It used to be that if we wanted to enjoy some sport we either had to get our kit on and play it ourselves or head outside to watch it in person. Nowadays both of those options still exist, but we also have a whole host of other ones. We can choose to enjoy sport from the comfort of our home. We can keep a tab on what’s going on in the game by having a quick look at our Twitter feeds. We can enjoy fantasy sports, play ourselves using video game consoles, or place a bet on the action from our mobile phones. There are so many new and exciting ways that technology has enabled us to consume sport. Here’s a rundown of some of the most important ones so far.
Live Streaming
Without a doubt, live streaming is the single thing that revolutionized how we consume sport. Although watching the football game at the local stadium is a great way to spend a sunny weekend afternoon, freezing in the stands on a cold Tuesday evening is something best left to the diehard fans. Live streaming means that anyone can enjoy sport from wherever they’d like. If people choose the television route then they can watch from their homes, but with mobile streaming, you can watch your favourite sports from literally anywhere. There are lots of different streaming options at price points to suit just about everybody, meaning that you no longer need to be able to afford a season ticket to enjoy supporting your team of choice.
Online Sports Betting
It’s been decades since the first online sports bet was placed and in that time a lot has changed. Sports betting sites have been coming up with increasingly imaginative ways to make placing a bet easier for consumers. Providing customers with information on what they’re betting on has been one of the key changes recently, with sports betting sites not only offering, for example, the latest NFL odds in Canada, but also details on how the different clubs are performing. This enables customers to be better informed about the bets that they’re placing as they’ll have a deeper understanding of the game. The ability to place different types of bets can be useful for customers who want to bet on a very specific outcome too. At the racetrack, for example, a bettor might be convinced that the favourite horse to win will actually lose, but there’s no way of turning that into a bet, the bookmakers on course have that monopoly. However, online it’s totally possible for that same customer to lay the horse to lose, opening up a plethora of betting opportunities that didn’t really exist before online betting.
Social Media
As we mentioned before, finding out all of the information on a sports game that is currently taking place couldn’t be simpler nowadays. Everybody will be sharing their opinions on Twitter! However, that’s not all that social media has changed about sports consumption. It used to be that the occasional lucky fan would get to meet the sports star that they held in the highest regard, but most people certainly wouldn’t be so lucky. Although social media doesn’t make it possible for everyone to meet their sporting idols, it does make it possible for everyone to take a peak into their personal life. There are hundreds of thousands of footballers, gymnasts, tennis players and more who take to platforms like Twitter and Instagram to share an insight into their lives with their followers. Being able to communicate with the stars like this is exciting and important. Despite the scrutiny that social media comes under in some areas, in terms of connecting fans with their idols, there’s nothing that does the job better.
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