The recently-passed Online Gaming Act may have killed money-backed gaming in India but elsewhere AI-powered fan engagement is deepening its hold on sport fans and changing the way we consume sport.

At the ongoing US Open at Flushing Meadows, for instance, IBM is offering AI-powered, near-real-time commentary and fan insights for all 254 singles matches on the US Open app. There is a ‘match chat’ feature that provides millions of fans with an interactive AI assistant that answers queries on match schedules, players’ histories, stats, and even how to pronounce their names. Nothing like rolling the 25th seeded Felix Auger-Aliassime’s name off the tongue to earn brownie points at the office water cooler while discussing his match against Alex de Minaur.

The ‘slam tracker’ based on AI-powered analysis of player stats, expert opinions, and the evolving momentum of the match provides real time statistical ‘likelihood to win.’

For fans who are too busy or for those of us in Asian time zones--a “key points” feature provides a succinct TLDR (Too Long, Didn’t Read) summaries of articles, tournament data and match analysis. The power and beauty of these tools is that they are universally available and accessible in several languages, and can be used concurrently by millions of users with potentially zero lag.

These solutions have been made possible only because numerous sport governing bodies and associations have invested in future-ready, technology architecture that is built on hybrid cloud environments and massive data lakes that centralize, integrate, and curate data from various sources, including video cameras and IoT-sensors around courts that capture a match from all angles.

Also Read: Rules and FAQs on Online Gaming Act expected in 3-4 weeks

A recent global study of over 20,000 sporting fans across 12 nations indicated that most of them view the usage of AI........

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