AI, machine learning can be game-changers for sports industry: Infosys

Digital technology has immense growth opportunities in the sports industry and if capitalised well, there is a huge potential to draw fans and players closer to a more customised and innovative experience, according to Infosys COO UB Pravin Rao.

Infosys, which is the official digital innovation partner for Roland-Garros, is already deploying its digital innovations at the tournament based on artificial intelligence, machine learning, big data, analytics, social sentiment analysis and virtual and augmented reality.

"Digital technology has immense opportunities for growth in the sports industry. If capitalised in the right way, there is a huge potential to draw fans and players closer to a more customised and innovative experience. Leveraging data analytics, fans, players and coaches can get a better sense of the game by using data to their advantage," Rao told PTI.

He cited the example of Barclays ATP World Tour Finals, where Infosys had to sieve through umpire data across all the tournaments over the previous 12 months and five years of ball-tracking data from previous Barclays ATP World Tour Finals.

"All this data needed to be processed in real-time to generate insights during a match along with pre-match and post-match analysis with very small windows of relevance for each insight," he explained.

Rao stated that technology has become a big focus in the sports industry as it enables new ways of analysing game patterns, uncovering and understanding trends.

"This is paving the way for a new approach to game strategy and post-match analysis. It is helping to enhance fan engagement and experience through data and insights, mobility, VR or AR (Virtual Reality/Augmented Reality), gaming. Expanding fan bases and enhancing fan engagement are some of the key metrics for which sports associations turn to digital as an enabler," he added.

Asked if the company was looking at other sports, Rao said: "As of now, we are only focusing on tennis since we have an overall commitment to the sport. But, we might venture into other kind of sports as there is a huge potential that we see in it".

As part of its three-year partnership with Roland-Garros, Infosys has designed a series of digital tools like MatchBeats (allows fans to follow live scores in an immersive manner), CourtVision (a 3D analytical tool to delve deep into match-stats and see match patterns), and Stats+ that helps in understanding statistics.

For players and coaches, Infosys has developed StatsLounge, a platform to study and analyse both, their own and opponents' strengths and weaknesses during the tournament.