The impact of AI in sports analytics
AI (Artificial Intelligence) has landed on both feet in our lives, as it is influencing every level of sports performance and engagement because it helps us to better understand what is happening in the game. Years ago statistics were taken on hand and some mistakes could be made and some misunderstandings could arise, but now AI has become an essential asset in sports that provides valuable insights about the game.
Real time data collection
One of the advantages of AI integration in the sports environment is that real time data collection is faster and more accurate than ever, thanks to the innovative technology that includes an advanced computer system and sensor systems, which help to analyze patterns and movements and track every movement, pass, dribble, block to provide statistics about the in-game dynamics.
This is possible thanks to Machine Learning (ML), a branch of AI, which creates systems and algorithms that enable computers to make decisions based on data collected. This new integration can detect and gather in-game statistics and parameters that were undetectable to the human eye. There is so much information that not even a group of people were able to detect certain features or they didn’t think that they could matter. AI has become so important because it goes beyond what we understood as a game, it provides a large amount of information that can be used for a lot of purposes and by different groups of people.
A great example of it is the Hawk-Eye, which is a technology that was originally created to provide a real-time line-call to help the referee increase the accuracy of decision-making. Now, the Hawk-Eye has been introduced into other sports, such as football, cricket and baseball. In cricket this technology assists in tracking the ball’s path and helps in making decisions about LBW (Leg Before Wicket).
Injury prevention and Health monitoring
Teams and clubs have implemented AI to become more powerful in terms of competition. AI algorithms are capable of gathering data and analyzing it, providing valuable insights about the players performance. AI helps to monitor player’s health and physical conditions during training and games. Players were devices that are capable of collecting metrics about their heart rate, water level of the body, level of oxygen in blood, everything in real time which is really useful for coaches and fitness coaches to determine how the player is going to perform on its full potential and what it needs to achieve it. This helps to establish a personalized training schedule that will also help to prevent injuries and players take less risks and reach full potential.
Developing a game strategy
AI is able to analyze historical data and establish trends among metrics that occurred in previous games. Therefore, it will forecast an expected outcome for the game based on team performance. This aspect brings a lot of value and teams are taking advantage of it. Coaches use AI to decide how they are going to play and who is going to play based on how AI predicts that the game can have a favorable outcome for that team. Thanks to the Machine Learning integration, AI is able to make decisions based on an analysis of the rival team and the home team, following metrics such as tactics, the line-up, the mentality of the players, and other in-game stats like passes, shots or even expected goals. AI transforms data into valuable insights and gives a full report to have a better understanding of what is beyond the statistics.
To conclude, AI has revolutionized the sports industry and has changed how we understand data. From the human eye, some metrics of the game can not be detected but what AI does is to gather raw data, transform it into valuable reports and provide a full analysis of what is happening. AI optimizes real-time data analysis of the game, helps to make better decisions to monitor health for a full player potential and provides insights to have the best possible game outcome.
Written by: Joel Santamaria
References:
https://www.datacamp.com/blog/ai-in-sports-use-cases
https://thecommonwealth.org/news/blog-leveraging-artificial-intelligence-sports-industry-opportunities-and-challenges
Great article! It is clear that ai has had a massive impact on the revolution of sports and will continue to be used to enhance the sports world not just on the fields and courts but off in the training facilities as well. My question is do you think that the introduction of ai in games such as football has been a good thing or a bad thing?
ReplyDeleteThanks for your comment! I do think AI has been an improvement therefore a good thing for sports, not just football. As mentioned in the article, AI is able to gather data and provide valuable insights in real time and this helps in decision-making for the future. It is indeed a good thing, for example being able to monitor a player's health is wonderful, as AI will provide metrics about what the player is suffering from and how to change it to improve performance.
DeleteAI is really changing how we analyze and understand sports, making real-time data collection much more accurate. It’s interesting to see how technologies like Hawk-Eye are being used for more than just officiating to improve the game. With so much data available to coaches, do you think there’s a risk of depending too much on technology instead of sticking with traditional coaching methods?
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteThanks for you comment! AI is not planning to overtake the traditional coaching methods, it is designed to be a useful tool and help coaching practices.
DeleteAI is changing sports by offering real-time data, injury prevention, and strategy perspectives. Some years ago, this types of analysis of an sport game where unimaginable. Tools like Hawk-Eye help referees make perfect calls in sports like tennis, while AI-driven data helps coaches predict game outcomes and specific training for players. Do you think the IA can hurt the magic of the sport?
ReplyDeleteAI is not hurting the magic of sport, it just makes everything more accurate and provides real information about anything, such as calls in tennis that previously there could be a mistake on the call because the human-eye is not as accurate as AI.
DeleteVery interesting article! Clearly AI is changing a lot of things nowadays, and sports is going to be one of the industries where AI could impact the most during the next years, but I would like to know what do you think about this, do you think analysts now rely too heavily on AI-driven insights, or has it freed them to focus on deeper strategic elements that data alone can’t capture?
ReplyDeleteThanks for your insights, AI ables analysts to make better decisions but the human still has the power to take the strategic decisions, AI is only providing a better understanding of data.
DeleteAI is reshaping sports by enhancing data accuracy, injury prevention and strategic planning which is a great game changer in the sports business! I really like what techonogly and AI can do for sports. But will this data-driven approach enhance traditional coaching or replace its intuition?
ReplyDeleteThank you for your comment, the data-driven approach will help the traditional coaching to make better decisions based on past insights of previous games, the intuition still remains on the coach but now they rely on more statistics that help them in decison-making.
DeleteGreat post! AI is really transforming sports with real-time data, injury prevention, and game strategy insights. It’s amazing how much deeper teams can now analyze and prepare. But do you think relying on AI could eventually take away some of the instinct and spontaneity that make sports thrilling?
ReplyDeleteThanks for your comment, no AI doesn't affect the spontaneity of sports and the thrillingness, relying on AI is helping coaches, teams, clubs and everyone to make better decisions based on data gathered by AI and enhances the decision-making process.
DeleteGreat article! Amazing to read about how much AI can do in the sports industry. But how reliable do you think all the AI generated data is? Can Analysts fully rely on the AI analyses when taking important decisions?
ReplyDeleteThanks for your question, absolutely AI is the future of data driven insights, the accuracy of it is better than anything else, but the decision-making remain on the human intuition, based on the statistics that AI provides.
Delete(Joel Tejeda)
ReplyDeleteGreat insights! In your view, how do you think the integration of AI in sports will evolve in the next decade, particularly in terms of ethical considerations around data privacy and the potential for AI to influence game outcomes?
Thank you, that is indeed really interesting because AI doesn't understand about limits until we tell it that there is a limit. AI programmers have to establish limits and make AI understand what data can be analyzed following the data privacy concerns. AI has no power to decide game outcomes, it just predicts the most probable result based on the past data but each game is different.
DeleteAi is nowdays growing and growing in the sports World. The var, the hawk-eye are great invations that solve the problems that we had in sports events. Do you think that is necessary to use this technology?
ReplyDeleteHow do you think AI will keep changing sports in the future, and what new areas do you think it could help improve next?
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