Going All in on AI

Abstract

The sport industry has become increasingly more complex with the expanse of digital technology such as fiber optic internet access, 5G wireless communication, and blockchain, just to name a few. These advancements have shifted the amount and variety of data produced and available for analysis by sport organizations. Yet, sport organization front offices remain well behind other industry segments (e.g., retail, communications) in regard to handling, processing, and analyzing the volume and variety of data to advance business objectives. In this brief, we introduce the notion of artificial intelligence (AI) to sport management. While AI, as a concept, has been discussed for more than 50 years, this article provides a definition and overview of its historical trajectory for sport managers. Concurrently, the article also identifies the value proposition for AI capability, notably the natural language processing across four customer-centered domains: 1) listening to the public narrative, 2) automating the sales process, 3) computerized consumer content, and 4) self-operating service. Integration challenges are also addressed for sport organizations as they seek to increase their digital competence, achieve competitive advantage through technical innovations, and ultimately become more efficient in a data-driven world.

Actually, Esports Is Sport

“…Thus, rather than burying these arguments in an outlet about ethics, those seeking to change the sport industry in positive ways will find solace that there are outlets that wish to embrace new forms, and not just publish jaded commentary about the new, different, and unknown. Finally, SIJ has already become home to some important commentaries (e.g., Goebert, 2020;Naraine & Wanless, 2020), so here's hoping this response stimulates others to enlighten the masses, and illuminate more sport innovations that can advance the industry forward.…”

“…Sport tends to move slowly, resisting change and evolution (Slack & Parent, 2006). Just look at some of the modern technological advances in business that the sport industry has yet to fully implement like augmented reality (Goebert, 2020) and artificial intelligence (Naraine & Wanless, 2020). This industry "sits on the sidelines" and waits for innovations to occur elsewhere before truly taking it on.…”

“…for Parry and other naysayers, clutching to traditionalist ideals only serves to ostracize, isolate, and actively work against the ideals of innovation, necessary for growth in the sport industry (Naraine & Wanless, 2020) and, ironically, the Olympic Movement specifically (Batuev & Robinson, 2019;Thorpe & Wheaton, 2011). There's enough room at the zoo for both the tortoise and cheetah, Parry, or any new species that we may uncover in the future for that matter; evolution is inevitable.…”

Consumer Group Identification Algorithm for Ice and Snow Sports

“…Therefore, it has become an important guiding scheme to promote the structural transformation of China's sports industry to explore the development of the ice and snow sports industry and deeply explore the direction of industrial consumption upgrading and supply transformation. In addition, scientific research and discussion have important academic value and practical significance for discovering the relationship between the forms of the ice and snow sports industry, improving the chain of the ice and snow sports industry, strengthening the service improvement of the ice and snow sports industry [ 4 ], solving the dilemma of sports industrial structure transformation, and promoting the coordinated development of sports economy [ 2 , 5 ].…”