Cloud computing is having an increasingly profound impact on the sports industry. People can use cloud computing to analyze and process large amounts of data, which in turn can improve the way athletes train and live. In addition, cloud computing can help referees make match decisions, enhance the viewing experience of spectators, and more.
According to research firm MarketsandMarkets, the market for combining cloud computing with sports is worth $1.9 billion in 2019, and the agency expects this market to reach $5.2 billion by 2024.
Helping training and co-referees
Sports organizations can use biomedical sensors and drones to record a variety of data on the lives of athletes as they eat, sleep and train. By analyzing this data, sports organizations can not only improve athletes' training results and reduce the likelihood of injuries during training and competition, but also monitor their health status.
The head coach of the organization can view the athletes' game and life data in the cloud to determine if there are areas of improvement in the athletes' training. In addition, medical teams can use it to ensure the health status of athletes.
Enhancing the viewing experience and increasing business opportunities
Some teams in Major League Baseball, MLB, are working to maximize the viewer experience through cloud computing. Through cloud-based applications, viewers can watch MLB games in real time. The Register says that cloud computing technology not only provides a better viewing experience for viewers, but also offers better business opportunities for baseball stadiums.
Cloud computing lowers the barrier to use of such applications. With cloud computing, even the smallest teams in MLB can easily use such applications to enhance the viewing experience and effectively promote their promotional merchandise.
Does not take up local space, cloud computing to reduce the cost of technology use
Compared to localized data processing, cloud-based data processing has many advantages. Users do not need to be equipped with advanced GPUs and complex architectures, nor do they need to take up a lot of local space in order to store data; all data can be processed in the cloud.
Cloud computing can reduce the cost of custom applications for sports organizations. Typically, sports organizations' demand for data services fluctuates greatly, depending on whether they have a game that day or not. So it is not cost effective for them to spend a lot of time and money to build local data processors.
Soccer, sailing, cycling, cloud computing applications have great potential
There are already many sports that have adopted cloud service solutions like Google Cloud and BigQuery Data Warehouse.
The Football Association of England uses Google Cloud Platform to process large amounts of data to help teams prepare for games. Coaches and staff will make key decisions for the England team based on the results of processing this data.
SailGP uses cloud computing to analyze large amounts of data, and the race team uses the cloud to analyze billions of data and transmit this information to all departments of the sports team to help the team make the best strategy.
USA's national cycling team uses cloud computing to generate accurate real-time cycling data as a way to help riders adjust their training regimen, allowing them to effectively improve their training results.
In addition to these professional teams, amateur sports fans also use cloud computing technology. About 50 million runners use Runkeeper, a cloud-based application. they record their track, running speed, mileage, time, training plan on Runkeeper and upload these data to the cloud for preservation.
Sports organizations cover little, cloud computing applications are still in the beginning
Although cloud computing can bring a lot of convenience to sports organizations, however, the current cloud coverage of sports organizations is very low, and the vast majority of sports organizations are still using traditional infrastructure.
According to Ronald Brouwer, data analyst and assistant coach of the Dutch national field hockey team, "The market for combining cloud computing with the sports industry is still in its infancy in Europe, due to the fact that current management does not fully recognize the benefits that cloud computing can bring to the sports industry. However, as more and more young people enter the sports management field, this market will have great potential. These young people know what cloud computing brings to the sports industry and they will drive this market forward."