Platform and Sports
Let the Games Begin !
How are you playing sports during Covid19 ? Do let me know in comments !
In my case, this question invariably seques into running and running events. It hurts to repeat ad nauseam about absence of any real running schedule but believe me it hurts even more that it seems unlikely that we would have any marathon events this year. But then ,if hurts so much to recreational long distance runners like me, imagine the pain & disappointment for the Olympians who would have been competing at the highest level this weekend in a Non Covid 19 Era.
As of now, Olympics 2020 have been postponed for July 2021 (though still called Summer Olympics 2020) but for many athletes at their prime practice & performance 2021 might be too late !
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DTW,
During the week, Indian Premier League Governing body led by IPL Chairman Brijesh Patel announced the dates for the 2020 season. This 51-days cricket carnival would be held in UAE from September 19 to November 8 if the government permission comes through. IPL is cash cow for BCCI and almost everybody in cricket ecosystem including franchisees, players, broadcasters, support staff, event managers, hosting venue, hospitality etc depends on it for their survival. Though the fans are going to miss the in-stadium experience but over years the format has changed itself to suit an online immersive experience. As usual, this has made it ready for platformization. In fact, over last few seasons we have seen an increasing gamification of audience engagement over HotStar’s platform. Their integration of WatchnPlay and other initiatives like Fantasy Leagues have made the entire sports watching focused on social and online immersive experiences. Anyways, this does not mean that cricket fans would stop trolling RCB’s IPL win record or rather lack of it !
The potential use of platform for sports related businesses is immense but is also open to manipulations because of anonymity and lack of physical regulations. A case in point is the recent hosting of a cricket match in Punjab purportedly by little known Uva Province Cricket Association from Sri Lanka. Of course, somebody was trying to pass it off as a streaming content of match being played in Sri Lanka and hence the potential of it being manipulated by a betting syndicate can not be ruled out. Unfortunately, sports news platforms like SportsKeeda, fancode and crickettimes etc carried live coverage of the matches giving “legitimacy” to the entire enterprise.
We can understand Sports and Platforms relationships through three interactions- making sports viewing accessible, creating immersive sporting experience and of course esports themselves.
First, platforms have made big investments in bringing sports to an even larger audience. Live streaming of sporting event has moved from sports network to either network owned platforms like HotStar and even to platforms like Facebook. It is no wonder that HotStar owned by Star Network had to spend more than the failed 600 Million USD bid by Facebook to livestream IPL but still could not prevent Facebook acquiring Digital rights for all ICC events for four years in 2019. Even if not watching on platforms , sports audience uses platforms like Twitter, Instagram as well as live commentary platforms to socially engage with the other fans. It is interesting to see the audiences’ dramatic shift to online platforms for live sports viewing when as per a report 2 out of 5 people watch live sports on mobile and of them at least 75% have watched it on Facebook or related apps. We also have emerging platforms which were conducting virtual events even before Covid19 and thus giving an opportunity to geographically spread out running communities. One of my ex-student and current running buddy Prashant Choudhary started Garmin Indian Runners which has become one of the largest fitness community in India. This platform conducts exciting Monthly Challenges offering Running, Cycling, Walking and various fitness challenges to improve fitness, strength and endurance building in participants.
Popularity of these emerging platforms is an encouraging development from the long tail perspective of sports events as it ensures that the “minority” sports played and watched by small audience would also get the media space.
Second, platforms with use of technology can create superior immersive experience. We have already seen the impact of simulations and camera angles on the viewing experience. With more AR/VR tools being deployed with faster internet speeds and cloud infrastructure , we might find it more difficult to leave our living rooms to watch live sports.
As an athlete , growing importance of fitness wearables from Apple, Google and Amazon make them part of the evolving sports platform ecosystem. These platform based wearables like smartwatches or even heartbeat monitors have ensured that the sportsperson have a more immersive experience while playing. Most of the times they are coupled with dashboard including performance indicators/leaderboards and social connect available across all the platforms. There is also a possibility of using AI platforms for facial recognition for controlling unruly fans, ticketing, intelligent driver less parking and of course IoT for facility management in stadiums.
Third, platforms have changed the very nature of sports to an online sports or esports.The BigTech platforms have made significant investments in online gaming and Covid19 has accelerated the trend. A cursory glance at major players like Google Stadia, Microsoft’s Xbox, Sony PlayStation Now , Nintendo Switch , Nvidia’s GeForce , Amazon Twitch and Facebook Gaming tells us that the market is already crowded but also shows that the future of sports might be online and on platforms. Of course, we are past the 2D Super Mario Games but that has not prevented Ixigo to use the online gaming nostalgia to promote safe practices during Covid19.
Platform have huge potential to democratise sports and make it accessible. Though we see continuing online harassment controversies like Gamergate over the streaming as well as gaming platforms but we also see more engagement from historically disadvantaged communities. For example, traditional sports broadcasters hardly have space for women leagues and of course , women find it difficult to go to sports arena for watching it live so from a gender perspective Sports Platform give an unprecedented opportunity to women to profitably play and watch sports.
With platforms, future of sports is accessible, immersive and inclusive.
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OTW
Over the Weekend, Taylor Swift launched her new album “folklore” and of course created ripples in music platforms. Two quick thoughts- One, she is prolific and Two, she is a role model for creators on platforms. Platforms across sectors have become extremely powerful over last decade and hence the creators whether artists or sportsperson or in fact any other brands have lost their bargaining power as they cede more of their customer connect to platforms. Taylor Swift has been an exceptional when she stood up against Spotify and even more refused to bow down to a big bully like Apple. Of course, having 136 Million Instagram Followers, 83 Million followers on Twitter , 39 Million subscribers on Youtube and 36 million monthly listeners on Spotify makes her difficult to miss !
These few words from her latest single “cardigan” make me feel good about world around us.
And when I felt like I was an old cardigan
Under someone's bed
You put me on and said I was your favorite
I Love You
Shailendra
PS- As part of Signature Courses at IBS Hyderabad, I would be soon starting a 10-hours over 5-weeks course on “Endurance Sports, Business and Life”. These short duration; peer discussion based; and small cohort courses are aimed at creating interesting conversations around areas of mutual interest. You may find more information on earlier courses on ICT4D and SDGs & Businesses in the respective web-links.
Aaahhh!!! One of my favourite newsletters of yours. I had not shown much interest in sports ever in my life.
I still remember my first day of run. It was you who introduced me to the world of run. From that day onwards, I have loved running.
I have also been a part of Garmin Indian Marathon. A good virtual running experience it is, indeed!!!
Unfortunate it is, that now everything has gone into a standby mode. Sometimes I just open my set of medals and look back to those virus-free days. :D
Loved reading your newsletter, Coach. Really!!!
A very interesting and useful read for me especially .Being a founder of a domestic sports promoting application initially it was alway a great challenge for me to get engagement into the platform .But the moment I opened the app in a manner more engagement and information can be attained the download number also started increasing gradually .And now its going to be a complete era of live-streaming but still not all games can we streamed due to bare minimum amount of Sponsorship in the domestic sports area were the legends are actually made .So I hope the platform I am working with also can give a lot of inputs in the coming era of complete digitalisation of sports .
Let the game grow 😊❤️