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THE FUTURE OF

“Sports, which in the past were essential in forging a tribal and then a national identity, are forging a planetary identity.” —Michio Kaku Theoretical physicist, futurist and author of Beyond Einstein

“The future ain’t what it used to be.” ­—Yogi Berra

56 THE FUTURE OF SPORTS 57 CONTENTS INTRODUCTION

LAST YEAR WE ASKED A GROUP OF FUTURISTS to help us 03 Introduction look into the future of the sports industry, and to make bold predictions for the next 25 years. We hoped to start a conversation about the challenges and 04 Slingshot Technologies Overview opportunities that lie ahead. We were surprised and gratified by the intense interest, commentary and debate the report generated from our friends and 05 Editors’ Letter colleagues in the business. We obviously weren’t alone in the desire to start defining the questions that will shape sports in the years to come. 06 The Future of Sports Team We published the first iteration of The Future of Sports and quickly realized 08 Generation Remix that we had more questions than answers. That’s the inspiration for this second edition. 12 Globalized Fandom Technological change is accelerating at an astonishing rate, and in just one 20 Neurocoaching year we’ve seen some great strides that are captured in this publication. It’s increasingly clear that teams and leagues can no longer be reactive to today’s 24 AR/ VR Road Map technology—we have to be at the forefront of developing tomorrow’s. We are positioned to become not just early adopters, but partners and investors 30 Betting/Fantasy Convergence as well. I hope this publication will spark both your interest and creativity in shaping what’s next. 34 The Epic Battle: vs. vSports My contemporaries may initially approach this subject matter with skepticism 38 College Sports: Megabusiness and a feeling that it’s not applicable to our demographic. I certainly did. But I’d argue that exploring the themes laid out in The Future of Sports will prove Machine Medicine relevant to the most pressing questions we face as owners and league executives. 42 At the very least, the exploration will be quite enjoyable.

46 Alt-Athletes And what’s good for business can also have a larger impact. In a world that feels ever more divided, sports’ ability to unite people across borders is both 50 Youth Sports Reform increasingly important and increasingly possible. Fellow sports fans, no matter where they are from or what language they speak, are never strangers for long. 54 The Final Word These are critical years, as franchises and leagues compete for international attention and seek to build ties with fans who live thousands of miles away. It is time to start thinking of the entire globe as our hometown market.

As the stewards of sports, we must simultaneously keep true to their essential character and ensure they remain relevant through ongoing cultural and technological changes. Our job is to connect the past to the present and to lay the groundwork for future generations of athletes and fans. I can think of no more challenging, or rewarding, a task.

Jeremy M. Jacobs Chairman of North Owner of the Bruins

2 THE FUTURE OF SPORTS 3 SLINGSHOTS EDITORS’ LETTER

A TECHNOLOGY’S “SLINGSHOT” MOMENT happens when it bursts from the domain of the very few into mass-market application. Throughout this report, we’ll highlight seven technologies on the verge of sling- shotting and discuss how they’ll change the sports landscape. Look for the icons in the pages ahead.

AI • Better products will be designed SENSORS FRIENDS OR FOES? We can see this dynamic at work in sports social media, •  subcategories more quickly and delivered in near • Sensors are proliferating in jerseys, For the last two years, we’ve been researching and reporting sports tourism, video games, unlicensed merchandising, real time. machine learning and deep learning athletic wear and equipment, creating from the front lines of the sports tech boom. We’ve sat down sports news, fantasy sports and sportsbook betting. Billions • In- 3D printing allows will process vast data streams to exponentially growing data sets for with inventors at scores of startups. We’ve seen hundreds in revenue—tens of billions in some cases—are now being enhance coaches’ game strategies teams to personalize memorabilia AI systems to process, granting unpre- of demos and pitch decks. We’ve scrutinized the teams generated, as technology has allowed new businesses access and real-time decision making. for fans, while commercial printing cedented insights into performance— to millions of fans. There is now legitimate concern that • The NBA is embracing the early makes highly personalized player and providing a never-ending stream these startups assemble. We’ve tracked the best of them to stages of artificial intelligence in equipment design and manufacturing of micro-outcomes for sports bettors market. The race is palpable as they burn the midnight oil. sports ancillaries have become a partial replacement for the form of advanced analytics possible. to wager on. Meanwhile, we’ve watched the flow and pooling of global attending games and watching on . Until now, these based on human-built models. • Infrared and LIDAR blasters built capital, along the way predicting several of the mergers, ancillary businesses have gotten by on the argument that • The next two steps—play calling into every smartphone will serve as acquisitions and megadeals that have transformed the they benefit franchises indirectly by engaging fans and pro- and game scenarios—will be GLOBAL SMARTPHONE CANOPY depth sensors to create 3D maps landscape in a single stroke. moting their brands. But franchises have started wondering simulated by active, independent of every space in the “real” world, • By 2020, 7 billion people will be if they are truly friends or foes. Even as the leagues partner decision-making AI models, and connected to the internet, repre- allowing content-rich VR and AR For decades, franchises have relied on with some technologies, they’re banning others, such as live the powerful analytics models will senting several billion new sports overlays to flourish. be self-evolving using machine fans joining the global marketplace the big four revenue streams: gate receipts, media rights, streams from fans’ smartphones. A turf war has begun and learning. for the first time. sponsorships and merchandising. The explosion of new it is taking place across the globe. Teams and leagues are • 5th-generation wireless coverage BLOCKCHAIN technologies, however, has given rise to many side businesses beginning to flex their muscles as rights owners. They want gives the world untethered con- • Will blockchain systems replace the and ancillary markets that piggyback on the popularity of their rightful cut, and they want to control their communication BIOINFORMATICS AND HEALTH nectivity at speeds necessary for banking industry? Too soon to say. professional sports. These industries wouldn’t even exist if and connection with their fans. streaming immersive • As low-cost gene sequencing goes • Blockchain enables fluid, dynamic pro sports weren’t there, yet many of them have contributed little mainstream, teams will build at 60 frames per second. contracts that will radically change or nothing to the bottom lines of pro leagues and franchises. This is a wild time. The wins and losses on the field are no genetic performance profiles to the way players, teams, leagues longer the only compelling drama. The competition off the personalize each player’s nutrition and arenas structure their working and fitness protocols. IMMERSIVE VISUAL COMPUTING relationships. The radical reshaping of the ticket resale business was a field is equally riveting. • Pathogen transfer in stadiums is • : The world • Blockchain-powered digital rights harbinger of this trend. For decades, resales were mainly the inevitable—70,000 people cheering, becomes an infinite display, management can track every domain of small-time scalpers, lurking outside stadiums and eating and drinking in close proximity allowing teams and fans to access mashed-up highlight clip through parking lots. But as the transactions moved online, ticket is a playbook for catching the fall its reuse, making sure the original and use new forms of visual data resales exploded into an $8 billion market, becoming many flu. Virus-hunting nanobots, applied rights holders get paid while during practice and games. fans’ habitual first option to find tickets. Franchises have Josh McHugh, Editor in Chief via an inert spray at the entry and exit • Layered data and visuals will im- allowing them to share the wealth realized they need to fight back to get their share and regain gates, would return fans home with mensely enhance fans’ live viewing with fan-producers who remix and fewer germs than when they arrived. experience, with the availability of popularize the content. control. They’re especially worried that these new interme- instant information and statistics diaries now have the data on fans and can market directly about each moment and each to them, severing the franchises’ 1-to-1 customer relation- Po Bronson, Contributing Editor DIGITAL MANUFACTURING player on the field. ships. “What I really want is more Clippers fans in our arena, • Virtual reality: In-stadium panoramic • 3D printing and manufacturing rooting for our team,” Steve Ballmer remarked at a recent camera systems will create fully will drastically reshape the sports conference. “And less of these California transplants buying supply chain. immersive sensations of the games the tickets to see their hometown Celtics or Bulls. That’s why • Additive manufacturing like 3D for watching in full VR. printing will unlock trillions of dollars • Social VR will lead to widespread I want to control ticketing.” Ethan Watters, Contributing Editor in positive impact if just 1 of 10 adoption of the technology, allowing parts in a product are made locally. fans to routinely meet up in virtual spaces to watch games.

4 THE FUTURE OF SPORTS 5 THE FUTURE OF SPORTS TEAM

JOSH McHUGH’s career began at Forbes, where he opened the magazine’s Silicon Valley bureau. Next TYSON LAW is the design director for Attention Span Media and is a multidisciplinary designer who stop: contributing editor at Wired, with assignments for Vanity Fair, Outside and others. He worked on EA’s specializes in user experience design and architectural environments. He received his M.Arch from the Madden NFL and NCAA ad campaigns for Wieden + Kennedy. The filmDunkumentary chronicles University of School of Design, where he studied architecture and fabrication technology. his 6-month attempt to dunk a . The CEO of Attention Span, Josh holds a BA in English from Yale. He also holds a BS in , Arts and Communication from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

PO BRONSON is the author of seven books, most recently The Times bestseller Top Dog: The SHAWN ROBERTSON is a Bay Area–based senior art director and designer. She studied at California College Science of Winning and Losing, which has become mandatory reading at many professional sports of the Arts, San Diego State University and UCLA. With a background in design, art, theater and women’s franchises and USA Olympics programs. His science journalism has won nine national awards, and he studies, she fills her free time with art, friends, family and singing. has been cited in over 100 academic journals and over 300 books.

ETHAN WATTERS is a journalist who has spent the last two decades writing about culture and psychology. He SUZEE BARRABEE is an art and print producer who has spent most of her career working in advertising on is the author of Crazy Like Us: The Globalization of the American Psyche and Urban Tribes: A Generation a range of accounts such as Nike, Chevrolet, Facebook, Comcast and the NBA. She has had the pleasure of Redefines Friendship, Family, and Commitment. His writing has appeared in The New York Times Maga- working with such diverse talent as Britney Spears and an alligator. zine, Outside, Discover, Men’s Journal and Wired, among other national publications.

CHRIS COWART is a designer, business innovator and venture investor. Outside the office, he is a sponsored LARRY HABEGGER is cofounder and executive editor of Travelers’ Tales books, where he has worked on all of athlete in cyclocross and kitesurfing. While at IDEO for 14 years, he won numerous design awards and pat- the company’s 130-plus books and helps oversee their publishing program. He writes mainly on the subject ents. He serves as design faculty and futurist at Singularity University in Silicon Valley. He lives in Redwood of world travel, is cofounder of The Prose Doctors (an editors consortium) and editor in chief of Triporati.com. City, California, with his family, where he serves as a trustee at Phillips Brooks School in Menlo Park. He played at Dartmouth and loves to hike, paddle a kayak and play golf.

LISA OLSON is an award-winning sports journalist and columnist for the Sporting News, AOL Sports, the MATT SPERRY is an account manager and digital strategist for Attention Span Media. With a background in New York Daily News, The Sydney Morning Herald and The Telegraph. Her work has been featured in the philosophy and a passion for sports, Matt has had an eclectic career spanning roles such as art director, anthology The Best American Sports Writing. She has reported from Afghanistan, , Asia, Australia, riflery instructor, butler and personal assistant to a former US ambassador. You can usually find him South Africa and , covering rugby and soccer World Cups, the Super Bowl, the Olympics and a playing pickup soccer around Boston or heading off into the mountains of . vast array of sports feature stories.

NATALIE JONES is a reporter based in Oakland, California. She loves to work with sound, write prose, and dig ERIC PEARCE, LUKE BRONSON AND HENRY GORELIK To research the fan habits of teenagers, we went up facts. When not doing those things, she consumes a lot of media and spends a lot of time outside. Some straight to the source. Our street team of 15-year-olds investigated video games, fantasy sports, Generation favorite topics to cover are health, agriculture, food and the environment. She has reported for NPR, KQED, Z and global expansion. Luke Bronson and Henry Gorelik attend University High School in . KALW, Grist and Civil Eats. Eric Pearce attends Lowell High School. Luke also serves as a youth ambassador for the San Francisco Deltas, an NASL soccer team.

ANTON MALKO has worked in Athletics Communications at the University of California since 2005, covering SPECIAL THANKS David Reardon (reporting and research), Aaron Frank (machine learning advisor), Justine Gubar, Andy Dolich, many of its 30 sports, including rugby. He traveled to the 2016 Summer Olympics to follow the Golden Bears’ Dylan Casey, Steve Baker, Todd Merry, Gary Bettman, Garrett Law, Cam Neely, Peter White, Tracy Hughes, Merrick Madsen, 50 participants. A native of and graduate of College, he lives in San Francisco Garrison Murphy, Mark Charles, Long Ellis III, Katie Gorman, San Francisco Writers’ Grotto, Sean Wagstaff, Shannon Roy, Sam with his wife and two sons. Nordemann, Andries Maritz, Paul Saffo and Attention Span Media

6 THE FUTURE OF SPORTS 7 The metrics on them are scary. They’ve disappeared from the trackable universe into “dark HERE’S THE SECRET: The kids now coming of age are actually the most informed young sharing.” Two-thirds use ad blockers on their laptops, and mobile blocking will follow. Even sports fans in history. They are cord cutters, but they have not cut themselves off from Facebook and are losing Generation Z by the millions. 99 cents is their favorite price. sports. Sports programming and data are such a deep part of their culture that they feel They think nothing of pirating video streams, but they rarely watch sports from start to finish a sense of ownership. And that’s the very trick to reaching them—empowering them to because the highlights tell the . CAN THE SPORTS INDUSTRY EVER MAKE MONEY ON THEM? take sports media as we know it, mash it up and distribute it as they see fit. GENERATION REMIX

Only 1 in 9 use Twitter to express them- Kik and other apps designed to avoid STREAMING It’s not illegal to watch FORGET UNBUNDLING The real change HYPERSOCIAL selves or communicate. Fully a quarter texting charges. AD BLOCKING someone else’s stream. So it’s no sur- will be the end of channels as we know JUST NOT WITH YOU of users 13 to 17 years old abandoned prise that watching pirated streams of them. Tomorrow’s consumers will only Facebook this year: Facebook has lost & STREAM STEALING sports is common. However, the number want to pay for the hours (or games) We thought Facebook was their television 11 million young users. WHERE MILLENNIALS WATCH SPORTS VIDEOS WILL BROADCAST GET NAPSTERIZED? one reason millennials watch pirated they are actually watching. and Twitter was their radio—the tech- 25–34 YEARS OLD 13–24 YEARS OLD streams is that the content they want nologies that defined their generation. “DARK SHARING” refers to communica- AD BLOCKING Two out of three millen- to watch isn’t available to easily buy. New sites like PopChest that make Twitter’s 140-character limit seemed tion that can’t be tracked or measured nials use ad blockers on their laptops. blockchain payments for content easy the epitomization of their notorious by web analytics programs. On internet On mobile, it’s not common yet in the In fact, it’s the older generations accus- and fast, will train consumers to expect 8-second attention span. Then, in the content sites, now half of web 58% 52% 64% 45%* US but likely to follow the global trend tomed to free television who are least to pay only for what they actually watch last two years, something happened. hits pages from sources that are un- *VIDEO STORIES ON ESPN’S DISCOVERY toward mobile ad blocking. One third willing to pay for sports content. Fans (10 cents at a time), and this expecta- trackable. Dark sharing now accounts CHANNEL ARE GETTING UP TO 30 MILLION VIEWS IN of smartphones in Asia employ ad under age 36 are willing to pay a high- tion will become pervasive. Can’t figure for 84% of all social sharing. Millennials THEIR BRIEF 24-HOUR LIVES. blockers—and the rate is double that in er price for sports channels than any out what channel your Spurs game is MILLENNIAL DAILY TWITTER USE prefer social networks like Snapchat, and Indonesia. However, it’s not other generation. Even more notable on? That’s irrelevant—just watch on Whisper and Secret—but they’re also Don’t expect YouTube to pay for any that they hate ads. The number one is that they’re willing to pay a higher their Facebook page. 2014 80% CHECK skipping centralized sites to message sports rights. They already have 4 reason they run ad-blocking software price for a sports channel’s IP stream 60% POST each other, often in groups, using billion video views a day, bringing in is that the ads slow down the loading than they’d pay for the same content on ALEX MORGAN’S FIRST ORLANDO PRIDE GAME, VIEWERSHIP 2016 37% CHECK iMessenger, WhatsApp, Line, WeChat, over $6 billion a year in advertising. of pages. a television channel—because stream access can be watched anywhere: at 500K ONLY 12% LOG IN In fact, according to a recent study by home, at work or on mobile. live streamed “Twitter is for athletes and politicians to reach us. her Facebook page USC’s for the Digital Future, I don’t know anyone who posts to Twitter.” young millennials actually like ads with Facing average bills of $99, 35% of —From a Generation ReZearch focus group sports more than any other generation. millennials have cut the cord and stopped subscribing to cable TV. Young 72K millennials are now averaging only NWSL YouTube Channel eight hours of linear TV a week. Is the GENERATION Y GENERATION Z MILLENNIALS ENJOY era of unbundled, à la carte channel CHANNELS—instead of being a locked BORN 1985–2000 BORN FROM 2000 ONWARD ADS DURING SPORTS subscription inevitable? bundle of shows and games—will in- stead morph into brands whose content GREW UP DURING A STRONG ECONOMY WITH  GROWING UP DURING RECESSION AND TERRORISM, MARKED BY SPORADIC 56% Learn important • India has offered à la carte channels appears all over the place, not just on LITTLE GLOBAL UNREST MASS VIOLENCE AND NATIONAL DIVISIVENESS things from ads 37% Like ads during sports since 2011. A la carte on top of skinny television or a single dedicated stream- 21% Sports wouldn’t be as cable is coming to Canada this year. ing site. THEIR BOOKS AND MOVIES EXPLORED AND FANTASY, OFTEN IN  THEIR BOOKS AND MOVIES PORTRAY DYSTOPIAN FUTURES WHERE KIDS ARE good without ads QUASI-HISTORIC KINGDOMS IMPRISONED OR HUNTED • 63% of all sports fans are interested POTENTIAL SPORTS CHANNEL INCOME SPEND MONEY READILY WITHOUT PRICE AWARENESS 57% WOULD RATHER SAVE MONEY THAN SPEND IT in paying for a sports channel. And 86% of Americans are sports fans. On CONSIDER DIVERSITY IMPORTANT FOR FAIRNESS AND INCLUSION,  THE MOST DIVERSE GENERATION EVER SEES DIVERSITY AS CRUCIAL TO % average, they’ll buy 3.5 sports channels. X EVEN IF IT COSTS PROBLEM SOLVING; GREW UP WITH AN AFRICAN-AMERICAN PRESIDENT 63 3.5 FANS WILLING TO PAY CHANNELS AND HAVE SEEN SAME-SEX MARRIAGE LEGALIZED FOR A SPORTS CHANNEL EACH ONLINE TOOLS FED THEIR NEED FOR ACCEPTANCE, BUT THEY’VE HAD TO LEARN HARD LESSONS ABOUT HARASSMENT, LACK OF ANONYMITY, BEING HAVE BEEN TAUGHT SINCE BIRTH TO AVOID SPAM, ADS, PHISHING, BOTS AND TOO KIND TO STRANGERS AND LOSS OF PRIVACY PREDATORS, CONNECTING ONLY WITH REAL FRIENDS ONLINE

SAW NAME-BRAND COLLEGE EDUCATION AS PATH TO SUCCESS—TAKING ON MORE LIKELY TO “HACK” EDUCATION BY TAKING ADVANTAGE OF CHEAPER MONUMENTAL DEBT AND DRIVING UP APPLICATION RATES EVERYWHERE COMMUNITY COLLEGES, ONLINE CREDITS AND PROFESSIONAL COURSES

8 THE FUTURE OF SPORTS 9 Generation Remix Generation Remix

HOW GEN Z REMIXES A SINGLE SO, WHAT DOES GENERATION Z WANT? HIGHLIGHT INTO ENDLESS VARIATIONS

CHANGE THE SETTING end. They love SPORTS. 81% of millennials In the same way, they like the OFF- REENACT THE PLAY IN YOUR BACKYARD Yes, they want to “interact” with the content—not just share it or comment. THIS IS participated in athletics during child- NEWS cycle and trade drama rear hood—more than any previous genera- just as much as they like the playing THE COCREATION GENERATION . What they really want is to take sports content and

his REENACT THE PLAY IN MADDEN tion. That percentage is going up about season. 10% each generation. Participation mash it up for dramatic or comic effect, mixing in their own audio and commentary. onto DEPICT IT WITH LEGOS evolves into fandom and zeal for fitness. They love humorous BLOOPERS from

sports. They can’t get enough sports WITH POKEMON / IN MINECRAFT They follow STARS more than teams. humor. They share videos of players Stop blaming them for this—they making dumb mistakes as much as, AS GRAND THEFT AUTO CHARACTERS 01 BROADBAND 02 CREATOR STUDIO 03 MUSICAL.LY 04 MASH-UP 05 MICROPAYMENTS cornerback haven’t been around on this world long or more than, great plays. enough to develop team loyalty. In fact, Broadband.tv’s deal Adidas’ Creator Studio, The Musical.ly app, Trick shots, elaborate The micropayments they like it when stars change teams; it They care more about THE TRANSCEN- GRAPHICAL STYLINGS with the NBA to create which empowers soccer which empowers lip- handshakes, spectac- market is well makes sports more interesting. DENT MOMENT than who won or lost. the chan- fans to create and syncing to pop music, ular fails and insane established in Asia.

They don’t care what it’s from, or lightweight CARTOON THOUGHT BUBBLES nel—allowing content submit designs for their has over 100 million footwork are all juicy a They love FOOTWEAR. They follow the whether it happened in the NFL or in creators to play with club’s alternate jersey, users. fodder—and their reach new releases of cleats like the Milan Pee Wee league. Often it’s a single play SPLIT FRAME / HISTORIC HIT NBA clips. BBTV has gamifying the entries can be exponentially

press follows fashion week. They collect exhibiting extraordinary athleticism, trucks 16 billion monthly views by social media vote, is multiplied by being athletic shoes and have an active but it’s just as often as when a player SUPERHERO COMIX FILTERS on YouTube and 76,000 right on target for this reedited by thousands

secondary market, reselling to their overcomes adversity—Mo’ne Davis back licensed content generation. of creators, not just friends not just pristine shoes—but pitching in the Little League World SUPER-SLOW MOTION creators. one—all incentivized to used shoes their friends couldn’t afford Series or Eric Berry fighting lymphoma share in the income. The Financial Times to buy new. ( pegs to make the Pro Bowl again. running SUPERIMPOSE A NEW HEAD the secondary market for sneakers at $1 billion.) They attend games not “for the game” Stop policing illegal use of highlights—empower it and monetize it, allowing kids but to hang out with friends or family football

SET THE AUDIO They want to be able to choose from and enjoy top-notch food and beverages. to share fractional royalties with leagues. The future is a “mixed ownership” model. DIFFERENT ANNOUNCER TEAMS. And Their favorite thing during games: LIP-SYNCING Frictionless, digital-rights management attached to the blockchain—sites like toggle between them to hear what others becoming part of the action by getting college

A are saying. And turn up the crowd sounds. featured on the JUMBOTRON. ADD POSTGAME QUOTE PopChest and Interledger—can make sure everyone gets their cut.

Highlight shows, sports reality shows, Even if sports betting were legal, they’d FAMOUS LINE FROM MOVIE talk shows and documentaries are not rather play FANTASY, because a fantasy second tier to them, not something to team is a mash-up of players across ORCHESTRAL MOVIE MUSIC suffer through because a game isn’t on. teams­—the parlay and the They like ALTERNATIVE SPORTS CON- ultimate bar bet. BLOOPER SOUND EFFECTS TENT just as much as live games. THE HIGHLIGHT

“Generation Z lives and breathes at the convergence of fashion, sports, culture and technology. They experience sport through apparel, and likewise experience fashion through the lens of sport. They communicate with friends through style; their choices embody references to music. And above all, their apparel must help them perform.” —Lindsey Koch, vice president of strategic branding, New Era

10 THE FUTURE OF SPORTS 11 MIGRATION, TOURISM AND NEAR-UNIVERSAL ACCESS TO BROADCASTS AND SOCIAL MEDIA HAVE UNLOCKED BILLIONS OF POTENTIAL FANS —but they don’t live in your city, and don’t necessarily speak your language. The next 10 years will be a gold rush, as professional teams and leagues race to claim this emerging audience. GLOBALIZED FANDOM AFRICA

USA CANADA BRAZIL ARGENTINA UK NETHERLANDS DENMARK RUSSIA AFGHANISTAN VIETNAM CHINA JAPAN KOREA UGANDA SOUTH INDIA AUSTRALIA

GLOBAL TRENDS

BASKETBALL IS THE NEXT SOCCER

CRICKET FANS ARE BORED—AND UP FOR GRABS

CYCLING IS THE NEW GOLF

AMERICAN FOOTBALL HAS LEGS ON THE GROUND

HANDBALL IS CRUSHING FIELD IN KEY BASKETBALL FOOTBALL BASEBALL SOCCER TENNIS BADMINTON

THE DEMOGRAPHICS OF TENNIS—A GLOBAL TOUR WITH CHAMPIONS FROM SO MANY COUNTRIES—ARE PAYING OFF RUGBY CYCLING FOOTY HOCKEY GOLF PING-PONG MMA

12 THE FUTURE OF SPORTS 13 THE FUTURE OF SPORTS USA the mid-1990s._CYCLING After Sir row, to go with their seven German were in ; that changed when JAPAN poor cousin to cricket, falls further GOLF The number of US golfers has Bradley Wiggins won the Olympic Bowl titles. The Eurobowl has  volleyball Ekaterina Gamova RUGBY After stunning South Afri- from grace. At a player auction for a dropped 24% from its peak in 2002. gold medal and the Tour de France been played since 1986._CRICKET signed a $1 million–a-year contract ca, one-fifth of the entire Japanese league restart, the best player in the Nearly every metric—TV ratings, in the same year, cycling became Immigration from Afghanistan and to play with Dinamo Kazan in the population, with an audience share world sells for less than $100,000. rounds played, golf-equipment the new golf. Chris Froome’s three Pakistan stirs up cricket participa- Russian Super League. of 64%, tunes in to the Rugby World _KABADDI The first Kabaddi season sales, golf courses constructed— Tour de France wins have accelerated tion over 300%. The 100th registered Cup to watch Japan beat Samoa championship between the Jaipur shows a drop-off. _MMA After the trend. Sales of bikes manufac- cricket club is founded near the AFGHANISTAN 26–5._BASEBALL The Japanese Pink Panthers and U-Mumba  being banned 20 years ago by the tured in the UK are growing 69% Czech border. CRICKET At the T20 World Cup, television audience for the World was watched by 86.4 million fans,  governor, MMA in New York State annually._SOCCER 30,000 people Afghanistan shocks the world by Baseball Classic is the highest-rated approximately one out of every  is legalized again in May 2016 by a attended the Women’s FA Cup  POLAND beating the West Indies. cable program in the country’s history, four viewers in India. The 37-day  vote of 113–25._CRICKET ESPN2’s final between Chelsea Ladies and FOOTBALL The Polish American with larger TV audiences than the “season” attracted 435 million to- broadcast of the T20 World Cup Notts County Ladies, more than Football League has 74 teams in VIETNAM Olympics or World Cup._TENNIS Kei tal viewers._SOCCER Over 68,000 final on a Sunday morning drew  double the previous record. Across 36 cities. The Polish Bowl is played BASKETBALL Five years after Amer- Nishikori of Japan rises to #4 seed spectators showed up at the Salt 2.4 million viewers. Three exhibition England, the number of girls and in front of 20,000 fans. It’s now the ican Henry Nguyen founded the Sai- in the world. Lake Stadium in Kolkata to watch games of T20 cricket were played women playing soccer has in- fastest growing sport in Poland. gon Heat in the ASEAN League, the Atletico beat Chennaiyin 2–1 in the in American baseball stadiums, creased by 40,000 in two years. _MMA UFC Fight Night 64: Gonzaga Vietnamese Basketball Association KOREA 2015 Hero Indian Super League. Just with 84,000 tickets sold._SOCCER vs. Cro Cop 2 drew over 10,000 to begins play. Basketball is now the HOCKEY Ahead of the 2018 Winter two years old, the league averages Even though NBC paid $1 billion for NETHERLANDS the Tauron Arena in Kraków, Poland. favorite sport of 6% of the country. Olympics, the Korean national hockey 27,000 fans._BASKETBALL is the English Premier League rights, FIELD HOCKEY Even here where the team is bolstered by the granting the home of Bhamara, ratings in the US are 19% higher for best in the world play, field hockey ITALY CHINA of South Korean citizenship to six who became the first Indian to ever Liga MX on . salaries are less than $100,000 and BASKETBALL The Boston Celtics PING-PONG The country that has North American players who’ve be selected in the NBA. Skipping subsidized by club coaching and play an exhibition against Olimpia won 23 out of 27 gold medals in been playing in the Asia League for college, Bhamara became the 52nd CANADA construction work. Milano. ping-pong is falling out of love with Korean teams. pick in the 2015 NBA draft for the TENNIS In the last five years, tennis table tennis. Television audiences of Mavericks._BADMINTON  participation has leapt 32%. DENMARK CROATIA world championships have dropped UGANDA Following Saina Nehwal’s bronze HANDBALL For the Handball  FOOTY Australian rules football 90% in the last decade._BASKET- BASEBALL Uganda becomes the medal at the London Olympics,  BRAZIL Euros, 75 networks broadcast the gains popularity in Zagreb. Four BALL Zhejiang Golden Bulls sign first African country to send a team India’s first-ever medal in badminton, BASEBALL Yan Gomes from São tournament to 175 countries. The teams from Zagreb make up a  American star for to the Little League World Series. the Indian Badminton League opens Paulo becomes the starting catcher event smashed attendance records. six-team league, the CEAFL. $600,000 a year—12 times what she in 2013 with a $1M prize fund, the for the Cleveland Indians. Gomes 70% of all in Denmark was earning in the WNBA._FOOT- SOUTH AFRICA largest ever offered in the sport. signs a 6-year, $23 million exten- were tuned in. That record was soon SLOVENIA BALL Interest in the NFL has grown BASKETBALL The NBA hosts an  sion with the club. FOX and ESPN eclipsed by the DR1 League finals, HOCKEY When Anze Kopitar  from 1% to 8% in just the last two exhibition between Team Africa AUSTRALIA broadcast 8 games a week, and which received an 80 share. Dane becomes a star in the NHL, youth years. There are 16 teams in the (players of African descent) and CYCLING Over the last decade, ratings have doubled since 2012. Hans Lindberg, who plays for Ham- hockey participation in Slovenia League of China, Team World in Johannesburg, with cycling shot up from 13% of the _FOOTBALL 12,000 fans attend the burg, earns 11 million euros a year. doubles. 1,500 people in Slovenia where all players must be Chinese special appearances from Hakeem population to 19%._BASKETBALL American Football Gigante Bowl  stayed up until 3 a.m. to watch a or of Chinese descent._TENNIS A Olajuwon and Dikembe Mutombo. Australian Ben Simmons becomes in Beira Rio. There are reportedly FRANCE Stanley Cup finals game. record 134 million people in China the #1 pick of the Philadelphia 3.3 million NFL fans in the country. MMA Though MMA is still officially watched the 2011 French Open Final. INDIA 76ers._HOCKEY The Trans-Tasman banned in France, World Warriors There are 11 Chinese women within CRICKET Though still the coun- Champions League of hockey Down ARGENTINA Fighting Championship (WWFC)  GEORGIA the top 200 tennis players in the try’s #1 sport, cricket is losing its Under was canceled due to financial HANDBALL The European sport of utilized the MMA cage; police  RUGBY Rugby overtakes soccer as world._SOCCER Chinese President crowd-pulling power on television, problems. Attendance, regularly  handball accelerates in popularity officers in attendance did not shut the country’s most popular sport. Xi Jinping publishes a 50-point road creating massive opportunities for under 1,000 at the AIHL, sank the in Argentina after their national the event down._HANDBALL Even When Georgia played Russia in the map to make his country a world other sports. Television viewership event against the New Zealand team wins the gold medal at the though Eurobasket sets a record European Nations Cup, 65,000  soccer power. The Chinese Super for the game across all formats has champions. Pan Am Games and Diego Simonet for basketball viewers in France, people crammed into the national League promptly spends $300 mil- dropped 40%. Over the last decade, becomes a star. the EHF Handball Euros draw even stadium in . lion in the winter transfer window the number of hours spent watching more French viewers. on top foreign players—more than cricket has dropped almost half. UK RUSSIA Europe’s top five leagues combined. Even the T20 India Premier League GOLF Between 2004 and 2013, one GERMANY BASKETBALL skips Four of the 10 highest-paid players 2016 ratings are down 22%._FIELD in five golfers in England gave up HOCKEY Two of the three teams the WNBA season to earn $1.5  in the world now play in China. HOCKEY Field Hockey, already the their club membership; in the same with the highest attendance in the million with UMMC Ekaterinburg— period, membership dropped in Russian KHL hockey league—are 15 times what she can earn in the US. Scotland by 14%. The story is similar actually in Germany. _FOOTBALL _FOOTBALL 13.3% of Russians are KEY BASKETBALL CRICKET FOOTBALL BASEBALL SOCCER TENNIS BADMINTON HANDBALL KABADDI in Australia and Japan—which has The New Yorker Lions from Braun- now NFL fans._VOLLEYBALL All lost 40% of golfers from a peak in schweig win their 2nd Eurobowl in a the highest-paid volleyball players RUGBY FIELD HOCKEY CYCLING FOOTY HOCKEY VOLLEYBALL GOLF PING-PONG MMA

14 15 Globalized Fandom Globalized Fandom

Grow your brand with the intention of challenging and redefining your industry, while at the same time inspiring the world. Learn to see things differently DIVERSITY, EQUITY  KOBE or through someone else’s lens. In 04 & INCLUSION GLOBAL basketball, kids are taught to see things BRYANT in mostly twos: a pick-and-roll, a give- FUNDAMENTAL FACTORS Half of the most recent NBA ADOPTION and-go, a 1–2 fast break. In soccer, it’s DRIVING GLOBAL FANDOM draftees were internationals. all about multiple combinations and “Any sport looking to expand looking several steps ahead. If you train The players in the PREMIER or broaden horizons should copy the your eye to see different combinations, LEAGUE represent 70 countries. NBA’s blueprint from 20 years ago. your brain will follow. It’s the same Only one-third of the 220 97% of Real Madrid’s fans will DEREGULATION  David Stern had a vision and he made it when you’re running a league or a 03 OF TELEVISION starting players on opening never see their team in person. happen with grassroots sermonizing in team. See the future beyond your day were English. places like Africa and China. own court.” 02 MIGRATION In addition to CCTV-5, the Three of the top five countries government’s sports channel, The top 100 players in TENNIS, that generate the most traffic With over 11 million Mexicans CHINA allows CSPN and across both genders, are from now living in the US, LIGA MX Shanghai Sports, as well as 45 countries. Players from on the club’s website are not Billions of people in rural areas and on Univision has an American online channels Baofeng 30 countries have won a grand great cities are thirsty for more sport. THE RISE OF THE  Spanish-speaking nations. audience that is 19% larger Sports (Chinese Super slam. And so far it’s the only Even just 10 years ago they had to 01 GLOBAL MIDDLE CLASS than NBC’s audience here for League) and LeTV (American sport with a truly global tour. Back in 2011, the club helped wait to read in the newspaper about The middle class is expected the English Premier League. baseball, golf and ATP tennis). SHAHID these fantastic games being played build a $185 million youth to INCREASE by 1.4 billion 89% of avid female sports by these gladiators a world away, but people over the decade—a With well over 2 million South INDIAN law requires à la fans in America played some academy—in Guangzhou, KHAN new technology and social media has 42% increase in South Amer- Asians in the US, CRICKET is carte channel purchases; 161 school sports growing up. changed all that. In 10 years from now, China. Still, some spare no ica, 59% increase in Africa finally here. New York City million households have cable By that measure, the demo- Owner of NFL’s Jacksonville Jaguars and  we won’t be talking about [putting] an and 83% increase in Asia. As councilman Ruben Wills broke or satellite television carrying graphic trends for FEMALE expense to see Los Blancos: Fulham FC in the English Football League,  NFL team in London because it will Pakistani-American self-made billionaire. societies grow younger and ground on a cricket complex in Prime Sports, Star Sports and FANDOM will power growth. exist. We’ll be exploring options for for each Classico, an estimated more educated, their interest Van Cortlandt Park, where the ESPN, while pay-per-view has “Interest in American football is teams in Dubai or . The TV rights grows in sports, politics and local Commonwealth Cricket not thrived, keeping sports But the US is no world leader 3,000 Israelis fly to Madrid, at growing at a colossal in London will be enormous. There is a global culture. They have the income League has over 100 teams. available to the masses. in female fandom; other mar- and throughout Europe and is part of thirst for sports more than any other an average ticket price of $900. for game tickets and monthly Exhibition attendance and kets are even further along. the global culture. Look at places such sort of entertainment, because it taps television bills. ESPN ratings are climbing. IPTV eradicates the difference Participation in school sports as India or Pakistan, where maybe the into the core of all of us, no matter between online and broadcast is higher in the UK, and far Cross-cultural marketing is no market is saturated with cricket while our upbringing or country of birth.” By 2030, the middle class of Emigration from Canada to delivery. The most-regulated higher in China, where 86% other sports have gone ignored. easy thing. Baseball didn’t be- Europe is expected to have the UK is helping the popu- broadcast markets have the of girls participate in school come widely adopted in Japan twice the total SPENDING larity of the British Elite Ice greatest IPTV penetration. sports. The percent of women POWER as the North , where teams who regularly watch sports until the meaning of the game across borders. Whether they’re middle class. The Asian middle such as the Nottingham Pan- Smartphones and 5G  on television is 10% higher in changed to emphasize group in Northern California or Mumbai, class will have six times the thers draw over 5,000 fans to CONNECTIVITY give billions India, Russia and Brazil than they’ll paint their faces and create spending power. games. of new fans access. in the US. harmony and obsessive ritual, a communal experience during mirroring Japanese culture. VIVEK game time. We tap into that passion with a Sacramento Kings website RANADIVÉ in Hindi. We host Google Hangouts during games for our international BY 2030, MIDDLE CLASS SPENDING FUTURE FANS: Owner of NBA’s Sacramento Kings,  audience. By maintaining a strong POWER ON OTHER CONTINENTS NEARLY AS MANY GIRLS AS BOYS ARE NOW PLAYING HIGH SCHOOL SPORTS WILL DWARF THAT OF THE US Indian-American engineer, author,  with fans in other countries, 4.5M philanthropist and founder of real-time  4M business computing company TIBCO. we also have unique opportunities to discover the next diamond in the 3M “It’s important to tap into the rough, the next . Will he BOYS 2M rising middle classes globally. These come from India, Russia? Is he now GIRLS are fans who are analytically sound, just a 10-year-old boy in India wear- 1M

who love to debate about players and ing a Kings or a Warriors jersey?” 0 teams, and those debates translate NORTH AMERICA EUROPE ASIA 1971 1982 1993 2004 2015 (2X) (6X)

1616 THETHE FUTURE FUTURE OF OF SPORTS SPORTS Photos (from top) by Kevin Winter/Getty Images, Michael Hickey/Getty Images, Ilya S. Savenok/Getty Images 17 Globalized Fandom

In order to reach global markets  and capitalize on their remote fanbase,  a new “globalization backbone”  $ for the sports industry will emerge. 9.45B US SPORTS TOURISM

A NEW GLOBALIZATION SPORTS BACKBONE TOURISM Sports franchises were their own an exhibition game in Beijing and need JUST THE START Sports tourism in the US adds up to $9.45 billion, and it’s going up fast. Tourists already spend $1.15 trillion experts in their metropolitan markets— • WME and Silver Lake Partners first to know who can move all the tickets? globally. Smart money will increasingly find ways to integrate sports and tourism. Three main categories define they had the staff and relationships. If video pirates in Croatia are stealing buy IMG, then buy UFC. But to market themselves nationally, your signal, who do you call? the current sports tourism market: fandom, recreational sports travel and youth tournaments. they naturally grew to partner with • Dalian Wanda Group buys Infront infrastructure companies who had Media (World Cup rights), Atletico Just as MLB’s app and streaming FANDOM the World Cup,” according to the South 6 basketball courts and 12 volleyball nationwide expertise and relationships. Madrid, Ironman events. service eventually grew into a diverse Price is no object: Through a partner- African Tourism Bureau. courts. The soccer and football fields Apparel-licensing companies (Nike), multisport and entertainment com- ship between CAA Premium Experience will be ready by 2018, but already up sponsorship agencies (IMG), ticketing • Alibaba Sports takes over AC Milan pany that Disney has invested over a and iRENA International based in RECREATIONAL SPORTS TRAVEL to 40,000 children come to the city networks (Live Nation), talent and Guangzhou Evergrande FC, billion dollars in, it’s those who can Beijing, Chinese basketball fans spent 94,000 American golfers travel to play for tournaments every year. representation (Octagon). then makes deal with World Rugby actually get things done in international as much as $10,000 each for a package in Britain each year. to develop 1 million Chinese rugby markets who will become the lynch- to come watch play in his Rochester, , is the king of Today, in order to reach global markets players in a decade. pins others need. With this enormous final NBA game. The Honolulu Marathon has a total volleyball tournaments, bringing in and capitalize on their remote fanbase, potential developing, we’re witnessing economic impact of $86 million. Most 110,000 visitors a year who booked pro franchises won’t be able to fly solo. • Chinese investors Everbright and mega-deals all over the globe. New Long-term benefits: The seven most of that is spent by runners coming from 32,000 hotel rooms. A new “globalization backbone” for the Baofeng take 65% stake in MP and money is coming in from the tech and recent countries (Malaysia, UAE, South Japan, who drop $68 million while there. sports industry will emerge. By serving Silva (Grand Slam tennis, NFL in venture industries, from Hollywood Korea, etc.) to join the Formula 1 ALL OF THE ABOVE (or owning) multiple franchises and Europe, Formula 1 and EHF handball). agencies, from Chinese billionaires calendar have experienced an average The 2014 Gay Games brought 15,000 HarborCenter, Buffalo: A hockey epi- leagues, those who develop early, real and from pro athletes who’ve amassed boost in annual tourism of 69% since people to Cleveland-Akron, , from center with hotel, restaurants, shops: expertise in transcontinental markets WHO’S NEXT TO BUY? fortunes. Since major sports teams their first race. other states and countries—8,000 • Practice facility for Buffalo Sabres will grow and become the durable infra- • Tencent (already has NBA rights)? rarely come up for sale, this money of them athletes. The event pumped structure others rely on. • CAA? finds emerging opportunities wherever It’s not all about the mega-events: $52 million into the region’s economy. • Home ice for 2 college teams, a • Lakshmi Mittal or Mukesh Ambani they appear—the new global sports The Olympics and World Cup are women’s team and a junior team Need someone to find you a corporate from India? markets. mired in controversy because of the YOUTH TOURNAMENTS sponsor in India? Need someone to construction investment required. According to a National Association of • Host for 2018 World Junior Hockey add play-by-play commentary in 20 WHO’S NEXT TO SELL? A year before the World Cup in South Sports Commissions study, the travel Championships, NHL Draft and NHL languages to your video feed? Need • Irdeto B.V. (anti-piracy)? Africa, the country hosted the British industry built around youth sports Scouting Combine someone to sell your luxury box pack- • A ticket reseller ($8 billion market)? & Irish Lions all-star rugby team on a brings in an estimated $7 billion. ages to tourists from Japan? Can’t 10-match tour. It required no invest- • Hosts 25 youth tournaments; 75% get on a French television channel but ment, but 40,000 fans flew into South Round Rock, , built a sports of the teams from out of town, as far want to be available via IPTV? Playing Africa—making it “more lucrative than complex with 20 baseball fields, away as Russia and Japan

“In the early days of BAM Tech [MLB Advanced Media’s  “Promoting sports tourism is a major goal of our sports holdings. video unit] not once but twice we considered shutting it With the Bills, we attract almost half of our season ticket members from outside the Buffalo market, including 10% from Canada. We estimate that the Sabres see 15% of fans cross the border from down. It was costing us money and not creating any value Canada each game night.” yet. It takes commitment and it takes time and devotion.” —Kim Pegula, co-owner, Buffalo Bills and Buffalo Sabres; president, Pegula Sports & Entertainment,  builders/operators of HarborCenter sports complex —Jeff Mallet, principal owner,

18 THE FUTURE OF SPORTS 19 WHAT’S THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE 40-SECOND ROCKET BURN OF ADRENALINE and the The ability to execute under pressure—to achieve an athletic flow state—is actually an amalgam of many sustained, elevated state of an athletic high, which can seem to last for hours? Rowers mental processes. Just as the physical challenges for athletes are broken down into building blocks such as speed, power and agility, so too are the mental aspects of sports now being parsed into neural abilities and runners describe a sense of euphoria; basketball players say the rim seemed wider; that can be targeted. The next evolution of this field: neurohacking that delivers specific brain-body states baseball players report perceiving time as moving in slow motion. optimized for individual sports and individual athletes. Dozens of new companies are springing up, offering a buffet of the latest neurocoaching methods. NEUROCOACHING MUSCLE UNINTERRUPTED SPEED UP MOTION SYNCHRONY FOCUS REACTION TIME PREDICTION

HACK: 31% gains in power and 15% HACK: Neurofeedback technology HACK: Macular carotenoids HACK: Stroboscopic glasses. In high- gains in endurance through transcra- measures brain wave activity and nutritional supplements. Zeaxanthin speed games, players have to make nial direct-current stimulation—the allows athletes to better understand appears to influence many aspects of instantaneous decisions in reaction to delivery of a low, continuous electrical how to control their mental states. This the central nervous system’s functions. only a glimpse of the action. Athletes current to the brain through electrodes technology is becoming cheaper, easier These effects extend from optical filter- learn to function with less information— touching the scalp. The current raises to use and more mobile. Eventually, ing within the neural retina to improving resulting in improved reaction time, the resting potential of motor cortex implantable sensors will provide un- the efficiency of well-established visual acuity and sense of timing. In neurons, bringing them closer to their limited, round-the-clock information processing streams in the brain and a two-week study using professional threshold potential and allowing the on brain activity. With virtual reality motor systems (Bovier, 2014). hockey players, stroboscopic training neurons to fire more readily, with less goggles, an athlete will soon be able showed an 18% improvement over a work. Also called the neural state of to simulate standing inside her mind, control group in specific on-ice skill tests. hyperplasticity, this approach may be watching it function, while learning to the key to unlocking power, coordina- better control emotion and cognition. “That improvement for on-ice tion and endurance. The result—after In addition, with the use of mobile EEG skills for professional players three weeks of training—is the learned readings, researchers will determine capacity to collectively recruit all which mental states work best for is huge.” needed muscle groups with greater individual sports activities. Eventually, —Stephen Mitroff precision. This technology, developed coaches will be able to test brain wave Duke University neuroscientist from implants that detect and prevent activity before competition to determine epileptic seizures, is being used in which athletes are mentally prepared. New glasses, using similar techniques, Prefrontal cortex training by athletes of all kinds—from will be developed to increase other golfers wanting to improve their putting visual abilities, including peripheral to ski jumpers wanting to improve their Right temporal lobe vision and multiple object tracking. launch from the ramp.

Motor cortex & spinal circuits

INCREASE IN PROPULSION FORCE IMPROVEMENT IN REACTION TIME IMPROVEMENT OVER A % FOR NATIONAL TEAM SKI JUMPERS % AFTER TAKING ZEAXANTHIN TO % CONTROL GROUP IN SPECIFIC 31 AFTER TRANSCRANIAL STIMULATION 10 BOOST THE NEUROVISUAL SYSTEM 18 ON-ICE SKILL TESTS

“Muscle memory is not in the muscles. It’s in the brain. Conventional wisdom wrongly characterizes strength as being solely powered by muscle function. But it’s also neural. “Learning” is accomplished both by improving motor neurons’ timing and through “Even when you think you’re exercising as hard as you can, neurogenesis—growing new neural pathways. Consider the athlete who begins weight training; there is always some reserve of ability.” strength improvement occurs in the first two weeks, even though muscle growth isn’t much of a factor until the third week. It’s from brain learning, not muscle growth. Electrical stimulation —Dylan Edwards, neurophysiologist at Burke Medical Research Institute, White Plains, New York of the neurons—tDCS—speeds up learning and improves neural drive.” —Daniel Chao, CEO of Neuroscience 20 THE FUTURE OF SPORTS Photo by Nick Kova21 Neurocoaching Neurocoaching

“Sleep is a real opportunity and a real need.  Players finish an NBA game at 10 p.m., but they’re wired and pumped and really can’t get to sleep until 2 or 3 a.m. Which means the coach has to really question whether to schedule a real practice the next day; they want the players to get their 8 hours of sleep. Teams end up not really practicing much during the season. They don’t have the time.” —Steve Ballmer, Clippers owner IS IT NEURODOPING?

RESTORATIVE Research to map and optimize the brain of the individual athlete will become solid enough that SLEEP sports organizations will turn their attention to the neurology of teamwork. In 20 years, coaches % will routinely use neurological data to maximize team efficacy, cohesion and communication. Sleep improves split-second CURRENT HACK: Pro athletes and team trainers are increasingly experimenting decision-making ability by 4.3%. 42 with a variety of supplements, habits BOOST IN HITTING Do these new techniques—altering the wiring of the brain—violate the spirit of sports? Some After four days of restricted sleep, and changes in environment to maxi- ACCURACY BY TENNIS mize the benefits of restorative sleep. PLAYERS WHO GET scientists compare brain stimulation to carbo-loading ahead of an event. athletes maximum bench press IMPROVED SLEEP Last season, the were drops by 20 lb. The challenge is, coached to swallow chamomile, lavender “It piggybacks on the ability to learn. It’s not introducing something artificial into the body,” athletes’ sleep is radically and tart cherry juice, a melatonin pro- ducer that also combats inflammation, says Troy Taylor, high-performance director for the USSA. disrupted by night-before jitters as well as a variety of nutrients like and night-after muscle pain. zinc and magnesium thought to induce restorative sleep. Sharks players also % Others are more skeptical. If any of these new neurohacks are shown to have long-term health In addition, athletes cross time learned how to create effective sleep environments by minimizing ultraviolet 4.3 consequences, then they will likely become regulated and increasingly banned. Similarly, if they zones weekly; and with varying SPLIT-SECOND light and keeping their rooms quiet, DECISION-MAKING prove so expensive that only rich athletes can avail themselves of the advantages, then the public game times, they have no set dark and cool. IMPROVEMENT and major regulatory bodies are also likely to raise objections. schedule for sleeping. FUTURE HACK: Wearable devices today monitor whether an athlete is asleep, CROSSING TIME ZONES WEEKLY Dylan Edwards, a neurophysiologist at Burke Medical Research Institute in White Plains, New but they don’t alter the environment DISRUPTS SLEEP of a sleeper to enhance or extend sleep. SCHEDULES York, worries that the availability of tDCS devices will tempt athletes to try “brain doping,” in New wearables will track both brain- wave activity and body temperature, part because there is no way to detect its use. “If this is real,” he says, “then absolutely the and then alter conditions to prolong lb Olympics should be concerned about it.” sleep phases—especially the all- 20 important slow-wave sleep, when the DROP IN MAX BENCH body regenerates tissues by building PRESS AFTER 4 DAYS bone and muscle. RESTRICTED SLEEP

“Overall, there is growing interest in sleep from teams across all the leagues. It can have a significant impact on peak performance and overall health. In my opinion, it is one of the most untapped areas of sports performance.” —Cheri Mah, research fellow, UCSF Human Performance Center; sleep consultant,

22 THE FUTURE OF SPORTS 23 VIRTUAL REALITY, AUGMENTED REALITY, : kids—and, eventually, adults— depicted in movies. But sports still have to be played in actual reality, with the ball, will spend increasingly significant amounts of their lives inside these environments. by athletes, patrolled by referees with old-fashioned 99-cent whistles in their mouths. Goldman Sachs predicts the AR/VR market will be $85 billion by 2025. Digi-Capital Are any of those billions for those who play in the real world? is far more bullish, predicting it’ll reach $150 billion by just 2020. VR and AR are both heralded as revolutionary—VR akin to the invention of movies, and AR heretofore only “VR will be huge, but it will be only a small subset of AR.” —Jody Medich, Singularity University VR designer AR PUTS VIRTUAL THINGS INTO THE VR REAL WORLD AR/VR ROAD MAP PUTS YOU INSIDE A THE BASICS AUGMENTED 2017 REALITY 12 MILLION VR HEADSETS WILL HAVE SOLD BY American market leaders, a massive the incredibly inventive games avail- MEANWHILE, THE GROUNDWORK FOR AR • SMARTPHONE OVERLAYS. In 2017, you BUT A REVOLUTION HAS BEGUN. Both THE END OF 2016 (7 MILLION TETHERED HIGH-END opportunity has opened for Chinese able. Seven of the top 10 Gear VR apps IS LAID. Pokemon Go gave the world a will be able to hold your smartphone Meta and —the two best HEADSETS AND 5 MILLION MOBILE LOW-END). companies like Pico, Idealens, Deepoon are video content, and 80% of users taste of augmented reality in a sort of up in a stadium and see player data AR systems—have pledged to make THAT WILL MORE THAN DOUBLE IN 2017. and . Meanwhile, web giants Alibaba, watch VR video daily. Some portion of 2D fashion. But sports can legitimately overlaid on the live action. At a busi- their workplaces “screenless” by EVERYONE WHO BUYS A SAMSUNG 7 GETS A Tencent and Baidu are buying up that video will be live-streamed sports. lay claim to the first live AR experience— ness conference, looking at people March 2017. Instead, employees will GEAR VR FOR FREE. IN 2017, APPLE GETS IN THE dozens of Chinese content and game But which sports in particular? That the Virtual Yellow 1st & Ten Line, which through your camera will display their wear AR headsets, working on virtual GAME AND MATCHES THE OFFER. startups. transformative sense of really “being has been included in NFL broadcasts LinkedIn resume. screens that hang in the air above their there” only happens when the action since the late 1990s. Augmented reality desks. Those in the know will recognize 200,000 DEVELOPERS ARE CREATING VR CONTENT. HIGH-QUALITY virtual reality headsets is a few feet from the camera, such as in 2017 will make consumers familiar • WINDSHIELD “HEADS-UP DISPLAYS” augmented reality is everything that VR with three primary types of nascent AR: THOUGH NOT HIGH RESOLUTION YET, VR HAS still have to be tethered to a with boxing and MMA, which can perch —already common in some cars— isn’t—crystal clear, with no sickness. ALREADY BEEN BROADCAST FROM THE NBA more powerful than most people have cameras above the corner posts. VR live will have a wider field of view and SIDELINES TO THE CREW PITS OF THE DAYTONA at home. But they can also be tethered streaming becomes 2D when the action • MORE POKEMON GO–TYPE TREASURE integrate more information than map 500 TO THE TEE BOX OF GOLF’S US OPEN. to a new console, such as is far away, such as across a soccer or FINDING. Walking through Ballpark turns and speed, such as showing text PS4 Neo with 4K resolution, which football field. Village to a Cardinals game, fans messages and sports scores. will be released before Christmas 2016. will collect Matt Carpenter, Yadier This is going to give Sony’s new headset ON CHRISTMAS DAY, MILLIONS OF KIDS Molina and other players. Or, to build VIRTUAL a huge spike in sales, and it will outsell WILL BE SICK. It’s antisocial to wear their Ultimate team in FIFA 18, video REALITY competitors by several million units. a headset. And you can see the pix- gamers—rather than buying packs— els—4K video is sorely needed. But can scoop up players outside the Two business factors will shape win- (PlayStation sales run over 10 million the biggest problem with VR is that it Emirates in North London. ners and losers in the virtual reality units a year.) Meanwhile, Microsoft’s makes users nauseous. At first, it’s market in 2017: new Xbox Scorpio—which will work with Rift—won’t be released until a amazing. Then it gives you motion sick- year later for Christmas 2017. Also, a ness. This is caused by a dozen factors CHINA is already 40% of the virtual Sony VR headset is $200 cheaper. that exacerbate the disconnect between reality market. But Facebook is the brain’s natural sensing and the banned in China, so Facebook Both factors point to — headset’s visuals. Ironically, one of the can’t sell its high-end Oculus Rift the first VR headset most of us have reasons that watching video with a VR there. Nor can Samsung sell its heard about—coughing up the pole headset is popular is because the point lower-end Gear VR (which snaps onto position it held from 2014 to 2016. of view stays put, so the motion sick- a Samsung phone), because it’s based ness isn’t as bad as it is in games. on Oculus software. An ongoing saga SPORTS RIGHTS HOLDERS WILL BE  of censorship clashes with China’s HAPPY. ESPECIALLY UFC. Early data “The first time I tried it on, government have kept Google on the shows that streaming video is go-to I literally vomited,” said Jody Medich, sidelines as well. Without these North content for early users of VR, despite Singularity University VR designer.

VR HEADSETS “When you move in a game, 100% of the time, the user gets sick SOLD IN 2016 within five minutes.” 12M —An AT&T engineer and VR filmmaker

24 THE FUTURE OF SPORTS 25 AR/VR Road Map AR/VR Road Map

IN THE NEXT THREE YEARS, we’ll stumble through several cycles of excitement and  disillusionment with AR/VR. But in 2020, it will all click. AR/VR will deliver sports fans thrilling new experiences in viewing, gaming and training. 2020

160 MILLION VR HEADSETS WILL HAVE BEEN SPORTS VIDEO GAMES EXPLODE. IF VR’S ANALOG IS GAME CONSOLES, THE STADIUM EXPERIENCE WILL BE NEXT-LEVEL TRAINING FOR BOTH THE SOLD BY 2020. Dropping back to pass in Madden 20 AR’S ANALOG IS THE SMARTPHONE.  AUGMENTED TRANSFORMED. Here’s why: PROS AND THE AMATEURS. will never have felt so real. Batting THE MARKET IS EVERYONE. The REALITY 65 MILLION OF THOSE WILL BE SOLD IN 2020 incorporation of long-awaited 5G hyper- • All the data you could possibly want • Imagine you’re playing tennis with AR ALONE. practice against the Cy Young winner will thrill. Sports in which one key connectivity will make these headsets SPORTS CONSUMPTION IN AR. Every can be overlaid on the live action. glasses. As your opponent’s backhand BY COMPARISON: player dominates the action will come ready for prime time. No longer will way you now use your phone to con- Let’s say you’re at a baseball game. loads, the artificial intelligence engine to market first; team sports where you have to be connected to a PC to get sume sports, you will also use in AR. The purist can turn it off. The geek is already displaying where you likely PLAYSTATION 2 SOLD 155 MILLION UNITS every player is equally essential (like 4K graphics; no longer will you suffer a You will bring up web pages and tap on can see defensive rotation stats, pitch need to run to. As the opponent’s shot apps—rectangular screens will float in A BILLION IPHONES HAVE BEEN SOLD soccer) are harder to design. The meager field of view to be untethered. speed and speed of the batter running is on its way, you’re already seeing a controller has long been replaced by New smartphones will connect by a the air. When the game is on, you can to first. As a pinch hitter is warming target in the opposite court that you 1.6 BILLION HOUSEHOLDS WORLDWIDE HAVE scanners that track human movements. flexible fiber-optic tether to lightweight open up a live stream and either pin it up, his highlights are available off to should aim at. TELEVISIONS Players will either confine their move- glasses; many people will rarely check off to the side or enlarge it to a 90-inch the side of your view and you can tap ments to a grid, or they’ll balance on the phone itself, but will still want it screen, front and center. Because the to watch. • Want to learn receiver footwork from SO VR, DESPITE THE HYPE, IS NOT FOR EVERYONE  curved plates and lean to sprint or cut. there as a security blanket. For others, glasses use lasers to project the light Jerry Rice? He’s stored in your helmet. YET IN 2020. IT’S LIKE VIDEO GAME CONSOLES— directly onto your retina, the image will YOU MIGHT NOT HAVE ONE, BUT A FRIEND WILL. their phone will still be their primary • You have your own personal replay He’ll be there in volumetric video, on VR FITNESS IS NOT A GIMMICK. Trans- device; they’ll just wear the glasses be perfect. Best of all, you can create a device built into your glasses. Swipe the field. First he shows you a game port yourself to yoga class from your while driving. screen and then share it with friends. left in the air to go back in time. Raise highlight of his. Then he breaks his mat at home. Box against remote spar- Or the party can switch into 3D mode, two thumbs and the highlight gets route down into pieces—his three-step ring partners while your computerized and the basketball game can be played posted to social media. jab, his dig footwork, his route-tree VIRTUAL cornerman yells tips. Break away from in volumetric video on your coffee table decision making. As you run through REALITY the peloton on your exercise bike. as everyone sits around it. it, you can see on the field exactly where each foot should land. A friend WATCHING VR SPORTS IS NORMAL. On OPERATING SYSTEM WARS—PART 4. can even throw you darts as you average, 10% of any viewing audience First it was VHS vs. Beta. Then it was break open. will wear VR headsets—higher for PC vs. Mac. Then Android vs. iOS. In close-action sports like boxing. VR live 2020, the business press will focus on streams will have graduated from raw the great rivalry between Magic Leap camera feeds to incorporate and Meta, or whoever owns them. We’ll devices—commentators, replays and buy the glasses—and get the phone camera toggling. The isolation factor free. Expect iPhone and Samsung sales will be somewhat moderated; viewers numbers to reach over 200 million will be able to talk to friends and family sold in 2020. watching the game across the country. More common will be passing around the headset at a viewing party, espe- cially for highlights and replays.

VR HEADSETS SMARTPHONE OF ANY VIEWING SOLD IN 2020 HYPERCONNECTIVITY AUDIENCE WILL 65M 5G IS HERE 10% WEAR VR HEADSETS

26 THE FUTURE OF SPORTS 27 AR/VR Road Map AR/VR Road Map

BY 2025 the distinctions between AR and VR will be insignificant; the devices will converge and be multifunctional. Their vast capabilities to blend natural and synthetic vision will cause us to rethink everything—from the social norms of human interaction to how private and public spaces are designed and  navigated. New sports will inevitably emerge that will be designed to test  athletes’ performance across the spectrum of mixed reality. 2025

HEADSETS AND AR GLASSES ARE STILL SELLING EDUCATION will be transformed into BUT MIXED-REALITY GAMES WILL BE eSPORTS WILL BEGIN TO POACH ATHLETIC TALENT AT PEAK SMARTPHONE NUMBERS—150 MILLION something far more vivid. History EVEN COOLER. Expect old naval bases Because these new games will actually require speed, strength and endurance, they’ll reward real athleticism. And sports PER QUARTER—BECAUSE EACH YEAR, THE DEVICES teachers will transport their students to and empty warehouse districts to be fans will finally start to respect eAthletes as more than controller-jockeys. Game designers will build games demanding IMPROVE SO RAPIDLY. the beaches of Normandy or the Cu Chi the setting for intense mixed-reality freak athleticism in essential moments to unlock defenses. HUMANS WON’T NEED PRESCRIPTION GLASSES tunnels of Vietnam. In biology class, the games, where players throw fireballs at ANYMORE. THE AR SYSTEM CORRECTS VISION entire room will become the inside of a each other. Get hit, and everyone sees FOR YOU, TRACKING YOUR EYE MOVEMENT AND mammalian . a big explosion; the player is FOCAL POINT. but without his powers for 30 seconds. 01 RUSHING 02 SCALING 03 ENDURANCE 04 MANEUVERABILITY On home-buying shows, you’ll be in Mini-helicopters fly overhead, sounding BATTERIES MADE FROM GRAPHENE RATHER the home. And in those homes of 2025, real. Games that evolve from today’s Need someone who can Need someone who can Need someone who can Need someone who can THAN LITHIUM ION DON’T JUST DOUBLE THE designers will set aside ever-bigger eSports, designed for the modern age, run a 4.3-second 40-yard scale a 50-foot wall in run end to end for the full avoid laser shots in open CAPACITY, THEY RECHARGE IN SECONDS. blank rooms as VR studio pods, with will better take advantage of technology dash while engaged in 6 seconds? Recruit the 90 minutes? Sign a soccer space then flip over a PHOTONS REPLACE ELECTRONS AS 3D PHOTONIC padding on the walls and sensors in than sports games invented in the late hand-to-hand combat? best rock climbers. player. 9-foot wall into a crouch? NANOCRYSTALS ARE INTEGRATED. the walls. Welcome to the new gaming 1800s. Abandoned neighborhoods of Draft a college receiver. A gymnast can do a double room. When you call somebody, they Rust Belt cities will become the new salto into a double layout HELLO, 8K VIDEO! YOU’LL HAVE PURE 20/20 will appear in 3D volumetric video. You eSports complexes where youth clubs with half twist. VISION OF EVERYTHING RENDERED. can walk around them or get up close. train three times a week, hoping to AR AND VR CONVERGE, AS NEW GLASSES CAN become professional eAthletes who BRING ON DARKNESS BY CANCELING  WATCHING SPORTS WILL BE INSANELY play in football stadiums and basketball LIGHT WAVES, MUCH LIKE NOISE-CANCELING COOL. Sports cameras will switch from arenas. HEADPHONES DO. spherical video to volumetric video— allowing you to joystick your point of IN 2025, WE’LL WEAR “SMART CONTACT  view to any angle during live action. LENSES” THAT WILL GRADUALLY EVOLVE TO You’ll be able to fly up to the huddle, FULL AR FUNCTIONALITY. spin over to the linebacker during the pre-snap and close in on a receiver as the ball is in the air.

VR HEADSETS VIDEO IS 150M SELL PER QUARTER 8K THE NORM

28 THE FUTURE OF SPORTS 29 FOR THE TYPICAL AMERICAN SPORTS FAN, FANTASY SPORTS plays the role that sports betting does in the rest of the world—making the drama of winning and losing very personal. As the world flattens, technology is making it ever easier for Americans to join the party. An estimated $95 billion is wagered on sports in the US—less than 10% of that legally.

FANTASY PLAYERS ESTIMATED ILLEGAL IN NORTH AMERICA, SPORTS BETS BY 57.4M 2016 $85B AMERICANS, 2016 BETTING/FANTASY CONVERGENCE

HOW FANTASY SO WILL SPORTS BETTING inevitably replace fantasy sports? Or could it be the other way SHARKS around—that DraftKings and FanDuel fantasy sports, for money, comes to dominate GOT IN TROUBLE IN ACTION SAAHIL HILSUD reacts to news on NFL Week 16—ERIC HAFNER pays over the sportsbook? Fantasy grew rapidly into a $1.1 BILLION Twitter that Channing Frye is getting $30,000 in entry fees on 20 lineups. After $5B industry mostly on advertising revenue. an unexpected start for the Orlando the morning games, in good position, Then it upped the game by offering Magic. Computer scripts enable him to he switches his lineups to favorites to “prizes” and the market tripled. A add Frye to 400 of his lineups. Hilsud protect his lead. When the afternoon race for market share ensued. wins 1st place in a DraftKings prize— games end, he downloads the entire and also 3rd, 4th and 7th, taking home DraftKings database to analyze his SPORTSBOOK DROP—ALL SPORTS hundreds of thousands in one night, competition’s positions. Hafner wins FANTASY SPORTS REVENUE—ADVERTISING & ENTRY FEES adding to the $3 million he won during $1.6 million. A “lottery effect” distorted the market. the year. Fantasy sites found that new players flocked to whoever advertised the 2007 2012 2015 2017 biggest prize pools (not the best odds). NEW SHARK In order to increase their prize pools the fastest, fantasy sites had to allow REPELLENT FORCES DRIVING players to enter more than once. (If everyone played twice, that would “We will be heavily promoting  Since their regulatory showdown in CONVERGENCE double the prize pool.) a variety of ways to protect the  New York, DraftKings and its competi- casual player, including Beginner tors are introducing fair-play features aimed at both bringing back casual 01 VEGAS 02 FANTASY 03 STATES 04 GLOBALIZATION 05 LEGALITY Contests, the capacity to chal- players and appeasing the regulators. lenge a friend in a direct Head- More people are going Fantasy has to (and will) States want the reve- Globalization brings us For leagues to get a Wall Street traders and poker pros Entry fees now as low as $2 success- to Vegas than ever in change. Daily fantasy’s nue. Lawmakers have into regular contact with piece of the action, it has didn’t just play twice—assisted by to-Head, and the ability to play fully entice free players to convert. In history. And they are legality will be resolved woken up to the way the other model, used to be legal. In Europe, computer scripts and optimization in a pool with your Facebook 2010, 74% of players played for free. spending more than by creating protections their citizens travel by many other coun- pro teams get significant software, these high-volume sharks friends. You won’t be getting created as many as 1,000 lineups a Now it’s inverted—70% pay entry fees. ever in history. But fewer for newbies so they out of state to gamble, tries: licensed sports- jersey sponsorship deals matched up against anonymous of them are betting. aren’t suckered into and many states have books contribute taxes from betting operators— day, putting over $100,000 on the line multi-bettors anymore. We’re The Friend or Foe question has been Instead, they’re going the games only to be licensed new casinos that fund regulators Real Madrid was being regularly. The scripts allowed them soundly answered. Fantasy is not a re- to Vegas for the shows, slaughtered by high- to keep the money in who protect consumers paid $20 million a year to make last-minute adjustments also regulating and approving placement for being a fan, it’s additive. parties, conventions, volume experts. Is daily state. On top of that, and the integrity of by BWIN. In Korea, na- to their lineups to take advantage of the scripts in use.” Data shows that fantasy players con- clubs and restaurants. fantasy a skill? In fact, illegal gambling costs sport. tionalized sports betting gameday breaking news. —Rick Cordella, FanDuel board member sume 40% more sports content after With gaming revenue it’s so much a skill that the states hundreds funds the country’s becoming players. flattening, casinos the highly skilled have it of millions in lost tax sports programs and are looking to inno- in the bag. Your odds of revenue, which instead even builds their stadi- Officially, the odds of winning were vate—and angling to winning at daily fantasy funds organized crime. ums. In the US, leagues always 50%. Finish in the top half attract tourists who love are similar to your odds get zilch. of players and take home your share! fantasy sports to their of beating Steph Curry But the reality couldn’t be more sportsbooks. in a free throw contest. different. In MLB fantasy, 91% OF  THE PRIZE MONEY WAS BEING WON  BY ONLY 1.3% OF THE PLAYERS. DraftKings data showed that over 89% of players lost money.

30 THE FUTURE OF SPORTS 31 Betting/Fantasy Convergence Betting/Fantasy Convergence

SPORTSBOOK IN THE SPOTLIGHT WHY FANTASY COULD TAKE OVER GLOBALLY

THE CHANGING CASINO HOW SPORTS BETTING COULD ORGANIZED CRIME IS AT THE CENTER OF THE DEBATE OVER THE LEGALIZATION OF SPORTS BETTING. TO END MATCH-FIXING. Because fantasy results are always based SPORTSBOOK ECOSYSTEM BECOME LEGAL IN THE US on performance statistics from an array of players, it’s invulner- PRO CON able to match-fixing bribes and scandals. The fantasy format is A typical big Strip casino in Vegas ORGANIZED CRIME’S REVENUE STREAM CAN  LEGAL BETTING HABITUATES THE FANS TO  BE CUT OFF BY CHANNELING SPORTS BETTING GAMBLING, THEN ILLEGAL OPERATORS RECRUIT  Sports betting gets legalized by (there are 23 of them) accepts about ranked the lowest risk to the integrity of sports by world bodies. TO LEGAL, LICENSED OPERATORS. THE BETTORS WITH IMPROVED ODDS OR transforming into something that $60 million in bets at their sportsbooks SPREADS. IN ITS MOST RECENT CRACKDOWN ON As match-fixing endures worldwide, and possibly accelerates annually, profiting $3.2 million. There IN THE UK, FANS BET $12.3 BILLION LEGALLY  ILLEGAL GAMBLING DENS, INTERPOL CONDUCTED looks and feels a lot more like with globalization, fantasy could emerge as the answer, socially are 197 sportsbooks in all. IN 2015, CONTRIBUTING $2.2 BILLION TO  4,000 RAIDS, ARRESTING 4,100 PEOPLE IN  fantasy sports. GOVERNMENT COFFERS. 11 COUNTRIES ACROSS EUROPE AND ASIA. and politically. Of the $4.3 billion bet on sports last year in Nevada, 37% was on football, 28% on basketball and 17% on PRO LEAGUES’ STEP 1 Daily fantasy plays the role in THE KIDS PREFER IT. 32% of all American teens have played baseball. MATCH-FIXING the process that medical marijuana SCANDALS NEW PARTNERS did, softening people’s preconceptions fantasy (vs. 18% of adults). American teens have long stamped The growth is solid—it’s doubled of betting as a black-market business. their print on world trends. Then consider that even where sports since 2003. Few Americans are aware of how Preparing for the era of convergence, prevalent match-fixing scandals are. pro leagues are making investments betting is legal, you have to be 18 years old to bet. So most teens But this is still peanuts compared to and cementing relationships with tech- will start with free fantasy, then at age 18 start paying entry fees slot machines, which bring in 30 times 68 different match-fixing scandals nology companies that play a role in the STEP 2 States already run lotteries; the revenue and profit. have been discovered in the last three betting ecosystem. rather than switch to traditional sportsbook betting. in many other countries, sports betting years, some of which are single-game is nationalized. The most common And slot machines’ popularity has never scandals (a Wimbledon player declaring NBA & NUMBERFIRE, which uses form is sports toto, in which you have recovered to its 2007 highs. a bribe attempt), others of which were algorithms to make recommended bets IT’S A BETTER FAN EXPERIENCE. Fantasy sports is intellectually to pick all the winners on any given more pervasive—affecting 15 soccer on pro sports. day or weekend—a hybrid of fantasy, and emotionally engaging. It’s far more complex than betting on ONLY 4% OF FIRST-TIME VISITORS TO  games in Korea, 19 in Turkey. gambling and the lottery. LAS VEGAS SAY THEIR PRIMARY REASON  NFL & SPORTSRADAR, which provides single games, and it puts fans in the more empowered role of FOR COMING IS TO GAMBLE. An ongoing Europol investigation into a real-time statistics to bookmakers. coach or GM. It makes fans care about all the teams and all the syndicate out of Singapore has revealed players, not just their favorite team. bribes in 15 different countries on MLB & SPORTIM, whose parent company soccer—including a Champions League provides software for bookmakers. STEP 3 Savvy politicians who don’t game played in England, and qualifiers want sports teams leaving town will for both the World Cup and Euros. 700 realize that a sports toto game can games are under investigation. 50 peo- fund construction of a new stadium. ple have been arrested; 425 additional Much like with marijuana, the legality team officials, referees and players are changes state by state. under suspicion.

Because bets are placed in one country on games played in another country, the most globalized sports are the most vulnerable—soccer, cricket, tennis and soon, basketball.

32 THE FUTURE OF SPORTS 33 MAKE NO MISTAKE: TRADITIONAL PROFESSIONAL SPORTS ARE AT RISK OF LOSING A SIGNIFICANT The traditional sports industry can’t assume these kids will just PORTION OF THEIR FUTURE AUDIENCE. Millions of post-millennials around the world are come around eventually. eSports has the Cool Factor. It’s truly global growing up idolizing eSports champions like Lee “Faker” Sang-hyeok of South Korea and in a way that only soccer can rival. Its athletes are drug-tested. Enrique “xPeke” Martinez of . They’re not rooting for the Vikings or the Packers or the Yankees—they’re rooting for and Virtus.pro. For them, the biggest sports And it has a massive head start. $65M upset story in recent memory is not Leicester City FC taking the Premier League title— eSPORTS 2015 PRIZE MONEY CLAIMED (Doubling annually) it’s CDEC Gaming taking $2.8 million at 2 Championship. LEAGUE OF LEGENDS 27M $1B eSPORTS POPULARITY DAILY ANNUAL 300M 152 PLAYERS EARNINGS 50M FANS COUNTRIES (Only one of the TWITCH VIEWERS (Similar to NFL) THE EPIC BATTLE top free games) 1 weekend, 4 global tournaments

vSPORTS FIFA AND PES | MADDEN | NBA 2K | NHL | MLB THE SHOW | UFC eSPORTS LEAGUE OF LEGENDS | COUNTER-STRIKE | | SMITE | OVERWATCH | STARCRAFT

UNINTERRUPTED GLOBAL eSPORTS LEVEL FIFA REACH FOR ALL SEASONS PLAYING FIELD vSPORTS—video game The EA FIFA franchise is vSports’ big Sports like volleyball and field hockey, There is no such thing as League of eSports fans laugh with disgust versions of traditional sports— star thus far. With 2.3 million Interactive which are among the most popular Legends 2017—the game just updates that vSports games are secretly have been proven to create new World Cup worldwide qualifiers in 2016, participatory sports in the world, lack automatically, and everyone in the engineered to make it easier for fans for the stick-and-ball sports they FIFA is the largest eSports competition successful video game editions. world is playing the same game. a losing opponent to catch up late depict. Now the race for the Gen Y and Z in the world. Nine million games are vSports’ reliance on up-front sales and in a game. They don’t consider fanbases is on, and every sport, league played every day. And in-game purchas- Madden, the undisputed leader in the annual editions means gamers are vSports to be “real” games at all— and franchise must step up its vSports ing is fairly evolved, with 2016 sales USA (4.6M units sold), sells only 11% segmented. Half the audience for any merely “sports simulations.” game or face long-term irrelevance. reaching $650 million. In the first 16 outside the US. sport is playing versions that are often days after its release, 1.5 billion hours two years old or more. of FIFA 16 were played online. Sales of NBA 2K leapt 28% in Europe when EA added 25 Euroleague basket- ball teams. NBA 2K is now the 8th most MORTAL PRIZE FEMALE MONEY GAMERS 16 1.5B popular video game in China. CONSOLES Contrary to stereotype, women make up Days Online Hours The prize for winning FIFA nearly half of gamers, thanks to gaming Most eSports are played on PCs, which Interactive 16 was only $20,000. on smartphones and social media. Genuine competition from Pro Evolution BETTING can be kept current (i.e., today’s hard- Madden 16 offered $50,000. Soccer keeps FIFA quality high. ware). They run on dedicated servers, These were tiny fractions of the Sites like Vulcun, Unikrn and Alpha- so the signal quality (“ping”) is not prize pool in eSports. Draft have several million eSports fans limited by your opponent’s hardware. betting on eSports results and creating IN-GAME Realizing the importance of All Gamers eSports fantasy teams. vSports are played on consoles that bigger prize money, NBA 2K Madden Console WOMEN Wii Sports ADVERTISING last around five years. Current 8th gen 16’s “Road to the Finals” award- MEN PROJECTED consoles, PS4 and Xbox One, are 2013 ed the winners $250,000. Advertising real brands inside $ WAGERING hardware, with only occasional firm- When FIFA added women’s national ON eSPORTS teams to console play, it took just 16 days eSports fantasy games destroys 23.5B BY YEAR 2020 ware updates. Consoles use peer-to- Madden Bowl 17 announced a for American striker Alex Morgan’s in- the narrative. But advertising and Wagering was $315 million in 2015. peer technology for players to connect. $1 million prize pool, which still game alter ego to 1 million goals. sponsorship is part and parcel of would rank only 23rd in the big- sports games; it makes them more gest eSports prize pools ever. 16 1M legitimate and real. Days Goals “We’re never doing sports video games. Never. It’s $ CURRENT IN-GAME AD MARKET not what our community wants. We don’t consider GAMERGATE harassment online is 7B Advertising inside sports games is sports video games to be true eSports.” PRIZE POOLS keeping female participation down in eSports Largest eSports. expected to spike dramatically. —Rahul Sood, CEO and cofounder of Unikrn, a leading eSports betting platform Madden Bowl 17 NBA 2K 16 Madden 16 FIFA Interactive 16

34 THE FUTURE OF SPORTS 35 The Epic Battle The Epic Battle

DO VIDEO GAMES CREATE FIFA PLAYERS EA NHL 2009 used to have the Russian NEW TECHNOLOGIES Super League teams included. The Will Reboot the Landscape in 2020  NEW SPORTS FANS? WERE NOT SOCCER FANS/ KHL tried to take advantage of the HAD NO INTEREST UNTIL (Yes, they do.) % AFTER PLAYING THE VIDEO NHL lockout in 2011 with its own eSports took off first in Korea, where “PC Bangs” had superfast 34 GAME WITH FRIENDS video game. Without a unified hockey game, today only 20% of NHL 16 internet, allowing gamers to play against each other rather than Sports franchises shouldn’t worry that vSports titles have become a REPORT THE VIDEO GAME sales are outside North America. against the computer. Couples went on dates to the net cafes more HAS MADE THEM BIGGER Earlier versions, like NHL 2002, sold replacement for watching broadcasts or attending real games in arenas % SOCCER FANS 50 over half their copies outside North than they went to the movies. The social aspect drove popularity. and stadiums. Your future fans are playing the video version right now. America.

Who’s winning in India? Not CRICKET, where the market is divided. The best VR SLAM PROCESSING 5G YOUTUBE STARS GAME SALES console game has only some licenses, 01 02 03 THE VIRAL INFLUENCE  ARE ALTERING THE POPULARITY  while the licensed game has inferior Virtual reality sports Smartphones, by next Today, smartphone OF SPORTS GLOBALLY game play. Console sales for cricket games are easier to year, will have infrared connectivity is on the The spectator audience for vSports SAVVY PRO TEAMS are taking it a step are actually going down. imagine than they are to sensors that can sense cusp—you can play is not on Twitch live streams, it’s on further, hiring vSports and eSports FIFA 16 sells 74% of its units outside code—challenges such depth—turning every against others, but it’s YouTube. Roughly speaking, every stars to represent them online: North America. It sets the bar for as the headgear tether phone into a Microsoft really only a successful million views earns a YouTube creator others to dream of. THE DECLINE OF CRICKET ON CONSOLES cable restrict move- Kinect. Google’s Project experience for mini- around $3,300. Creative millennials • German club VFL WOLFSBURG has ment, and the causes of Tango is using this tech- games. Full sports 1.26M Brian Lara Cricket have developed huge audiences for signed three FIFA pros. 22-year-old THE NBA 2K franchise is slowly growing motion sickness need nology to create a virtual simulations will explode their videos where they open player Englishman David Bytheway has been its international sales, from 11% in to be solved. We are map of every room, down on the smartphone with packs, play their favorite vSports game, playing FIFA professionally since he 2013 to 17% today. It’s the 8th most likely still a couple years to the location of every 5G connectivity—which and make jokes. They have become so was 17. popular video game in China. 610K Ashes Cricket away from a VR sports piece of furniture. The is 30x to 100x the speed famous that pro franchises are opening game that becomes the sensors can also track of 4G. However, trials their doors to these celebrities. Creator • Sean “Dragonn” Allen now represents UFC is also going global. While its 160K Dan Bradman Cricket killer app that triggers human movement with of 5G have just begun, networks like Inc. and WEST HAM UNITED at FIFA tournaments. console sales don’t yet challenge the 1998 2009 2016 everyone to put down great accuracy. Before and 5G phones aren’t Broadband.TV serve to empower and major sports, 40% of the market is out- their phone and put on 5G arrives, many games expected to be on sale popularize these online celebrities. • PRO FRANCHISES are crossing the side North America. The smartphone immersive headsets. will throw away the until 2020. battlefield to have eSports teams download regularly lives in the top 15 is all on the phone. thumb controls and have wearing their jerseys. Besiktas, Span- in Brazil and Russia, hitting #1 on big Real Cricket 16 and other titles are gamers act out motions ish basketball team Saski Baskonia days; in India it’s hit #2. Even in France, often in the top 10 in downloads. But physically, bringing back and Valencia have all signed gamers. where the sport is still illegal, the 4 of the top 7 phone games in gross something akin to the Schalke 04 has bought a franchise, and game’s ranking is on par with its revenue are all soccer. Wii explosion. Manchester United are rumored to be US ranking. bidding for ’s Overwatch team. VOLLEYBALL was once king; in 1997, KSI TENNIS was once a big player, selling it sold almost 2 million copies—just Olajide Olatunji, London The firstCROSSOVER from real sports over 2 million copies on console. It has in Japan. But this hugely popular FIFA 40 videos/month to vSports happened earlier this year, moved to smartphones and lost some sport has lacked a stellar game 13 million subscribers when Brazilian pro soccer player sizzle, but is very global—Top Spin for a decade, and even smartphone $4 million annual earnings Wendell Lira, winner of FIFA’s 2015 goal sold 65% outside North America. Still, versions rarely break the top 50. 2.56 billion views of the year award (on the field), retired during the weeks of Wimbledon, Ultimate at age 27 to play FIFA (the vSport) Tennis lives at #1 in India. HANDBALL is breaking out as a professionally. big sport all over Europe, and Eko MLB THE SHOW at the turn of the Software’s Handball 16 has modest TODAY NEXT YEAR 2020 millennium was selling 45% of its console console sales. Will the sport take JOHNNY SUPERBMAN units outside North America on Playstation. off? Not yet, without good games for & THE GREAT DOMSKI Today it’s holding at 27%, as Pro Yakyuu the smartphone to attract gamers’ Canada Spirits is the big title in Japan. interest. These three factors converge on a 2020 timeline, amounting to a KING GRYPH NHL perfect storm that could radically alter which companies survive GryphhhCity, Zimbabwe 100 million views MADDEN, the undisputed leader in MLB & UFC and which games are played—and ultimately which sports become $150K annual CHRIS SMOOVE Florida North America (4.6M units sold), sells earnings NBA 2K only 11% outside the US. most popular globally. $1.3 million annual earnings 1.2 billion views

36 THE FUTURE OF SPORTS 37 JUST AS COLLEGE IS WHERE WE INCUBATE the next generation of athletes, college sports RECIPE FOR All the necessary ingredients for this innovation already exist on university campuses: will become the incubator for the intersection of new technologies and sports fandom. SUCCESS CHEAP (FREE) SKILLED LABOR • PROFESSORS AND STUDENTS COINVENTING NEW COMMUNICATIONS TECHNOLOGY • The era when college sports tried its best to mimic the look and feel of professional A BUILT-IN FANBASE WITH A GENUINE ROOTING INTEREST • TOP-OF-THE-LINE HARDWARE AND SUPERFAST INTERNET • sports is over. Increasingly, the tables will be turned—it’ll be pro sports leagues that TELEVISION NETWORKS EAGER FOR CONTENT • AN ARRAY OF TEAMS DESPERATE FOR A LARGER AUDIENCE • APPETITE FOR DISRUPTION—A MANDATE TO INNOVATE • need to keep an eye on how college sports are being played, produced and consumed. INTIMATE UNDERSTANDING OF HOW THE NEXT GENERATION CONSUMES SPORTS COLLEGE MEGABUSINESS INNOVATION ONLY THE PLAYERS ARE ON CAMPUS AMATEUR Snapchat started at a Stanford frat house. CATS STATS STRIVR The biggest misconception about collegiate athletics is that it’s not a professional industry— Reddit was founded by University of DAVIDSON SPORTS ANALYTICS A partnership at Stanford between the that it’s somehow amateur hour just because the athletes are not paid. Some call it a sleeping roommates. Facebook emerged In 2010, a March Madness bracket football team’s former kicker, Derek giant—but it’s not sleeping, and it’s already a giant. from the Harvard campus social scene. created by Davidson math professor Belch, and virtual reality professor Dropbox was created by MIT students. Dr. Tim Chartiers and his students at Jeremy Bailenson has emerged as the There’s a long tradition of tomorrow’s Davidson beat 99.9% of more than 5 first VR training system that’s already COLLEGE VS. PRO companies being hatched by a few million brackets nationally by success- making money and altering the out- STADIUMS (FOOTBALL) students, and sometimes an encour- fully predicting upsets. In come of games. STRIVR is now working aging professor, solving a problem that 2013, Chartiers and his math students with more than a dozen NCAA teams NCAA FBS 128 the rest of the world didn’t even realize began advising the Davidson Wildcats and seven NFL teams. NFL 31 it had. From finding an endaround to basketball team on strategy. The next skip lines to enter a stadium and clear year, when the university left the South- ATTENDEES (FOOTBALL) security, to making low-cost video ern Conference for the much more NCAA FBS 43M production look better, there’s a good challenging Atlantic 10, the Wildcats NFL 17M chance someone on a college campus were predicted to finish 12th. Instead, will contribute to the solution. they won—with Chartiers’ students VIEWERS (FOOTBALL) running all the analytics. Cats Stats has NCAA BOWL SERIES 180M now consulted for the NBA, ESPN and SUPER BOWL 120M various fantasy sites, and they created the NBA’s popular new “Hustle Stat” ATTENDEES (BASKETBALL) used during the 2016 playoffs. NCAA D1 GAMES 27M NBA 22M 2010 DAVIDSON SPORTS ANALYTICS AD REVENUE (BASKETBALL) % MARCH MADNESS $1.1B 5M 99.9 NBA PLAYOFFS $900M Brackets Success

* DOUBLED OVER LAST DECADE

“All the work is done by students. Data is never the transformative AUBURN’S COST TO SEND $ 370 PEOPLE TO THE 2014 element. It’s the insight that creates the value of data.” 2.7M BCS NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP $ * —Dr. Tim Chartiers, Davidson University, professor of mathematics 6.3B PAYOUT TO AUBURN FOR MAKING COMBINED REVENUE, $ $ IT TO THE GAME 280M 2.6M ATHLETIC DEPARTMENTS, UCLA’S APPAREL POWER 5 CONFERENCES LICENSING DEAL WITH “We have scary stats. We have stats that show that quarterback $ UNDER ARMOUR watched that blitz package 19 times the night before the game—and 100M during the game, he spotted the blitz and it led to a gain of 35 yards.” ANNUAL BUDGET, EACH, 24 ATHLETIC —Derek Belch, CEO, STRIVR DEPARTMENTS

38 THE FUTURE OF SPORTS 39 College Sports: Megabusiness College Sports: Megabusiness

WILL SPORTS SAVE COLLEGE?

PUNDITS WILL ALWAYS MAKE THE CASE THAT COLLEGE SPORTS WON’T LAST IN AMERICA—we’ll become HELLO? like the rest of the world, where IS FOOTBALL athletes develop in sport-specific OVER HERE! WORTH IT? youth academies and professional Sure, is huge. GYMNASTICS averages 14,682 fans in attendance at Utah’s Huntsman Academics on campus frequently But what’s most surprising is the minor leagues. Meanwhile, the And March Madness deserves its Center, which seats 15,000. (Women’s gymnastics meets are the third-most question whether so much money connection between success on viewed events on the Pac-12 Network.) should be spent on college football the football field and a college’s future of college education is nickname. But many of the more programs. For the most part, these academic metrics. Every additional MINNESOTA HOCKEY The Golden Gophers get over 11,000 fans per game. increasingly uncertain in the face niche sports also play a key role catcalls from faculty are rhetorical. win on the field leads to: LSU BASEBALL The Tigers average 10,726 at the gate, and that’s for 34 Should a coach really be the state’s of online learning; even Goldman in cementing the relationship games. The College World Series is also a standout, bringing in over 23,000 highest-paid employee? Is a state-of- • An increase in applicants, which Sachs has warned that the cost of between schools and their alumni per game and over 350,000 for the series. the-art locker room going to help any allows the college to be more student study? No need to respond. selective college is becoming unjustifiable, (and their money). While most WRESTLING averages over 8,300 fans per dual meet. For the 2015 season opener against State, they moved the meet to Kinnick • A higher average SAT score for as it takes an average of 10 years other sports do need a subsidy, Football Stadium. 42,287 fans watched their Hawkeyes win. But when UC Berkeley professor incoming freshmen Michael Anderson and the National • A boost in the school’s “Academic post-college to reap the return. that doesn’t mean some of them TRACK & FIELD at gets 7,500 fans to dual meets. But the big numbers Bureau of Economic Research analyzed Reputation,” which is a measure aren’t packing in crowds. Here’s are at the multi-school relays. The Texas Relays and Drake Relays attract NCAA win-loss probability ratios to based on polling of university 15,000 fans per day, while the Penn Relays had 45,000 fans on the final day determine performance metrics of all presidents around the country WHO ARE THEY KIDDING? Study our list of where it’s happening in and over 100,000 in total. Division I football universities, they after study has found convincing college’s “other sports.” HAWAII VOLLEYBALL The Rainbow Wahine are can’t-miss entertainment discovered the math does not condemn SO WHILE FOOTBALL PLAYERS  evidence that athletic participation in Honolulu. The women’s team has led the nation in attendance for two the investment in football. In fact, it’s MAY OR MANY NOT SUCCEED IN THE CLASSROOM, WINNING FOOTBALL decades—averaging over 6,800 fans now. Top-ranked volleyball teams all the other way around. Having a winning at college goes hand in hand with GAMES WILL DRIVE UP THE ACADEMIC All around the country, sports program—and every additional win per over the country are regularly drawing over 5,000 fans to important games. STANDARD FOR THE STUDENT BODY academic progress and career season, from 5.9 wins per year upward— fans are discovering what they’re SOCCER IN PORTLAND AND LOUISVILLE The women’s team in Portland and AS A WHOLE. increases donations to the university success. So far, the accessibility the men’s team in Louisville lead the nation in attendance, both with over looking for in college’s other by $100,000. It’s not that more alumni 3,000 fans on average—but the game of the season is always on the coast of of online learning has actually give; it’s that the same alumni sports. This is how it starts, and California, when UCSB plays Cal Poly in front of 14,000 fans. donate more. increased the demand for spots slowly, quietly, out of the limelight, NAVY pulls in over 3,800 fans per game. at four-year colleges. Online it grows. Women’s college D1 averages over 3,000 fans. The College Softball World PER-WIN INCREASE IN learning is simply the gateway, basketball this past season was Series sells over 75,000 tickets. UNIVERSITY DONATIONS $ OVER 5.9 WINS/YEAR the on-ramp—and the bigger the attended by over 8 million fans. TCU TENNIS Over 2,000 fans. 100K on-ramp, the rowdier the crowd. Sports are an essential component of college. Both playing for your college team—and rooting for “The data suggests the relationship [between winning football your college team—are highly games and total college academic standards] is robust and correlated with long-term twice as strong as in any previous study.” satisfaction with the collegiate —Michael Anderson, UC Berkeley experience.

40 THE FUTURE OF SPORTS 41 DON’T JUST TREAT INJURIES. PREDICT THEM—AND AVOID THEM ALTOGETHER . Machine- A TALE OF TWO SEASONS Five professional teams used Kitman Labs’ machine-learning injury-prediction system learning software systems have been turned loose on the avalanche of athlete during their 2015 seasons to identify warning signs of potential injuries. performance data coming from new sensors that are wearable, implantable or YEAR 1 YEAR 2

DECREASE IN TOTAL ingestible. Not only will overuse injuries be avoided—so will contact injuries that Teams averaged 143 injuries FEWER SLIGHT % INJURIES % DAYS UNAVAILABLE each­—58% slight and 15% 22 41 DUE TO INJURY were previously considered random accidents. severe or season-ending. Injuries lasted an average DROP IN SEVERE DECLINE IN of 31 days. % INJURIES LASTING A % SEASON-ENDING 31 MONTH OR LONGER 65 INJURIES MACHINE MEDICINE

Historically, sensor data has been used to SWEAT Monitors measure chemistry of sweat, including lev- monitor workload during training weeks to els of glucose, lactate, sodium and potassium. pinpoint fitness levels. Players first wore vests, then chest straps. In two quick years, the technology has shrunk from wristbands to waist clips to sensors no bigger than a WRISTBANDS that can measure movement band-aid. Now a sensor can be attached as and heartbeat have become nearly required gear for even casual athletes. a temporary tattoo, and soon they will be commonly implanted under the skin. RFID TAGS on clothing and equipment can track the movements and speeds of whole teams of players, providing coaches with new data for training and player selection. But more important than the sensor size is the increasingly accurate and complex data FIBER HEART RATE monitors in clothing will send information about that is being harvested. Finding once-hidden your heart rate to an app, eliminating the need for an extra bulky device. MOUTHGUARDS like the FitGuard gauge the level of force when athletes biometric patterns in individual athletes has experience impact during play, to quickly determine the risk of concussion become possible. Some players get injured and whether they should be allowed to keep playing. when they train too hard. They have a steady slope pattern. Other players push through SALIVA Fluid-sensor mouthguards can detect the levels of lactate buildup in an upper limit, and only by training very saliva to let athletes or coaches know when they are approaching muscle fatigue. intensely do they reach a zone where they don’t break down. They have a roller-coaster pattern. Every athlete has her own equiva- RIBBONS Sensors printed on thin ribbons of plastic that will attach to any part of the body to continuously sense the lent of a pitch count. With new technology, 3D MOTION CAPTURING technology can scan an athlete’s movements health of the wearer, including monitoring glucose levels and determine the alignment and strength of muscles. coaches can learn how hard to train an or biomarkers for stress, fatigue or disease. individual athlete—without overtraining.

Even “freak” injuries are avoidable. A ma- jority of contact injuries have been consid- IMPLANTABLE sensors will be able to communicate blood data and they’ll never have to be charged. Researchers at State University have developed a prototype of a flexible ered random. Who could predict an opponent thermoelectric generator that harvests up to 50 microwatts of electricity using body heat. SMART SHOES / SOCKS can measure impact and monitor cadence of your strides. Sensoria Smart would fall in front of your player and cause Socks, for example, employ sensors in the sole and ankle that communicate with an app on your phone to him to hyperextend a knee? It turns out that provide real-time feedback to help you maximize your pace and form. Similarly, Stridalyzer insoles assess the location and level of your impact on your feet and send data to an app about potential injuries. fatigue significantly affects reaction time, reducing peripheral vision and increasing the odds of injury. Tired athletes incur a much higher rate of contact injuries than fit, well-rested athletes, who spot impending contact and make adjustments to avoid it.

The connection between lost dollars and lost games is quantifiable. For every $2.3 million in salary cap dedicated to players on the disabled list, the average NFL team SENSOR KEY | CURRENT motion and heartbeat | NEXT GENERATION chemical | FUTURE on / inside the body will lose one additional game. Salary wasted EVERY YEAR 10%–30% OF PLAYER SALARIES ARE WASTED DUE TO INJURIES on injured players accounts for as much as MLB $700M 89% of the variance in NFL teams’ win-loss NFL $450M records. NBA $350M EPL $300M

42 THE FUTURE OF SPORTS Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images43 Machine Medicine Machine Medicine

“Many of these technologies, CONCUSSION-FACTOR ANALYSIS such as wearables and Boxing at the Rio Olympics eliminated video, are still new and the headgear, due to a counterintuitive data can be inaccurate. We finding from the International Boxing Association: headgear was correlated have seen wearables giving wrong with more concussions, not fewer. Not data as often as 30% of the time. only does the soft padding not stop DATA IMPLEMENTATION DATA PRIVACY blunt force hits, but the bigger target Numbers also tend to be calibrated leads to more head whips from blows. for male rather than female ath- Concussion research is about to take huge strides as data is aggregated from letes. If we’re making health and an array of new sources. Motion and safety decisions with the wrong impact sensors on helmets, mouth- So much data is being collected, in will finally solve this conundrum, Controversies between players, teams hire private trainers, professional guards and headbands are just part of so many novel ways, that we can be factoring skeletal age and hormone and leagues over data privacy are athletes of the future will hire their data, we’re putting our athletes at it. Eye-tracking headsets have jumped distracted from the real question: escalation into player experience and inevitable. own experts not only to acquire health greater risk and diminishing trust from the labs to the sidelines to test what are we going to do with it? performance metrics to make sure and performance data, but also to athletes’ brain function immediately after the players with the most potential are Players want to keep their biometric analyze those metrics. in the technology hype. Improving any blow. Blood tests can now spot IN-GAME PERFORMANCE DECISIONS. picked over the players who merely hit data private. Teams will want to share data accuracy is critical as the The data can tell you the starter runs puberty early. the biometrics to engineer trades. EVERYONE INVOLVED WILL WORRY  concussive trauma through elevated industry moves forward.” levels of the S100B protein. Every high 20 mph in practice, while the second- Leagues will want to sell the data as WHETHER THE DATA HAS BEEN school is requiring preseason bench- stringer runs 19 mph. On game day, CAREER EXTENSION. We don’t really streams, either to apps that visualize TAMPERED WITH. How do we know —Jane Gideon, CEO, WellPlayed Sports mark neurological tests; insurers of sensors will alert the coaches that know whether aging athletes, in order the data to enhance storytelling or to a statistician hasn’t altered the youth leagues are now mandating head the starter has dropped to 17 mph to compete, need to put in double the fantasy players who want a leg up on numbers to make a player more trauma incident reporting. All this data with fatigue, and it’s time to sub in training load or if they need to empha- their competition. (“Don’t play Johnson attractive? will be crossed with genetic testing the bench player. size getting rest between workouts. today—his hematocrit ratio is low.”) for the APOE4 variant, which has been The science of career extension is not THE ANSWER LIES IN  BLOCKCHAIN TECHNOLOGY linked to concussions, and artificial PUBERTAL STATUS CALIBRATION IN really a science yet—mainly hunches EXPECT CLASS-ACTION LAWSUITS, likely like Tierion, which can: intelligence will discover patterns YOUTH SPORTS. Forever, youth sports and anecdotes. “Recovery” will become from players or from media. Much like • Guarantee that data is time- heretofore unseen. Should helmets talent identification has famously an accurately measurable event, parsed MLB’s legal battles a decade ago with stamped and unaltered. be hard and super-slippery to deflect favored older athletes within a given through tangible factors. Expect to be fantasy sites over statistical data, • Require passcodes to view impact? Or should they crush like car age bracket who are more mature. But surprised; much of the “wisdom” we courts will be asked to rule on whether the data. bumpers to absorb impact? We’re late-blooming 15-year-olds can’t really take for granted will be overturned. specialized data is “historical news,” be fairly compared to 13-year-olds, • Track data wherever it goes about to find out. and therefore can’t be owned. Courts “The players don’t get the data, it’s fed either. Sensors and machine learning will also decide whether players have on the internet, making sure rights to the data measuring their per- the rights holders are paid. to the coaches right after practice. formance, even if it’s collected and held CONCUSSION ANALYSIS WHAT EVERY COACH KNOWS WHAT SCIENCE HAS FOUND And in the locker room, there is by the teams. Likely, biometric/health MUSCLES PRODUCE LACTIC ACID AS A  AS MUSCLES FATIGUE, THEY DEPOLARIZE LIKE data will be viewed differently by the definitely fear among the IMPACT SENSORS BY-PRODUCT WHEN THE BODY SHIFTS FROM  WORN-DOWN BATTERIES, LOSING POWER.  courts than performance data. players about all the data Force/ Shock / Vibration MOTION SENSORS AEROBIC TO ANAEROBIC EXERCISE. LACTATE COUNTERACTS THIS DEPOLARIZATION. Accelerometer Contracts today include performance being collected. We’re afraid LACTIC ACID CAUSES SORENESS AND NEEDS TO SORENESS IS MUSCLE FIBER DAMAGE AND THE EYE-TRACKING bonuses and body-weight clauses. we’re going to get cut, because the BLOOD TESTING BE CLEARED IN ORDER TO PERFORM AGAIN. INFLAMMATION. LACTATE TRIGGERS CELLS TO HEADSETS CONTRACTS OF THE FUTURE WILL CON- S100B Protein PRODUCE MORE MITOCHONDRIA, THE FACTO- Ocular Motility TAIN SPEED AND STRENGTH STANDARDS data will be able to spot a decline HIGH-PERFORMANCE ATHLETES PRODUCE RIES OF ENERGY. LESS; IT’S A WASTE PRODUCT AND NOT USED TO MAINTAIN—and biometric marker in our performance that can’t be GENETIC FOR FUEL BY THE BODY. HIGH-PERFORMANCE ATHLETES BURN IT UP levels to meet. Just as today’s players TESTING spotted with the naked eye.” APOE4 BETTER; 75% OF LACTATE IS USED AS FUEL FOR MUSCLE CONTRACTIONS. —Doug Baldwin, Seattle Seahawks wide receiver NEURO TEST BENCHMARKS EEG Diagnostics

BRAIN SCANNING Diffusion Tensor “We aren’t quite to the stage where we can scan you with  2021 SPORTS & FITNESS Imaging a tricorder like the ones they use on ‘Star Trek’ and  PERFORMANCE INCIDENT $ WEARABLES MARKET REPORTING diagnose your medical condition, but we’re getting there.” Insurer Data 14.9B —James Watkins, professor of polymer science and  director of the Center for Hierarchical Manufacturing Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images

44 THE FUTURE OF SPORTS 45 ALT-ATHLETES HAVE LITTLE INTEREST IN SITTING IN THE STANDS AND ROOTING FOR A TRADI - WE ARE IN THE EARLY DAYS OF A SOCIAL TECHNOLOGY REVOLUTION THAT IS TRANSFORMING TIONAL PROFESSIONAL SPORTS TEAM. They don’t want to watch—they want to play. While SOLO ACTIVITY INTO TEAM FITNESS. Once fiercely individualistic, the Alt-Athletes are the Alt-Athlete may not be clearly identifiable by the team logo they wear on a jersey or hat, banding together around shared achievement. Networked by smartphones and social they are the fastest-growing market—76% of all regular exercisers are millennials—with media, they crave connection with their fellow enthusiasts. Video channels featuring a thirst for new products and technological advances that help them reach that next goal. Alt-Athletics draw millions of views and make individual athletes famous. New competitions and events are selling more tickets and packing in rowdier crowds. ALT-ATHLETES The sweaty sports fringe is going mass-market.

Alt-Athletics aren’t just about exercise, THE VIRTUOUS CIRCLE OF THE CASUAL AND HARD-CORE ALT-ATHLETE DISC DECATHLON ALT-ATHLETICS IS they are about finding meaning, identity and belonging. Climbers and surfers CASUAL HARD CORE MASH-UP CULTURE look for experiences that connect them Alt-Athletes have reenergized ancient with natural environments. Yoga and Usually engages in several different Often sponsored (with products, TRACK & FIELD Tai Chi devotees seek cross-cultural alt-athletic pursuits in a month. Iden- money or free travel) by a half dozen activities like yoga, rock climbing spiritual transcendence. For runners, tifies very much as an active person, if or more clothing or gear brands. Early and distance running. They have also SOCCER created wholly new enthusiasms like the ultimate prize is not just a faster not a sport-specific athlete. They find in life, competed at the highest level; ULTIMATE FRISBEE GOLF DISC GOLF time, it’s triggering the body’s endoge- fellow enthusiasts on social media. as they age, they find work as a coach, BASKETBALL parkour, skateboarding and bungee nous chemicals to reach the Zone. Major market for general Alt-Athlete trainer or guide. The hard core have jumping. Perhaps even more interesting, gear such as GoPro, outdoor clothing, old-school legitimacy, and they guard millennial Alt-Athletes have begun to mine the activities of their youth with 42% of the US health club market is sunglasses and camping gear. Hires and preserve the lore and ethics of the PADDLEBOARDING PADDLING SKIING now composed of studios catering to the hard-core Alt-Athlete as a trainer, sport. Hard-core Alt-Athletes will be traditional sports to create new games. specific Alt-Athletics like yoga, pilates, a guide or a guru. As gear and shared the ones to drive their sports to the next Snowboarding is a combination of Brazilian jiu-jitsu, dance, rock climbing, information continue to make sports level of public engagement. Some will surfing and skiing. Disc golf is a mash- SUP FOILING SAILING WATERSKIING CrossFit, etc. These sport-specific more accessible, the garage will launch companies making specialized up of Frisbee and golf, while Ultimate chains have been adding new studios continue to fill up, and the calendar gear or authentic apparel. Others combines Frisbee with soccer. Kite at a rate of 450% per year since 2010. will always be full of activities and will leverage their status to become is a hybrid of surfing, sailing and parachuting. At this rate, alt-athlete that cater adventures. As the casual Alt-Athlete commentators for burgeoning media WINDSURFING AMERICA’S CUP YACHT TOW-IN SURFING to specific activities will very soon out- ages, she will adapt to doing less channels, and they’ll become consul- RACING has been reinvented on trampolines. number the traditional . extreme versions of her sports, and tants for the growing number of events PARAGLIDING Paddleboarding is a mash-up of muck- she will look for accommodations that and competitions. KITE ing around in a canoe and paddling allow her to keep going at a safer and big wave over to breaks. Everything old is made new again and SPORT-SPECIFIC FITNESS STUDIOS less intense level. KITESURFING KITE FOIL BOARDING TOW-IN FOIL BOARDING the combinations are endless—there are no rules like in other sports. So as % % = HYDROFOIL (MILITARY, FERRY) 42 450 soon as underwater foils were invented, OF ALL US MARKET GROWTH they spread virally from sailboats to HEALTH CLUBS SINCE 2010 “These individuals are often interested in fitness, but they’re also windsurfing to surfing. interested in some kind of self-realization, self-verification; that they have a special talent or a special individual characteristic that they can be known for. Add to that technology, and then stir with social media.” —T. Bettina Cornwell, professor of marketing Lundquist College of Business at University of Oregon MAY NOV JUNE OCT DEC JAN MAR FEB SEPT JULY APR MILES / WEEK

“What we really think about is what we see in our community, and when we hold a mirror up, ACTION CAMERAS AMERICAN SPENDING AMERICANS WHO SHIPPED WORLDWIDE PER YEAR ON YOGA FINISHED RUNNING we see people who are striving. They’re trying to find their personal best, they’re trying to find $ IN 2015 $ CLOTHING, CLASSES A RACE IN 2015 another level for themselves and are unlocking their potential through the power of sport.” 8.5M 27B AND PRODUCTS 19M —Andrew Vontz, global brand manager and head of communications, Strava

46 THE FUTURE OF SPORTS Photo by Valery Hache/AFP/Getty Images47 Alt-Athletes

ASHIMA SHIRAISHI NEW YORK CITY AT AGE 13 SHE BECAME THE YOUNGEST TO CLIMB

A SPORT ROUTE WITH A MAY NOV

DIFFICULTY GRADE OF 9A+ JUNE OCT DEC JAN MAR ENDLESSLY INVENTIVE, WHAT’S NEXT? FEB SEPT JULY APR MILES / WEEK

THE VIEWING  TOURNAMENTS,  01 APPAREL 02 NATURAL & ENERGY FOODS 03 GEAR 04 HEALTH CLUBS 05 AUDIENCE 06 CIRCUITS & TOURS Polyethylene, the most common Thirty years after the launch of the Wearable integrations of technology The $80 billion health club industry is If you love baseball, you catch your In some ways, formal competitions plastic, seems to have no limits on PowerBar, energy bars will hit the have been surging, but 3D PRINTING  rapidly evolving to attract Alt-Athletes highlights on MLB Tonight. But if you run counter to the free-spirit ethos. how it’s fabricated. Long-molecular $9 billion revenue mark in 2017. Gone IS TAKING OVER. Expect customized indoors. There are now over 11,000 love running, is there a television show In competition, climbers ascend chain Dyneema cloth is 15 times is the pervasive brown rice syrup in shoe insoles to be printed in store. CrossFit gyms just in the US. Both for you? There is now—it’s called Run prescribed routes and mountain bikers more RESISTANT TO ABRASION than every bar, replaced with SUPERFOODS Sunglasses frames and bike helmets encouragement and competition are Junkie, produced by FloSports out of stay on the path. But in other ways, carbon steel; its bike shorts and tights like chia, moringa and carrageenans, will be perfectly molded to fit skull enhanced by technology, resulting in Austin. Tough Mudder has a network TV these new events hew very much to have already saved the thighs of several or sweeteners like beets and natural shape. Once we can print titanium, greater motivation, harder workouts show. CrossFit is on ESPN. The Dutch the Alt-Athlete ethos. Ticket holders at Tour de France riders. Fabrics with erythritol. But the bars of the future will every piece of gear can be customized and regular consistency. GLOBAL- channel INSIGHT features alt-sports ALT-SPORTS EVENTS don’t like to see BUILT-IN SENSORS, like from Athos, can be engineered for more than nourish- for fit and performance. This effectively IZATION has also driven widespread shows like Running the World, following themselves as spectators but as measure not just how your limbs move, ment, triggering specific metabolic demolishes the notion of a product change. Just five years ago, the Latin a parkour-crazed duo around the globe participants who regard the top people but how each muscle group is engaged, pathways—inspired by the KETOGENIC life cycle and all it entails—inventory, American health club market was half in 360-degree ultra-high definition. in their sports less as heroes and providing immediate feedback on your DIETS of extreme athletes who trick shipping, design fatigue. As soon as the size of the North American market; The two Ultimate leagues merged more as teachers. These new events form. Fabrics are also being made out the fuel systems in their bodies to a new creation has been tested, its now it’s 30% bigger. The Asia-Pacific and produced their first superstar. are changing the definition of “sports of ACTIVE PARTICLES that can improve burn fat rather than glucose for energy. 3D blueprints can be distributed, and market is in the middle of making the With GROWING SPORTS BROADCAST  venue”—and are pulling increasingly on the body’s natural process to dis- Next-generation bars and drinks custom builds can be sold immediately. same jump. Once-regional activities are NETWORKS, every alt sport has a chance large crowds and media attention. The pense heat. The active particles absorb will also be PERSONALIZED, based on NEXT-LEVEL SAFETY gear becomes bounding onto the world stage. Zumba to jump off YOUTUBE and gain an US Open of Surfing attracts 600,000 to the body’s infrared energy, heat up, and genomic tests and food-reactivity tests. increasingly important, as Alt-Athletes comes from Colombia, yoga from India, audience. You may not know who teen Huntington Beach; the CrossFit Games attract sweat off the body through elec- pursue their passions in evermore parkour/free running from France. phenom climber Ashima Shiraishi is, packed 50,000 into the StubHub Center trostatic force, speeding evaporation. dangerous geography. Beacon technology China gave the West Tai Chi, and in but millions of climbing devotees do. for the finale, using the soccer and Soon athletes will wear SELF-HEALING allows families to know where their return, they have taken up bodybuilding Equipped with ever-higher-quality tennis stadiums as well as the velo- TEXTILES based on the science of adventurers are at all times. in record numbers, recovering from the cameras, the Alt-Athlete with the most drome. This evolution signals a huge biomimicry—engineering inspired communist government’s 30-year ban INSTAGRAM followers may not be the opportunity for both venue owners and by the natural world. For instance, on the sport. best athlete, but he is the best at cap- sponsors to reach new audiences. self-healing polyelectrolyte polymers turing the spirit, Zeitgeist and aesthetic (now in industrial use) are modeled of the sport. after squid ring-teeth proteins.

“Marketing to this sector is dialing back superstardom and dialing  up the realness. There has been a shift to profiling the normal  ATTENDANCE: ATTENDANCE: CROSSFIT GAMES, US OPEN OF SURFING, human being who’s a lot like me. And that’s quite different from the STUBHUB CENTER HUNTINGTON BEACH, CA traditional view of superstars who are way out of our league.” SOCCER STADIUM, TENNIS 50K STADIUM and VELODROME 600K —Michael Goldman, professor of sport management, University of San Francisco

48 THE FUTURE OF SPORTS 49 THE HIGH-PRESSURE COMMERCIALIZATION OF THE YOUTH SPORTS PIPELINE KNOWS NO BOUNDS. Costs are skyrocketing, rankings are an obsession, and every contest is a judgment on some kid’s future. Lost is the spirit of playing for now. Every year, parents pull their kids out of sports in protest. And every year, even more new families step forward, willing to play the game. “The more parents spent, the more the kids seemed  to feel the pressure of doing well for Mom and Dad.” —Dr. Travis Dorsch, Utah State University professor and former NFL player who conducted a study YOUTH SPORTS REFORM showing that the more parents pay for club sports, the more the kids perceive it as pressure.

BUT THERE IS HOPE. Aided RIPE FOR PREMIER LEAGUE GROWING UP THE DEATH DOPING YOUTH ACADEMY PLAYER by data-gathering platforms, ON CAMERA OF SECOND SPORTS RATES CORRUPTION SUCCESS RATE 1:100 governing bodies at the local, A 6'2" from Columbia, Almost every sport in America is losing PERCENT OF SCHOOL-AGE ATHLETES Over 30 million kids. Over 14,000 youth USING ANABOLIC STEROIDS & HGH , named Seventh Woods youth players, even though the percent- leagues and clubs. It adds up to over regional and national levels can recently committed to the University age of US teens playing some form of 2012— high school boys $9 billion annually. Most of that money crack down on exploitation of of North Carolina. But that was not high school sports is holding steady at is flowing through sleepy nonprofits his coming-out party. That happened 75%. How can that be? Under pressure 2012 —high school girls overseen by volunteer parents with lax eager athletes and their ambitious years ago—when he was 14 years to specialize in one sport earlier, kids Started at age 10 or younger controls. Most of the money ends up in old, and the YouTube channel Hoop- increasingly have stopped playing their the pockets of youth club coaches—who parents. Performance-sensor data 2012 —middle school, all MixTape released his highlight clips. second sport—despite clear science are financially incentivized to preach to tracking will inject desperately His mixtape was viewed 14 million that shows kids who focus on one sport 1997 —high school, all parents that Johnny’s got potential. times. Andrew Wiggins was only 13 are the most likely to quit. needed realism, laying bare the when he hit fame. Forget waiting until The New York Times reports that = 1% snake oil dreams sold by youth they reach college to declare the next prosecutions for embezzlement have superstar—the internet doesn’t even PARTICIPANTS IN YOUTH SPORTS become increasingly common, citing OVER THE LAST 5 YEARS sports profiteers. wait until a kid hits high school. examples of hundreds of thousands of dollars being stolen in , Field Minnesota, , , &

Hockey

OVERUSE NEW PATH TO STARDOM INJURY , and Vermont by youth

Basketball Soccer Track Softball Field Football Volleyball Wrestling club treasurers and officers. Starts college In a study of 1,200 youth athletes, Dr. Neeru Jayanthi Where there’s money, there are Starts high school of Loyola University found lawsuits. A mom in Virginia sued her that specialization in a daughter’s volleyball club after her Mixtape goes viral -7% -8% sport is one of the strongest daughter was . When his son -11% predictors of injury. -15% was cut from the track team, a dad in Philadelphia sued—for $40 million. And -18% 83% MORE LIKELY TO BE INJURED a Dallas-area dad filed racketeering Single-sport athletes charges against local lacrosse coaches, -22% accusing them of using their leverage to Multisport athletes Age 13 14 18 force players to attend expensive camps.

VIEWS OF MIDDLE SCHOOLER “It institutionalizes mass rejection of young people.” M SEVENTH WOODS’ HIGHLIGHTS MIXTAPE —Chris Green, British soccer journalist and author of Every Boy’s Dream 14 -42% An estimated 10,000 players are in the Premier League’s youth academies,  signed as early as age 8. Only 1 out of 100 will make it.

50 THE FUTURE OF SPORTS 51 Youth Sports Reform Youth Sports Reform

TECHNOLOGY THE TOOLS IS TECHNOLOGY SOLVING OR HOW IT GETS BETTER OF ENFORCEMENT ARE IN FEEDING THE PROBLEM? A PHASE OF RAPID DEVELOPMENT. In 20 years, when we look back at how the slide into Costs of playing are ever rising— Over the next decade, organiza- between specialized coaches and society-wide youth sports obsession, burnout and malaise tions at every level—professional tournament travel—and the newest was averted, the story will be something like this: expense parents feel they have to leagues, player associations, the fork over for is the video library of NCAA and national sports federa- your child’s highlights. It starts with the absurd rankings of every com- tions that oversee youth sports— petitive youth team, from age 10 and PROTECTIONS ACCOUNTABILITY TIME LIMITS will pass stricter rules to protect up. By age 12, websites are tracking BY GOVERNING BODIES FOR YOUTH TRAFFICKING WITH VIOLATION CONSEQUENCES individual players, purporting to spot young athletes. Ubiquitous sensor- the stars of the future. Sites like Max- Regional, national and interna- Charged to protect young athletes’ European Soccer—the worst High schools and colleges will fed training apps will enable Preps, Hudl and Top Drawer just feed bones, bodies and minds from the men- offender—has stopped trafficking impose strict time limits on the fear that you’re falling behind if tional sports’ governing bodies tal stress and pressure of competing, regulators to efficiently monitor you’re not yet visible. will follow the lead of gymnas- in 1997 the raised the in children. Barcelona and Real practicing and playing, with young athletes’ activity levels at tics, figure skating and tennis, minimum age for gymnasts to 16. At the Madrid were made to pay. serious consequences for next Summer Games, Dong Fangxiao a scale never before possible. At which have enacted strict rules (People’s Republic of China) won the violations. the same time, technology will EXHIBIT A In 2001, FIFA began regulations for the bronze medal, but her medal was revoked JOSH MCKENZIE, NEW JERSEY protecting underage players. protections of minors. At first, players San Diego State, Ball State and Michigan elevate the level of youth sports and her records expunged after it was under age 16 were forbidden from being are among the universities penalized discovered she was only 14 at the time. sold—but it wasn’t enforced as long performance across the board in for going over the 20-hours-a-week At a cost of $15,000, worked with 10 specialized as both clubs were mutually agreeable. two important ways: trainers—a mind-set coach, an isokinetic performance In 1990, when she was just 13, tennis college time limit. TEAMS HAVE  trainer, a nutritionist, 3 sprinting specialists and a Stories of kids being signed at ages BEEN PLACED ON PROBATION AND powerlifting guru. phenom Jennifer Capriati made the 7 to 11 were rampant. But a few years finals of a WTA event. By the age of 14, COMPLIANCE STAFF HAVE BEEN FIRED ago, FIFA’s subcommittee finally put FOR FAILING TO ENFORCE THE  she was ranked #6 in the world and 01 Thanks to sensor-generated teeth to the rule. Players in Europe RESTRICTIONS. seemed well on her way to becoming Even though he had straight A’s could transfer at age 16. Elsewhere, performance data and analytics the next great American female player. and a 98.72 average, Josh repeated it was forbidden until age 18. First High school athletes are generally 8th grade to engineer an advantage But by age 17, Capriati had burned out once available only to elite athletes, BARCELONA, THEN REAL MADRID, WERE limited to 18 hours a week—including in high school. and dropped out. Tennis had learned HANDED TRANSFER BANS; AND OVER practices and games. However, the previously undetected diamonds its lesson. Ever since, rules restrict the A DOZEN YOUTH PLAYERS THEY HAD enforcement mechanisms are still number of events teens can play in. SIGNED FROM ASIA, AFRICA AND THE in the rough will rise through the Hangs on inversion table at night weak at this level. to increase his height—because Studies since then have shown that AGE AMERICAS—INCLUDING TWO BOYS FROM youth ranks on the strength of he is 3 inches short of 6 feet. LIMITS HAVE PAID OFF IN REAL TERMS, CALIFORNIA—WERE FORBIDDEN TO  EXTENDING FEMALE TENNIS PLAYERS’ PLAY FOR THE SPANISH CLUBS’ YOUTH These limits are consistent with the their abilities instead of the per- ACADEMIES. Most boys eventually hourly training counts that swimmers, CAREERS BY 24%. suasive powers of pushy parents. Records every crumb of food returned home. cyclists and youth soccer academies he consumes. Eats exactly hold to. Only ballet dancers radically 4,500 calories and 175 grams of protein each day. There is a way around the rule—secure exceed them (25 hours/week). citizenship in the desired country, often through family heritage, such as the 02 The tsunami of sports video USMNT’s 17-year-old striker Christian Ranked #1 in the nation as both football player and wrestler Pulisic—but, by and large, the era of captured on mobile devices and in middle school. Rushed for  buying and selling of youth players 35 touchdowns en route to middle shared on YouTube will continue school national semifinals in across national borders has ended. Orlando. to drive the accelerating feedback cycle where developing athletes

Makes the 90-minute commute to view, process and emulate the Bergen Catholic High School daily. “With the best will in the world, I wouldn’t world’s best performances 24-7. know if a 6-, 7- or 8-year-old is going to play in the Premier League in 10 or 12 years’ time. It’s ludicrous.” —Bryan Jones, Aston Villa Youth Academy director

52 THE FUTURE OF SPORTS Photo by Blake Little/Getty Images 53 THE FINAL WORD

WHEN YOU’VE SEEN A GLIMPSE OF THE The pace of change has been stunning, Advances in machine learning, where FUTURE, IT STICKS WITH YOU. It can and it is not slowing down. It’s time that autonomously harvest keep you up at night. We don’t claim to we take a hard look at the generation mountains of data to find hidden have a lock on precision forecasting, currently coming into adulthood, because patterns, are already helping predict but it’s not tenable to ignore the new they represent our future fanbases. and avoid season-ending injuries. challenges we face or hope that things These same advances will undoubtedly will stay the same. One of the best ways We know that they love sports, but they change the way owners and coaches to prepare for the future is to engage have an entirely different approach to make decisions, from recruitment to in a lively and spirited dialogue about engaging with games. For example, on-field strategy. Sports professionals the changes to come. We trust that this members of Generation Z are increas- have always been interested in data, new edition of The Future of Sports ingly becoming fans of a sport or a and the amount of data we collect on will continue to drive that conversation. franchise through playing video games teams and on the performance and or fantasy sports—attending a live health of individual athletes is growing THINK ABOUT THIS: Just a decade ago, game is no longer the default gateway exponentially. Machine learning will owning a flip phone meant you were to fandom. They will be the first gener- allow us to analyze all that information on the cutting edge of technology and ation to fully embrace the new worlds and act on it effectively. THE FUTURE OF SPORTS smartphones were a distant innovation of virtual and augmented reality. They on the horizon. HD televisions were are tech savvy, hyper-connected and It’s a lot to think about, we know. read more at > http://futureof.org making their way into homes, but they easily bored. To stay relevant, legacy And we’re certainly not suggesting that cost $6,000. YouTube was in the testing sports organizations must understand you try to find an answer for everything stage and Facebook had only expanded the tastes and motivations of this in these pages. That simply wouldn’t to 21 colleges. Neither Tumblr, Snapchat growing group of millennials. be possible. But we hope that this nor Instagram existed yet, and the newest publication has piqued your curiosity rage was the Nintendo Wii. We thought New technology will change not only just enough that you’ll continue the fantasy sports were huge, when in fact how we interact with our newest fans, conversation. Let us know what you think. they were in their infancy. Only one out but also nearly every aspect of running of 10 people in China were online. a professional sports franchise.

Jerry Jacobs Jr. Lou Jacobs Charlie Jacobs Co-CEO, Co-CEO, CEO, ’s Delaware North Delaware North Boston Holdings

54 THE FUTURE OF SPORTS 55