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Generative AI was one of SportsPro’s ‘sports technology trends to watch out for’ in 2023. It was hardly a controversial prediction given the explosion of interest and the major investments made by big tech companies and the progress made by startups and specialists. But even still, the pace of adoption by the sporting world, and indeed wider society, over the past 12 months was remarkable.
These technologies are being used to create multimedia content, automate marketing plans, enhance digital products, and produce spoken word commentary in multiple languages. Tools from multiple vendors are being used to power these use cases, but there is one tech firm whose influence surpasses all others – OpenAI.
It was OpenAI’s ChatGPT that took Gen AI mainstream, signing up 100 million users in just two months to become the fastest-growing consumer application in history, and securing huge investment from Microsoft. Now it’s making waves in the sporting world.
Spanish soccer’s LaLiga is using OpenAI to automatically translate player interviews into multiple languages in real time – using their real voice. Meanwhile the Tour de France has integrated ChatGPT into its digital portfolio, and Whoop is combining its own algorithms with OpenAI technology to create intelligent coaching applications.
The industry has barely scratched the surface when it comes to Gen AI, but OpenAI promises to transform how sport is played, organised and consumed. As the company further develops its technology and expands its partnership network, and as sport becomes more comfortable with Gen AI as a concept, expect OpenAI’s influence to grow in 2024.
What came first, the athlete or the influencer? In sport it’s obviously the former, but both are becoming further intertwined.
The term ‘influencer-athlete’ has often brought negative connotations. Notably, the sight of YouTubers stepping into a boxing ring and earning more than most professional fighters has been a hard pill to swallow for purists.
But for every Jake Paul or KSI there is an Angel Reese or Olivia Dunne, who combine athletic ability with social media savvy. The pair are only 21 years old and still attend Louisiana State University (LSU) where they compete in basketball and gymnastics, respectively. Both are among the highest earning and most popular young athletes in the US.
Reese and Dunne are at the forefront of a new wave of influencer-athlete. Reese will already be a star when she joins the Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) and other student-athletes will be the same when they enter the major leagues – keep an eye out for Bronny James, Shedeur Sanders and Caleb Williams in the coming years.
Talents like this are going to change how sports properties do business. For years, athletes used to leverage brand equity from teams. Now it is inverting, with fans being drawn first to stars rather than teams. ‘Online personality’ is set to be one of the most valuable sporting currencies as influencer-athletes have an even bigger impact on the industry.
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All eyes will be on Africa in 2024 as the global sports business finally gets serious about a continent that has long been tipped as its next frontier.
Growing interest and investment from international rights holders such as the National Football League (NFL), Professional Fighters League (PFL) and International Cycling Union (UCI) will continue to develop the African sports market, which has reportedly seen five per cent year-on-year growth over the past 20 years, as will the expansion of the National Basketball Association-supported (NBA) Basketball Africa League for 2024.
Notably in soccer, the launch of the new CAF-sanctioned African Football League is set to transform the club game and has already attracted significant investment from new main sponsor Visit Saudi, while the emergence of Togolese broadcaster New World TV as a major rights buyer has prompted Fifa to invite offers for its next two World Cups in sub-Saharan Africa.
From a marketing perspective, entities across Africa’s burgeoning economies are beginning to see sport as a viable platform for projecting the young, increasingly connected, culturally diverse continent of over 1.3 billion people to the world. From Morocco to South Africa, a more concerted, ambitious approach to driving tourism and investment is yielding results, with Visit Rwanda’s sponsorships in European soccer demonstrative of a broadening outlook when it comes to international brand building.
An auspicious mix of elite sporting talent, major events, developing infrastructure, and an emerging class of athlete investors is shaping Africa’s sports economy from the ground up. Expect more investment activity in 2024 as the cultural and commercial power of the continent and its sprawling diaspora continues to be realised.
The last of the US mega-properties will confirm its long-term domestic broadcast rights in 2024. The NBA’s window to negotiate with its existing partners – Warner Bros Discovery-owned Turner Sports and ESPN – opens on 9th March. Warner Bros Discovery might well let its 45 days pass in the hopes of getting better value for money (ie. more digital rights for Max) and Disney’s new deal will have to fit into a future where ESPN has gone fully direct-to-consumer (DTC), as well as a world where the ‘Worldwide Leader in Sports’ might be spun out from the ABC commercial network.
What is certain is that the NBA’s next rights deals will look quite different to the current ones in both volume of games and distribution. I’ll stick my neck out by saying Amazon will grab a package of games in a similar fashion to its Thursday night National Football League (NFL) rights.
In 2023 the National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) set new benchmarks for women’s sports and next year could see more of the same. One of the early deals will be the English top-flight Women’s Super League’s (WSL) new domestic broadcast agreements. Emboldened by the club-owned NewCo, chief executive Nikki Doucet has every chance to come out blazing with a significant rights fee increase and even put an end to the UK’s Saturday 3pm blackout window.
The sponsorship slowdown of the past 12 months will continue into the first half of next year, leaving rights holders crossing their fingers over the emergence of a new category. It’s never easy to identify what that might be, but the industry will be hoping that 2024 is the year that AI companies make a more aggressive play for premium inventory.
Elsewhere, the ongoing consolidation in the agency space means that there will be more talent crossovers featuring stars from the worlds of sport, music, fashion, and entertainment – although I’d be impressed if anyone emulates the months-long halo effect the NFL has enjoyed from Taylor Swift’s romance with Travis Kelce. I also hope rights holders learned a thing or two from the Barbie and Super Mario Bros movies about creating buzz and bringing IP to life in different ways.
More specifically, I expect female athletes to receive increasingly lucrative endorsement offers in an Olympic year as marketers wake up to the clout they now carry on social media. Plus, I’m anticipating a new title sponsor for the Indian Premier League (IPL) now that Tata Group has the female equivalent locked in until 2027. With the country’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) reportedly looking to take a stake in the T20 competition, it wouldn’t be a shock if a Saudi company stepped up to the plate.
Finally, amid all the talk of the NBA’s next media rights contract, people are forgetting that its deal with Nike also expires in 2025, so don’t be surprised if a renewal is announced next year.
At a time where fan engagement is so crucial for sports properties, it is interesting to see the direction many motorsport series are taking in this space. Right now, fans don’t appear to be the priority for some series as every last penny is chased.
The new media rights deals agreed by Nascar and Formula E are evidence of this. The former has pursued fragmentation to an extent that Nascar fans will need to navigate five broadcasters and up to ten different platforms from 2025. Overall viewership is sure to be impacted.
It’s a different situation for Formula E, though. While Nascar has haemorrhaged domestic viewers since the turn of the century, the all-electric championship has struggled to build momentum with its audience in the UK. But the loyal fanbase it has managed to curate, however small, will now need a TNT Sports subscription to watch the series. I can see the effect on its following in the UK being substantial.
The cautionary tale for a series moving behind a paywall, specifically via TNT Sports, is MotoGP. But the two-wheel championship is now setting the standard for reengaging with its fans. I believe that, next year, Formula One may finally take notice of the work being done in MotoGP, especially with former National Basketball Association (NBA) exec Daniel Rossomondo pulling the strings.
This may become even more important for Formula One if this upcoming season is as stagnant as 2023. More dominance by Red Bull could see fans become more detached, with the longest season in history only set to fuel more fatigue if there’s little-to-no competition. Formula One is too much of a behemoth to feel the effects at the moment, but its popularity will swing if this continues for much longer.
The WSL is primed for a significant year in 2024 as its current domestic TV agreement expires next summer. Incumbents Sky Sports and the BBC will be keen to retain their respective packages but face competition from TNT Sports, which is in the mix for live games, and the broadcasters will also wait to hear whether the traditional 3pm Saturday blackout will be lifted for WSL matches, an unprecedented step in English soccer.
Whether or not it’s lifted, a major uplift in revenue is anticipated and the league should also see a rise in commercial income under the leadership of a new independent company from next season onwards.
Meanwhile, the number of sports sponsorships with AI specialist firms should increase considerably. While the likes of Globant and Infinite Athlete have already struck agreements with significant sports properties, there remains plenty of scope for more partnerships to be formed. This is reinforced by the greater prominence for innovations such as digitally enhanced dasherboards (DEDs).
In the streaming space, Netflix continues to dabble in live sport, as shown by the recent Netflix Cup and upcoming Netflix Slam. While the ‘will they, won’t they’ speculation has swirled for years, it appears only a matter of time before Netflix acquires the rights to an established property.
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