and review the hot concepts in the technology industry in the past ten years. From VR, big data, 5G to artificial intelligence, which has become popular in the past two or three years, the leading players in the relevant markets of these concepts are mainly some teams oriented to the overall solution. Then there are some teams in the field of sports to consider the possibilities of these technologies in sports applications, such as how to adapt to the eight sectors just mentioned by Mr. Zhang. This is one of the directions to tap into the demand for sports technology.
Drake Star报告封面
The other direction is that there is a need within the sports world and actively looking for solutions. For example, if a coach finds that the team's training level is not good, he wants to know what the reason is: too many games, too high training intensity, unreasonable personal management of players, low level of team doctors and nutritionists, and in the past, coaches may only be able to solve these problems based on experience, but with the development of technology, there may be data analysts involved, and then AI will be involved in analysis.
Is it the technology that comes first in the market and then the team follows up, or does the sports world have an idea and then look for a viable solution in the market? I think it's probably more common. Because most ordinary people's knowledge of technology is limited by their own cognitive level. Even in 2016, I saw a media organization that is no longer in the market, and its vision of technology changing sports was just pasting some visualizations into the sports scene, like I saw a player whose name might be displayed above his head like in a game, with a line of stamina bars next to him. But this kind of imagination is actually very low, and it is roughly just a set of the popular VR and AR concepts at that time. Famous software vendors and platforms can only do such rough technical imagination, and I think it is very difficult for the sports industry to dig out their own needs and then ask the team to customize the product.
Zhang Rui: The second way mentioned by Ran Feng can be summarized as the internal drive of professionals in the industry in many cases. In a recent example, German football coach Julian Nagelsmann used AI analysis to select players for the national team. One practical mechanism for this situation may be that the coach or athlete wants to use technology to gain some abilities that others don't have for the time being, and help them achieve better results. Driven by this demand, it is natural for them to reach out to technology companies or form teams to discuss how they can collaborate on technology solutions.
03
Sports innovation has a subtle impact on consumers
Zhang Wen: We usually divide the business of enterprises into G-end government end, B-end business end and C-end consumer side. From your own experience as a consumer, what are the sports science and technology achievements that have had a greater impact or deep impression on you in recent years?
Luo Ranfeng: Personally, like many friends who have exercise habits, I have entered the so-called "digital life", transforming various sports situations into data things. The most basic thing is that the mobile phone records how many you walk in a day, and a little more advanced is to record speed, distance, heart rate, etc. with software or sports watches for running, and then it can be expanded to this health field, and changes in weight, body fat percentage, BMI, visceral fat and other changes are included in the field of daily data recording.
Zhang Wen: What impressed me the most is the semi-automatic offside system for football matches that has been promoted in recent years, which can catch the so-called "body hair" offside. But I think there's still a lot to be optimized. For example, the time between offside and the generation of simulated images is a bit long, and for an event of the World Cup, the feedback is a bit untimely. In addition, the system's 3D animation modeling looks a bit rough, which may be doubtful for some fans. In the future, the direction of further refinement of this technology is to restore the situation at the moment of judgment more quickly and vividly. I believe this will have a lot of new impacts on the future of football. Of course, fans have also been very impressed with this technology in recent years.
Semi-automatic offside system judgment schematic
Zhang Rui: The technical achievements shared by the two of them, one has changed our living habits, and the other has changed our viewing habits, which are very representative. Last year, we collaborated with the Shanghai Institute of Artificial Intelligence to compile a collection of cases on the application of AI in the sports industry, including a number of cases at home and abroad, some of which are for the C-side. I share two of them that stand out from me.
The first one has to do with my background when I worked at a football club, so I'll pay more attention to it. This is a solution for individual athletes, by sticking a small patch on the shoulder to collect the athlete's sweat and observe the athlete's state during the exercise. What impressed me about it was that it was a non-invasive form of collection and that it was very convenient to collect samples. I think that in the future, not only professional team athletes will use this solution, but even ordinary sports enthusiasts can use this type of device when running or other sports to get to know themselves better.
Another example is AI-assisted training. Like many years ago, when football and basketball enthusiasts trained, they couldn't get high-quality feedback on training completion indicators like professional athletes. We don't know first-hand whether our movements are accurate and what details can be improved. But now we can use the APP, in the form of camera recording, and the AI can indicate whether my movements are correct or not.
04
Technology is reshaping the future of sports
Zhang Wen: Finally, let's imagine the future. What types of sports tech needs do you think are there that are still unmet and need to be filled in the market?
Luo Ranfeng: Personally, I prefer to look forward to the far future. I've always believed that the future of sport, including popular sports, will change dramatically. The innovation of various scientific and technological means is deeply integrated into human life, which will lead to great changes in human entertainment activities, including sports, a form of entertainment based on human physical skills. I have always insisted that the "e-sports" currently being discussed is only a temporary concept, and that the digital technology that will be integrated into people's daily lives in the future will become the medium of sports, which is the real e-sports. Whether it is the competitive transformation of games or the desire to use games to promote traditional sports, it is only a transitional form of e-sports. The world of sport should always think about the possibilities of future changes in sports.
Zhang Wen: Will it become the "oasis" of "Ready Player One"?
Luo Ranfeng: Not necessarily in this form, because the oasis is only based on our current technology imagination, just a simple projection of the real world to the digital world. But the real change may go beyond this imagination that is limited by current perceptions.
The "Oasis" in Ready Player One is just
Rough real-world projection imagination
Rui Zhang: Personally, I would focus on an area that is not so much discussed at the moment – athlete mental health. Nowadays, there is a lot of competition in society, and we used to only know about the glamorous side of athletes and think that they are the object of worship, but in reality this group has a great mental health risk. In the future, there will be a great demand for some programs to monitor and channel the psychological state of athletes through scientific and technological means.
Zhang Wen: It is indeed very interesting that technology helps psychological adjustment. It is hoped that such cross-integration will be realized as soon as possible, for example, to help the national football team adjust its mentality.
Zhang Rui: There are organizations and teams exploring, and there are great opportunities in the future.
Wen: Talking about the future usually opens your mind and helps us find new perspectives on the changing world of sports. Thank you both for joining us and we'll see you in the next episode.
NOTE: THE IMAGES USED IN THIS ARTICLE ARE FROM PIXABAY, FIFA, READY PLAYER NUMBER ONE