Empower the Venue of the Future With IoT
Determine how venue processes can improve with IoT.
- The business needs to move quickly to adopt new ways to collect and analyze data or automate processes. IoT may be the right answer, but it can be complex and create new challenges for IT teams.
- As venues become older, they start to fall behind in terms of digital experiences and infrastructure. This can cause negative fan journeys and siloed working groups rather than a holistic operational ecosystem.
- The digital experience economy has shifted fan needs and expectations where in-venue attendance has declined due to the lack of comfort and excitement a live event provides.
Our Advice
Critical Insight
IoT will close the gap between digital and physical worlds, increasing real business value and overall fan engagement through insightful data.
Impact and Result
- Familiarize the business with the various IoT applications available and the operating model needed after implementing IoT.
- Determine how the business can create value through the sports entertainment business capability map and how IoT can enhance, improve, or create value.
- Use a value chain analysis to determine opportunities for business through IoT.
Empower the Venue of the Future With IoT
Determine how venue processes can improve with IoT.
Analyst Perspective
Create high-value venue processes with IoT.
Internet of Things (IoT) has transformed many industries and the sports industry is no exception to this. The ability to improve scouting and recruitment, player development and safety, team and venue operations, and fan engagement through connected technology has allowed coaches, players, venue operators, and fans to consume sports and data at a high level of degree and depth making the operations and experience ten times more immersive.
As IoT drives growth in the sports and entertainment industry, it’s important to note that in order to remain competitive, the business must offer connected devices for enhanced experiences and engagement as fans and operators not only demand but expect it.
Understanding how IoT provides value to the business, learning what IoT applications currently exist, and analyzing the specific applications through a value chain analysis allows the business to create a holistic and high-value business case for IoT.
Elizabeth Silva
Research Analyst, Sports & Entertainment
Info-Tech Research Group
Executive Summary
| Your Challenge | Common Obstacles | Info-Tech’s Approach |
|
The business needs to move quickly to adopt new ways to collect and analyze data or to automate processes. IoT is the right answer, but it can be complex and create new challenges for IT teams. As venues become older, they start to fall behind in terms of digital experiences and infrastructure. This can cause negative fan journeys and siloed working groups rather than a holistic operational ecosystem. The digital experience economy has shifted the needs and expectations of fans. In-venue attendance has declined due to the lack of comfort and excitement a live event provides. |
IT is typically not a strategic partner from the beginning and is often brought in by the business when the solution is ready to go live. IT and the business should be engaging from the beginning to better understand how IoT can benefit the business. When IT isn’t involved early there are often challenges around scope, timelines, and benefits. IT needs integrations, communications, and access to data to avoid a siloed approach with ineffective data. Older venues may not have the ability to support certain IoT applications due to infrastructure limitations which may end up in costly maintenance or failure. |
Familiarize the business with the various IoT applications available to improve the game and business. Become well versed in the operating model and organizational structure needed before and after implementing an IoT application. Determine how the business can create value through the sports entertainment business capability map and how IoT can enhance, improve, or create value. Use a value chain analysis to determine opportunities for the business through IoT. |
Info-Tech Insight
Through insightful data, IoT will close the gap between digital and physical worlds, increasing real business value and overall fan engagement.
Industry 4.0 is only the beginning of a complete digital ecosystem
We are amid the fourth Industrial Revolution, where the emergence of technologies like IoT, artificial intelligence (AI)/machine learning (ML), and 5G are increasingly blurring the boundaries between physical and digital worlds, transforming the way in which we operate business and attract, entertain, and engage fans.
| Technological evolution | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mass media interests millions of people in attending, consuming, and participating in sports for the first time. | Live Sporting Events | Radio/TV Broadcasting | VR, AR, MR | AI/ML | 5G | Smart venues (IoT) | Connected ecosystems creating a complete digital ecosystem. |
| The First Age 3,000 years ago |
The Second Age 1,500 years ago |
The Third Age The Present |
The Fourth Age The Future |
||||
| Sports were only used for recreational and community involvement purposes. | Culture develops a passion for sports globally. | Companies start to charge money for access to sports-related products. | Popularity of amateur and professional sports grows. | Digital disruption restructures how sports are enjoyed. | Sports are consumed, discovered, and monetized through different technologies. | Sports are packaged, distributed, and consumed differently, creating new business models. | Sports will embrace virtualized processes, creating integrated value chains of physical and digital. |
Socio-economic changes
Short-range internet of things (IoT) devices reached 12.5 billion worldwide in 2021. That number is forecasted to increase to 22.4 billion by 2027.
Wide-area IoT devices reached 2.1 billion in 2021 and are predicted to reach 5.2 billion by 2027.
(Number of wide-area and short-range IoT devices worldwide from 2014 to 2027, Statista, 2022).
Source: Huddle Up, 2020; Statista, Dec. 2022.
IoT effects all processes of the sports and entertainment business
Global IoT connected devices are forecasted to surpass $31 billion by 2025, growing at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 24% between 2022 to 2025.
Source: Statista, Dec. 2022.
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